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Which songs from Invincible should've been singles?

  • Unbreakable

    Votes: 9 60.0%
  • Heartbreaker

    Votes: 5 33.3%
  • Invincible

    Votes: 1 6.7%
  • Break of Dawn

    Votes: 5 33.3%
  • Heaven Can Wait

    Votes: 3 20.0%
  • Don't Walk Away

    Votes: 3 20.0%
  • Speechless

    Votes: 6 40.0%
  • 2000 Watts

    Votes: 6 40.0%
  • Threatened

    Votes: 6 40.0%
  • Whatever Happens

    Votes: 12 80.0%

  • Total voters
    15
Heartbreaker, speechless and don’t walk away are the only ones with hit potential. Whatever happens as well but I am not a fan personally.
 
The poll is invalid because not all songs are on there.

My votes go to Unbreakable, Heartbreaker, invincible, Break of Dawn, Heaven Can Wait, Butterflies, You Rock My World (see, we’re answering the question what should have been released as a single, wherefore YRMW is just as eligible as the other tracks), 2000 Watts, Speechless, You Are My Life, The Lost Children, Threatened.

Cry ain’t among my favourites. Neither is Privacy, although I’ve somewhat warmed up to it in the last few months.
 
The poll is invalid because not all songs are on there.

My votes go to Unbreakable, Heartbreaker, invincible, Break of Dawn, Heaven Can Wait, Butterflies, You Rock My World (see, we’re answering the question what should have been released as a single, wherefore YRMW is just as eligible as the other tracks), 2000 Watts, Speechless, You Are My Life, The Lost Children, Threatened.

Cry ain’t among my favourites. Neither is Privacy, although I’ve somewhat warmed up to it in the last few months.
Duh! Forgot Don’t Walk Away and Whatever Happens. That’s a cardinal sin as good as any.
 
The poll is invalid because not all songs are on there.
it's impossible to add more than ten answers
YRMW, Cry and Butterflies were singles, so they are not in the poll

Butterflies02.jpg

 
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it's impossible to add more than ten answers
YRMW, Cry and Butterflies were singles, so they are not in the poll
Yes, I know, which is why you should have made two polls (Part I and Part II). As it stands, the results won’t mean anything.

Butterflies was merely a promo release, so it shouldn’t be excluded on those grounds. And besides, neither should You Rock My World and Cry – remember that the question reads “Which songs from Invincible should've been singles?” (Just because a song was a single, doesn’t automatically mean that it should have been, and vice versa.)
 
Many major albums at the time didn't have more than three singles (Black & Blue by Backstreet Boys, No Strings Attached and Celebrity by 'N Sync, 8701 by Usher, All for You by Janet, Music by Madonna, etc. All of these albums were significantly more successful than Invincible). Some had more, but when it came to successful singles, there were no more than three. MJ was well past his peak, so Invincible wasn't going to have tons of top tens or number ones.

"You Rock My World" was the perfect lead single; it didn't impress critics, but it still reached no.10 solely on airplay and might have even hit no.1 if Sony also released it as a CD single. Say what you will about the song itself, but it was very popular with the general public. "Butterflies" also was popular; it hit no.14 solely on airplay and would have peaked even higher if it had a CD single.

Of the tracks that weren't released as singles, "Whatever Happens" is the one that I think would have been a big success. I would keep "You Rock My World" as the lead and give it a full release. Then, I'd make "Whatever Happens" the second single and give that a full release as well. "Butterflies" would be the third and last single; full release as well, obviously.

Maybe "Heaven Can Wait" could have also been a single; I could see it doing alright on the R&B stations at the very least, but it wouldn't be necessary. There are no other tracks on the album that I think would have been particularly successful.
 
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Many major albums at the time didn't have more than three singles (Black & Blue by Backstreet Boys, No Strings Attached and Celebrity by 'N Sync, 8701 by Usher, All for You by Janet, Music by Madonna, etc. All of these albums were significantly more successful than Invincible). Some had more, but when it came to successful singles, there were no more than three. MJ was well past his peak, so Invincible wasn't going to have tons of top tens or number ones.

"You Rock My World" was the perfect lead single; it didn't impress critics, but it still reached no.10 solely on airplay and might have even hit no.1 if Sony also released it as a CD single. Say what you will about the song itself, but it was very popular with the general public. "Butterflies" also was popular; it hit no.14 solely on airplay and would have peaked even higher if it had a CD single.

Of the tracks that weren't released as singles, "Whatever Happens" is the one that I think would have been a big success. I would keep "You Rock My World" as the lead and give it a full release. Then, I'd make "Whatever Happens" the second single and give that a full release as well. "Butterflies" would be the third and last single; full release as well, obviously.

Maybe "Heaven Can Wait" could have also been a single; I could see it doing alright on the R&B stations at the very least, but it wouldn't be necessary. There are no other tracks on the album that I think would have been particularly successful.
Just a footnote, but: All of those albums were not “significantly more successful than Invincible”.

Edit: And You Rock My World was released on CD. What do you mean “released as a CD single”?
2nd Edit: I find your “successful” terminology problematic. Would you care to define that term, please?
 
Just a footnote, but: All of those albums were not “significantly more successful than Invincible”.

Maybe not all, but a good number of them were. No Strings Attached by 'N Sync sold 12 million worldwide and was the fastest selling album of all time for 15 years, debuting with 2.4 million sold. It also had a number one singles. Celebrity only sold 6.5 million worldwide, but it debuted with 1.8 million sold, which was the second biggest opening at the time.

Black and Blue by Backstreet Boys sold 15 million worldwide. It also debuted at 1.5 million sold.

Music by Madonna sold over 11 worldwide. It also debuted at 420k sold and had a number one single.

All For You by Janet sold 8 million and debuted at 605k. It also had a number one single.

8701 by Usher only debuted at 204k, but it sold 8 million worldwide. It also had two number singles.

Invincible debuted at 363k and sold 6-8 million worldwide. No number one singles. And it couldn't return anywhere close to its budget whereas I'm pretty sure all of the other albums I mentioned did.

There's no question that No Strings Attached by 'N Sync, Black and Blue by Backstreet Boys and Music by Madonna were significantly more successful than Invincible; they could actually sell more than 10 million. They're half of the albums I mentioned.

Edit: And You Rock My World was released on CD.

Not in America.

2nd Edit: I find your “successful” terminology problematic. Would you care to define that term, please?

For singles, cracking the top 10 on the Hot 100.
 
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I'm pretty sure Unbreakable, Break of Dawn, You Rock My World, Butterflies, Speechless, Don't Walk Away, Cry, The Lost Children, Whatever Happens, and Threatened were the only intended singles.
 
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