11 Songs That Became Super Popular Years After They Were Released

Why it had a resurgence: In 2018, Billboard credited the group’s 1988 performance in a TV special for Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday and an Arizona DJ playing the song on a nationally syndicated radio show with the song’s success, though it was first released in 1983. “It’s just one of life’s mysteries,” the late band member Terrence “Astro” Wilson told Billboard in 2018. “If that DJ hadn’t chosen to include it in his playlist we might not even be having this discussion. You can never know when you’re going to have a number one. It’s the public who decides what’s a hit. No matter how clever it’s written on paper, if the public don’t buy it, it’s a flop.”