19 Sleeper Hit Rock Songs

It’s true what they say: success does not always happen overnight.

This is particularly accurate in the music business, where it can take years for an artist to reach a notable level of commercial accomplishment. Sure, some songs and albums will land swiftly at the top of the charts, but others are more of a slow burn.

This is what’s often referred to in the industry as a sleeper hit, a song that starts out unassuming and over time ends up hugely popular. Some of the best known songs in rock ‘n’ roll have experienced this, even if it took decades.

In the below gallery, we’re taking a look at 19 examples of sleeper hit rock songs.

1. “Here I Go Again,” Whitesnake
From: Saints & Sinners (1982)

You will notice in the below video that it’s titled “Here I Go Again ’87.” That’s because the song can actually be traced back to Whitesnake’s 1982 album Saints & Sinners. At that time, it only managed to get to No. 34 in the U.K. and 65 in the U.S. as a single, but it would get a second chance when the band re-recorded it in 1987 at the behest of their label boss David Geffen. That wound up a fantastic idea since the new version went to No. 9 in the U.K. and No. 1 in the U.S. “I wasn’t impressed, but it worked out,” David Coverdale admitted to The Independent in 2021. “It was Geffen who convinced me, and thank God they did because that does help with the mortgage!”

 

2. “Layla,” Derek and the Dominos
From: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970)

Long before Spotify and YouTube, radio was king. But getting radio stations to play a song longer than roughly three minutes was a challenge back in the day, which is why Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla,” which clocks in around seven minutes, had to be shortened down to 2:43 in order to release it as a single in 1971. That version only got to 51 on the Billboard Hot 100. A year later though, the full version was released and jumped ahead to No. 7 in the U.K. and No. 10 in the U.S. It was released once more as a single in 1982 and inched up a bit further to No. 4 in the U.K. and, of course, has since become one of Derek and the Dominos’ best-known songs.

 

3. “Running Up That Hill,” Kate Bush
From: Hounds of Love (1985)

It’s never too late for a song to become a hit. A perfect example is Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” which was first released as a single from her 1985 album Hounds of Love. Back then, it was technically a hit, reaching No. 3 in the U.K. and 30 in the U.S., but the best was yet to come. Flash forward nearly 40 years to 2022 and the song appeared in the Netflix series Stranger Things, which led to it reaching No. 3 in the U.S. The year after that it reached one billion streams on Spotify. As Bush put it on her website, “Running Up That Hill” was given “a whole new lease of life.”

 

4. “Tiny Dancer,” Elton John
From: Madman Across the Water (1971)

“Tiny Dancer” is like the aforementioned “Layla” in that it struggled in being a bit too long for a hit single. When “Tiny Dancer” first was released in February of 1972, it stalled at No. 41 in the U.S. and never went any higher despite performing better in other countries like Canada and Australia. Despite this, it has grown into one of John’s most famous songs, as well the eighth most-performed song of his entire career. It also got used in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous in 2000, which boosted its popularity even more, and has multiple platinum certifications to its name.

 

5. “Dream On,” Aerosmith
From: Aerosmith (1973)

Sometimes success begins in your own backyard. That’s sort of what happened with Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” which was quite popular in their hometown of Boston when it was first released in June of 1973, though it only got to No. 59 on the Billboard Hot 100. A mere two years later, Aerosmith reissued the single where it debuted at No. 81 on the same chart and eventually made its way to No. 6. Not bad for a song Steven Tyler never imagined would be much more than “just this little sonnet.”

 

6. “Sacrifice,” Elton John
From: Sleeping With the Past (1989)

The ironic thing about radio is that it can be both an obstacle for longer singles and also a tremendous help. Elton John’s “Sacrifice” made a very small splash when it was released as a single in October 1989, stalling at 55 in the U.K. and 18 in America. Not terrible, but it certainly left room for improvement. The year after that, however, the English DJ Steve Wright started playing the song on BBC Radio 1, which led to it being re-released in June of 1990. This time, it went to No. 1 in the U.K., making it John’s very first solo chart topper in Britain.

 

7. “What I Like About You,” The Romantics
From: The Romantics (1980)

By the time the Romantics put out “What I Like About You” as a single in late 1979, they’d already been playing it live quite a bit, much to the delight of their fans. But as far as commercial success, things could have been better — it only got to No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100. But later on in the ’80s the song got used in various commercials, plus got a music video on MTV, which helped make it one of the most popular songs of the decade. “I remember the first time we heard that song come through the speakers in the control room,” co-writer Wally Palmar recalled to The Washington Times in 2016, “we said, ‘I don’t think we better mess with this too much.’ It sounded too damn good.”

 

8. “The Whole of the Moon,” The Waterboys
From: This Is the Sea (1985)

For starters, we recommend checking out the cover versions of the Waterboys’ “The Whole of the Moon” by Fiona Apple or by Prince, the former passionate and powerful, the latter funky and downright dirty in the best possible way. Anyway, the original song was released in 1985 on the Waterboys’ This Is the Sea, but only went to No. 26 in the U.K. “I recorded it without thinking of it as a single,” frontman Mike Scott explained to Louder in 2024. “Whilst the mix was playing, I was thinking, ‘oh, everyone is going to love this,’ that’s when I got the sense that it would be a huge song. I made a classic. I’m very happy about that.” Six years later, the song got re-released and shot up to No. 3.

 

9. “American Girl,” Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
From: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1976)

Technically speaking, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “American Girl” has never been a hit — not when it was first released as a single in February of 1977 and not ever in the history of its existence. However, we felt it deserved a spot on this list since it went from being a meager No. 40 hit in the U.K. and practically unheard in the States at the time of its release, to one of the band’s most famous songs. By the time the Heartbreakers finished touring in 2017, “American Girl” was their single most-played song live of their whole catalog.

 

10. “Space Oddity,” David Bowie
From: David Bowie (1969)

“Space Oddity” was rush-released as a single on July 11, 1969, five days before the launch of Apollo 11, the space trip that put humans on the moon. This was done in an attempt to maximize the song’s potential success, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Initially, “Space Oddity” only went to No. 48 in the U.K. and  No. 124 in the U.S. After a handful of television performances in the latter half of 1969, it eventually crept up to No. 5 in the U.K., but it wasn’t until the single was re-released in North America in 1972 that it finally became a hit across the big pond, reaching No. 15.

 

11. “The Sound of Silence,” Simon & Garfunkel
From: Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (1964)

If there’s one lesson to be learned from this article it’s that if at first your single doesn’t succeed, release it again. Simon & Garfunkel first put “The Sounds of Silence,” as it was originally called, on their 1964 folk album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. and it went basically nowhere. But the following year, it started to earn a bit of radio play which led the song’s original producer, Tom Wilson, to remix the track with electronic instruments overdubbed on it. It was this version, released in September of 1965, that went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1966, which came as a surprise to Paul Simon. “Between the ages of 15 and 22, I had made only one very minor hit at the age of 15 and then flops. So I expected everything to be a flop,” he said to Rolling Stone in 1972. “I was utterly amazed that ‘The Sound of Silence’ was a big hit.”

 

12. “Lust for Life,” Iggy Pop
From: Lust for Life (1977)

Never underestimate the power of a song’s placement in a film. Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life” didn’t make a huge splash when it was first released in 1977, apart from being a hit in the Netherlands. Almost 20 years later, the song appeared in the 1996 British film Trainspotting which led to it reaching No. 26 in the U.K. Naturally, the song was used again in 2017’s T2 Trainspotting, a sequel to the original.

 

13. “Heroes,” David Bowie
From: “Heroes” (1977)

“‘Heroes’” only got to No. 24 in the U.K. when Bowie released it in 1977, and it didn’t chart in America at all. In spite of this, it grew to be a staple of Bowie’s live shows over the years — it was his fourth most-played song live of his entire catalog with over 600 performances. After Bowie’s passing in 2016, it jumped to No. 12 in Britain.

 

14. “Nights in White Satin,” The Moody Blues
From: Days of Future Passed (1967)

“Nights in White Satin” technically was a hit when it came out in 1967, but only in the U.K. where it went to No. 19. Over in America however, it stalled at a dismal No. 103. But when it was released again five years later, it greatly redeemed itself by going to No. 9 in the U.K. and No. 2 in the U.S, plus, it charted in Britain again in 1979 and in 2010. Even Justin Hayward, the song’s writer, remains a bit mystified by it. “It’s a curious thing,” he told Classic Rock in 2023, “because when I listen to the record there’s just this big empty space and those wonderful echoes that we had in the studios at Decca. But there’s a strange power to the song. It gave us a style that suddenly seemed to work for us. I think it identified the Moodies’ sound.”

 

15. “Hallelujah,” Leonard Cohen
From: Various Positions (1984)

Nowadays “Hallelujah” is well-known for being Leonard Cohen’s most famous song, but there was a time when it was literally rejected by Cohen’s record label. Cohen ended up releasing it on his album Various Positions via an independent label, but it would be another several years before anything significant would happen with “Hallelujah.” Firstly, John Cale of the Velvet Underground recorded a version in 1991, which in turn inspired Jeff Buckley to record it for his 1994 album Grace. Then in 2001, a cover of it by Rufus Wainwright appeared in, of all things, Shrek. All of this helped make “Hallelujah” into a charting song that landed at No. 59 in the U.S. and No. 36 in the U.K.

 

16. “Time of the Season,” The Zombies
From: Odessey and Oracle (1968)

The Zombies have Al Kooper to thank for “Time of the Season” becoming as big as it ultimately did. In addition to his work as a musician, Kooper also served as an A&R representative for Columbia Records in the late ’60s, and it was he who convinced Clive Davis that the label should release the Zombies’ Odessey and Oracle album. “Clive listened, but the wrong single was put out,” Kooper recalled to Classic Rock in 2024. “I had to complain again before ‘Time of the Season’ became huge.” It took over a year after “Time of the Season” was initially released for it to reach No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

 

17. “Red Red Wine,” UB40
From: Labour of Love (1983)

The English reggae band UB40 did not write “Red Red Wine” — that would be Neil Diamond‘s doing — but they did make it into an awfully popular song, even if it took several years to do so. UB40 first put out their version in 1983 and it went to No. 1 in the U.K. and No. 34 in America. Not bad, right? They didn’t stop there though. The single was reissued five years later in 1988, and that’s when it finally grabbed the No. 1 spot in the U.S. “We love the song and we don’t mind singing it a million times,” founding member Terence Wilson, known by his stage name Astro, told Billboard in 2018. “People wonder if we get sick and tired of performing it. Well the answer’s no, because we loved it before we even recorded it — and we love it even more when we see people in front of us dancing and singing.”

 

18. “She’s Gone,” Hall & Oates
From: Abandoned Luncheonette (1973)

John Oates and Daryl Hall sensed they had something worthy on their hands almost immediately after writing “She’s Gone,” which wound up a single from 1973’s Abandoned Luncheonette. “We knew it was a good song,” Oates recounted to American Songwriter in 2021. “We knew it was unique.” But it only landed at No. 60 on the Billboard Hot 100. Three years later, however, Hall & Oates had a new label, RCA Records, which reissued the single and got it all the way up to No. 7.

 

19. “Master of Puppets,” Metallica
From: Master of Puppets (1986)

Like Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” also experienced an unexpected resurgence in 2022 when it was featured in Netflix’s Stranger Things. According to reporting by Billboard, streams of “Master of Puppets” went up 400%. Pretty good for a song that only went to No. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 1986.