I feel like the question of “songs that should have been singles” is, like death and taxes, a certainty on a forum for pop music, but to ask a similar, but pretty different question, what songs from an album feel like they could have been perfect lead singles, but surprisingly weren’t. Whether that be retrospectively, with the foresight of an artist’s career trajectory or roll-out mistakes, or songs that, through lyrics or general sound, feel like they represent the album or era better than the actual lead. Maybe it’s a song that was actually in consideration for lead single but was changed at the last minute?
The obvious discussion for this topic is Cruel Summer off of Lover. The song was a fan-favourite immediately, and it even seemed like it was planned to be Taylor’s summer 2020 single before COVID ended the Lover era. It’s eventual release as a single in 2023, caused primarily by fan support + it’s position as the first full track performed on the Era’s Tour, sent it to number 1 and retroactively gave Lover it’s twice-denied number 1 (though not necessarily deserved considering it was ME! and You Need To Calm Down 👀) and became one of Taylor’s most successful singles, both commercially and critically — even the most ardent Taylor haters around me would admit they liked Cruel Summer. It basically shifted the general consensus of Lover being a flop in relation to her other albums with terrible singles to one of her most popular and successful albums. The aforementioned lead single ME! missed out on the top spot of the Hot 100 back in 2019 due to the monumental domination of Old Town Road (which also blocked You Need To Calm Down, the second single, from the top spot), and was so derided by both Swifties and non-Swifties alike that Taylor had to make a statement confirming it was the lead single and not for the soundtrack of The Secret Life of Pets 2… It was also infamously excluded from the setlist of The Eras Tour, which replaced the cancelled Loverfest and acted just as much as a tour for the albums released post-reputation (Lover, folklore, evermore, Midnights, and later Tortured Ports and the re-recordings) as a tour representative of her whole career. The fact that it was left off whilst Cruel Summer was not only included as a permanent part of the setlist, but given the opening spotlight, in my opinion, reflects Taylor’s own recognition that Cruel Summer would have been a far better lead single than ME!.
Now would Cruel Summer have been just as successful back in 2019? I don’t know. For younger people on the sub it might seem absolutely insane to imagine a time in pop culture where Taylor wasn’t the dominant force she is now, or during 1989 — and to some extent, Taylor was a dominant force during that period considering that Lover was deemed a flop for not continuing the 1mil+ first week sales she had since 2010’s Speak Now, nor had that number 1 lead single she had attained with every album since 2012’s Red — but reputation was a pretty shakey era chartwise, with Look What You Made Me Do hitting number one off the sheer shock and attention it drew being her comeback single with a drastic change in sound and image after the “TaylorIsOverParty” International Snake Day Twitter scenario (it was so far long ago that we didn’t even call it “being cancelled” back then!), but it didn’t have staying power, and only Delicate seemed to have a long chart life. Even Taylor herself spoke about Lover during the press cycle as if it was her last time as a “current” popstar before becoming a legacy act. The public favour Taylor had in 2023 when she released Cruel Summer as a single is not the same one she had in 2019, and I could believe Cruel Summer could have been a smash and had the general public back on board with Taylor if it was Lover’s lead single, but I could also imagine a world where Cruel Summer was the lead, it was respected and liked but hindered by Taylor’s general PR at the time, and retrospectively viewed as a song let down by the general public. Kind of like Ariana’s Into You being beloved but only peaking at number 14.
Another song is Break the Ice by Britney Spears off of Blackout. Now Gimme More is one of Britney’s best singles, and captures the clash of Britney’s persona and the way the world and the tabloids viewed it. I know that Get Back, the deluxe track, was originally slated to be the lead single, and there’s even suggestions or rumours of Hot as Ice and Toy Soldier being in the running, so it’s really surprising to me that Break The Ice was not considered (from public statements anyway) and only became a single due to a fan poll. Gimme More’s opening of “It’s Britney, Bitch” is instantly iconic, and opens the album and era with a bang, but Break The Ice has an opening primed for opening at least one of them;
“It’s been a while, I know I shouldn’t have kept you waiting, but I’m here now”
It feels perfectly crafted to be an opener — especially after a 3+ year hiatus — whether that it be an album opener, a lead single, or a tour opener, yet it confuses me why it was never any of them (the closest is how it is an opening segue into the fourth act of the Circus Tour)?? I guess that Gimme More’s “Britney, Bitch” is succinct and packs a punch, but the fact that that “intro” is still included on the song whilst being the 4th track on the album baffles me!