History Main / BreakAwayPopHit

* The "Peter Gunn Theme" by Music/HenryMancini. Nobody remembers [[Series/PeterGunn the original show]] but everybody recognizes the tune. At least some of the blame for that can be laid at the feet of VideoGame/SpyHunter and ''Film/TheBluesBrothers''.

* Music/TheBlackEyedPeas recorded a [[{{Bowdlerize}} clean]] version of their song "Let's Get Retarded", "Let's Get It Started", to be a promo song for television coverage of the 2004 [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]] playoffs. After all, was said and done on the court, it became one of the group's biggest hits; [[BleachedUnderpants did you even know there was a "dirty" version?]]

'''A Administrivia/{{No Recent Examples|please}} rule applies to this trope'''. Examples shouldn't be added until '''five years''' after the work itself falls into obscurity, to avoid that the song's popularity endures.

* "Goodnight My Beautiful", now most famous for the sampling of Russ Morgan And His Orchestra's version by Music/LeylandKirby's The Caretaker project, originated in the long-forgotten musical production ''George White's Scandals of 1939''.

* The 2003 KoreanDrama ''Punch'' received criticism at the time of its airing and recorded low viewer ratings. However, KCM’s song "I Know" from the soundtrack received great popularity, and it's especially remembered even by those who haven’t seen Punch as a result of being used as background music for many Cyworld [[note]]a Korean social network popular in the 2000s equivalent to Myspace[[/note]] pages.

* "Welcome Back" was originally written by John Sebastian as the theme song for ''Series/WelcomeBackKotter''. In fact, the song was so popular among the writers that the show was partially renamed after it (it was just ''Kotter'' before). While the series is well-remembered on its own, "Welcome Back" reached #1 on the charts 5 weeks after its release, and still is in rotation on oldies radio long after the show's conclusion.
* "Koi" was Gen Hoshino's ending theme for the live-action adaptation of ''The Full-Time Wife Escapist''. The series lasted for eleven episodes, yet the song remains on of Hoshino's most popular songs.

* Political advertising, but still - Boston mayoral candidate Walter A. O'Brien commissioned a pair of songwriters to write a song supporting his candidacy and protesting a fare hike on the subway system. While O'Brien lost, the song, "Charlie On The M.T.A." was later covered by the Kingston Trio, becoming a hit for the band that was widely remembered to this day. In fact, the fare cards and tickets for the transit authority (now called the MBTA) are called [=CharlieTickets=][=/=][=CharlieCards=], after the song. A plaque in the popular hub Park Street Station explains the story behind the name of the ticket and the song.

* Timothy Leary asked Music/JohnLennon to write him a song when was running for political office, that song turning out to be Music/TheBeatles' hit "Come Together". Subverted, in that John ended up keeping the song instead of letting Leary use it.

** Their 1970 jingle "I'd Like To Buy the World a Coke" had radio callers '''requesting the commercial''', so a longer version was released that was a Billboard Top 10 hit, which was re-written as "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)".

* A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9OCgem4a_k 1973 commercial]] for Old Home Bread introduced the world to Music/CWMcCall, a truck driver whose flirty adventures with a truck-stop waitress named Mavis were told through a talk-singing CountryRap. The commercials proved so popular that the soundtrack was turned into a single about the "Old Home Fill'er Up and Keep On Truckin' Cafe," which was a hit in the markets where the bread was sold. It was so successful, in fact, that the advertising executive who sang in the commercials, Bill Fries, assumed the C.W. [=McCall=] persona and (with the help of Chip Davis, who wrote the music and later formed Music/MannheimSteamroller) had a real-life musical career capped by the smash hit "Convoy."
* "Osakana Tengoku" was originally written as a theme song for a National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations' Seafood Center campaign. When of mouth spread about the song in the early 2000's, it became a children's music standard.

* ''Manga/CatsEye'' from the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name. The anime is best described as a CultClassic in Japan as due to obscurity from its age, it's only known to a very scattered congregation of fans and is barely remembered by the mainstream. The theme song to the anime however somehow became a staple at various [[KaraokeBox karaoke venues]] in the country, with reports claiming that it is often requested at least once a night at any given karaoke venue all over Japan, and there are generations who have not seen the anime but yet are familiar with the song.

** The main pop culture contribution of this [[AllAnimationIsDisney imitation-Disney]] film was "The Prayer", a ballad sung by Music/CelineDion and Andrea Bocelli (Bocelli doesn't actually sing it in the film itself; he only appears on the end credits reprise) that has since become a standard, covered by, among others, Music/CharlotteChurch and Music/JoshGroban. Most people are stunned to learn that (a) the song is from a movie and (b) exactly what movie the song is from.

* Music/BryanAdams' 2002 hit "Here I Am" reached Top 10 charts across the world when it was released, won a Golden Globe Award, and still continues to be played at major events (an instrumental version was used for the Vancouver 2010 UsefulNotes/OlympicGames bid) years after it was released. Still, how many of you remember the Creator/{{DreamWorks|Animation}} film ''WesternAnimation/SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron'', which opened in fourth place when it debuted in theaters and barely registered a blip in the weeks afterward? This track was the lead single from it; Adams provided a whole song score for the film.

* Creator/KateWinslet recorded the song "What If" for 2001's ''WesternAnimation/ChristmasCarolTheMovie''. The film was critically panned and is largely forgotten. Winslet's song is regarded as SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic, shot to number 6 in the charts in its first week and became the Christmas number one in Ireland for 2001. The song is still fondly remembered and most people forget it came from the movie.

* The title VillainSong from "WesternAnimation/DerFuehrersFace" became a popular wartime song as performed by Music/SpikeJones. In fact, it was the song's popularity that helped re-title the cartoon from "Donald Duck in Nutzi Land".

* Similar to the Heights example was the theme song to the sitcom ''Makin' It'', which was Creator/GarryMarshall's attempted SpiritualAdaptation of ''Film/SaturdayNightFever''. A DoItYourselfThemeTune performed by the show's star David Naughton, the show's producers wisely called on Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris, the pair responsible for Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive", to provide the {{Disco}}-style song, and it managed to outpace the show in popularity. It peaked at #5 and lasted 17 weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, whereas the show only lasted 9 episodes. In fact, it peaked on the charts almost ''four months'' after the show was canceled!
* The theme to ''Series/TheGreatestAmericanHero'' is more popular now than the show, which lasted only single season. It peaked at #2 shortly after the show began, but hung around on Billboard's Hot 100 charts for over ''two '''years'''.'' The show was cancelled some time before the song fell off the chart entirely.

* CountryMusic singers Johnny Lee and Lane Brody co-wrote and recorded "The Yellow Rose", set to the old folk song "The Yellow Rose of Texas", and recorded it as the theme to ''The Yellow Rose'', an Creator/{{NBC}} PrimeTimeSoap starring Creator/CybillShepherd and Creator/SamElliott. The show itself was part of NBC's infamous "no-hitter" 1983-84 season (every single show they debuted that fall got canceled during the season, though ''The Yellow Rose'' managed to air all 22 of its episodes before it was axed). The song hit #1 on the country charts a couple months before the series ended, and it remains a staple of the classic country format.

* An obscure case is ''Patrik Pacard'', a Christmas series produced by public broadcaster Second German Television, which centered around a boy inventor. The series had a decent reception and was translated into English several years later, but it never made any impact. However, the title theme (sung by Lady Lily) went on to reach #11 on the German pop charts. It was later released as a single (in both English and extended formats) and had a rerelease in 2004, and gained infamy years later as an internet fad related to Jean-Luc Picard from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''.

* ''Series/WickedCity'' only lasted for all of 3 episodes but in the same vein as [[Film/JemAndTheHolograms2015 "Youngblood"]], Music/KTTunstall's version of "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" remained fairly popular on iTunes afterward.

* Music/HerbAlpert & The Tijuana Brass, an instrumental group who was one of the biggest non-rock acts of the 1960s, recorded the Burt Bacharach[=/=]Hal David tune "This Guy's in Love with You" for their 1968 TV special ''The Beat of the Brass''. The song was [[BlackSheepHit different from the group's usual music]] because Alpert -- famed as a trumpeter, not as a vocalist -- sang on the song himself, and the only brass portions of the song were a couple of bridges and a fadeout (also performed by Alpert). The day after the special aired, CBS was inundated with phone calls from listeners inquiring where to buy the song. Alpert's label (A&M, which he also co-owned) rush-released the single, and two months later, it was the number one song in America. The tune remains a popular love song, while the Tijuana Brass special remains completely out of print and obscure.

* The British-French crime drama ''The Last Panthers'' received a good critical notice when it aired in late 2015 but has largely faded from memory. At the time, as now, the show's successes were completely dwarfed by those of its theme song: Music/DavidBowie's 10-minute swan song "Blackstar", which he had composed for the series and was also the first single from [[Music/BlackstarAlbum what would be his final album]].
* In 1996, a DirectToVideo special put out by Character Counts! was released called ''Kids For Character''. This video featured a song called "Six Simple Words" that is still used by classrooms that follow the Character Counts curriculum and is more well-known today than the actual video itself.

** "Dokonoko no Kinoko", about a mushroom wanting to leave the forest and go on an adventure (set to traditional Russian folk music), became a hugely popular hit and charted on the regular Japanese music charts. It was even sung live by the hosts on NHK's New Year's Eve special (one of the most watched shows of the year in Japan).

* Counting [=CDs=], records and tapes, "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun" would be the highest-selling Japanese single. It originated as a song played in a segment aired on the children's TV show ''Hiirake! Ponkickles''.

* The 2003 KoreanDrama ''Punch'' received criticism at the time of its airing and recorded low viewer ratings. However, KCM’s song "I Know" from the soundtrack received great popularity, and it's especially remembered even to those who haven’t seen Punch as a result of being used as background music for many Cyworld [[note]]a Korean social network popular in the 2000s basically equivalent to Myspace[[/note]] pages.

* The melody known as "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" from J.S. Bach's sacred {{cantata}} ''Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben'' (BWV 147). The former title, by the way, appears nowhere in the translated text of the cantata. In fact, the melody of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" is actually from two, almost identical movements of the cantata ("Wohl mir, daß ich Jesum habe" and "Jesus bleibet meine Freude" respectively). The melody is very famous in both religious and secular circles; in the latter, the melody often appears stripped of its religious lyrics and any hint of its Baroque origin.

** And then there's "Alabama Song" from Brecht and Weill's followup, ''Theatre/TheRiseAndFallOfTheCityOfMahagonny'', best known for the cover recorded by Music/TheDoors in 1967.

* A number of Stephen Foster songs that most Americans think are "folk songs" (such as "Oh Susannah", "Camptown Races", etc.) were originally performed in 19th-century minstrel shows.

* Most of George M. Cohan's famous songs, with the exception of his World War I song "Over There," hailed originally from the stage musicals he created in the earlier part of his career:

* "It’s Only a Paper Moon" did this ''twice''. Originally titled "If You Believed in Me", it was written for the otherwise non-musical 1933 play ''The Great Magoo''. (The play was produced by Billy Rose, who as usual demanded and got joint credit for the lyrics.) This flopped badly, but by the time it closed, Hollywood had come calling in a big way for composer Harold Arlen, and he was able to sell the song on. It soon reappeared, under its now-familiar title, as a new number in the film version of the stage musical ''Take a Chance''[[labelnote:*]] (which, coincidentally, had enjoyed its highly successful stage run at the theatre next door to the one where ''The Great Magoo'' had appeared)[[/labelnote]]. This was a hit on release, remained well known through the rest of the 30s and 40s, and then slowly sank out of sight.

* Cat Stevens attempted a musical that he called ''Revolussia'' but eventually abandoned it. From it he recorded one of his most famous songs, "Father and Son."

* ''Theatre/{{Brigadoon}}'' is mostly remembered for [[TropeCodifier popularising]] the VanishingVillage trope, with the songs and specific plot really only known by die-hard theater fans. But one song, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ern9pZQaKv4 "It's Almost Like Being In Love"]], was insanely popular, and has been covered by ''literally everybody'' -- most famously Music/FrankSinatra.

* ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge'' [[AcclaimedFlop was commercially a flop despite being a]] CultClassic, but its theme song, "Still Alive" by Lisa Miskovsky (no relation to the ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' theme) reached #29 in her native Sweden and #8 on the UK Indie chart, and also received a remix maxi single that peaked at #23 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.
* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts'' is often remembered as a low-point for the series, but its credits theme, "Survival" by Music/{{Eminem}}, managed to become a respectable pop hit by itself.

* ''WesternAnimation/SillySymphonies'': Perhaps the earliest animation-related example is "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" from ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittlePigs'', which became a sort-of anthem for audiences who were fighting the threat of ruin during TheGreatDepression.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usFFKNRB2z8 "Run with Us"]], the theme from the Canadian animated series ''WesternAnimation/TheRaccoons'', was initially recorded by Steve Lunt as a [[SingleStanzaSong single-stanza]] [[ChorusOnlySong chorus-only song]] for the first season, but [[RearrangeTheSong rearranged]] [[ThemeTuneExtended and extended]] by Lisa Lougheed, who was [[TheDanza also the voice of Lisa Raccoon]] on the show. Sadly, [[OneHitWonder this was her only hit song]].

* ''[[Series/TheSunnySideUpShow Sunny Side Up]]'' has "Who's Gonna Dance?" and follow-up "Days of the Week." The latter is the most popular Sprout video on Peacock Jr.'s [=YouTube=] channel.

* "Makin' Whoopee" and "Love Me Or Leave Me" from ''[[ExcitedShowTitle Whoopee!]]''. ("Love Me Or Leave Me" was a SetSwitchSong irrelevant to the plot and didn't even appear in the film version.)

* A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9OCgem4a_k 1973 commercial]] for Old Home Bread introduced the world to C.W. [=McCall=], a truck driver whose flirty adventures with a truck-stop waitress named Mavis were told through a talk-singing CountryRap. The commercials proved so popular that the soundtrack was turned into a single about the "Old Home Fill'er Up and Keep On Truckin' Cafe," which was a hit in the markets where the bread was sold. It was so successful, in fact, that the advertising executive who sang in the commercials, Bill Fries, assumed the C.W. [=McCall=] persona and (with the help of Chip Davis, who wrote the music and later formed Music/MannheimSteamroller) had a real-life musical career capped by the smash hit "Convoy."

* "We Need a Little Christmas" originated in the musical ''Theatre/{{Mame}}'', but it's since become a standard ChristmasSong that is often played in contexts that have nothing to do with the musical.

* "We Need a Little Christmas" originated in the musical ''Theater/{{Mame}}'', but it's since become a standard ChristmasSong that is often played in contexts that have nothing to do with the musical.

* "Sing" from ''Series/SesameStreet'' boomed in popularity after Music/TheCarpenters released their cover of the song. It's now one of the show's signature songs.

* "I've Gotta Be Me" from the largely forgotten Broadway musical "Golden Rainbow" became a massive hit when it was covered by Creator/SammyDavisJr in 1968.

* Jack Johnson had a huge adult contemporary crossover hit with "Upside Down", which was written for and originated on the soundtrack for the 2006 ''WesternAnimation/{{Curious George|2006}}'' movie.

* The Kelly Clarkson song "Broken and Beautiful" was written for the movie ''WesternAnimation/{{Uglydolls}}'', which flopped in North America due to strong competition from the billion-dollar juggernaut ''Film/AvengersEndgame''. The song would get frequent airplay on radio stations even after the film left most theaters.
* The Nelly Furtado cover of "Crocodile Rock" was originally recorded for ''WesternAnimation/GnomeoAndJuliet'', which was a modest success at best. However, the song was a hit on the Radio Disney Top 30, to the point where it beat several Music/JustinBieber songs, dethroning "Somebody To Love" after a months-long streak at #1. On top of that, the music video got frequent airplay during Creator/DisneyChannel commercial breaks when the film was released. The song still plays at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks some of Disney's theme parks]] and places for kids like Build-A-Bear Workshop.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'' had two: Aaliyah's cover of "Journey to the Past", which was successful due to the artist's popularity, and Richard Marx and Donna Lewis' "At The Beginning", which was known for being the song that topped the Adult Contemporary charts before the long reign of [[Film/Titanic1997 "My Heart Will Go On"]]. Both of them still play on some mainstream pop stations, though the Aaliyah version of "Journey" is seen as one of her lesser songs (the in-movie version has often been compared to ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}''[='=]s "Let It Go" in that regard). The Deana Carter version of "Once Upon a December" is in the same boat, though its popularity is mostly limited to country radio.

* ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'' was not as successful or remembered by the general public as Disney's other works were, however, the Rob Thomas song "Little Wonders", which was written for the film, peaked at number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2007.