Another thing to keep in mind. A song's success is calculated more by weeks on charts than peak position. Of course everyone wants bragging rights to have #1 or land inside the top 10. But a hit is calculated by weeks on charts. There are some songs that race to #1 that you never hear again and songs that peak at #11 and you still hear every day. Dreams was #1 but landed at Billboards #39 biggest songs of 1977. Hold Me finished 1982 as the #31 biggest song of 1982.
The biggest song of 1977 was You Light Up My Life and its a song that is never played anywhere ever. Yet Dreams is heard almost every day and finished way lower of the biggest hits of 1977. Some songs are just so good they are played on radio decades later. Car Wash finished 1977 as a much bigger hit than Dreams yet the only time you hear it if you listen to Studio 54.
Lastly some of the Rolling Stone's biggest hits were never released as singles. Its incredible how their music had its own charts. Gimmie Shelter is no doubt one of their biggest hits you still hear today but it never was released as any single. Gold Dust Woman was a radio hit that you still hear today and it was never released as a single. So lets not let the long lines of chiffon cloud our thought process here.
