Robbed hit of the week 8/18/14 - Rush's "The Big Money"...

Rush - "The Big Money"
from the album Power Windows (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #45

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the Canadian rock trio Rush, who after fourteen years from their start and eight years after their debut album was released finally broke through on American pop radio as "New World Man" became the band's sole top-40 pop hit in 1982. Although their next album, Grace Under Pressure, spun off the top-3 rock hit "Distant Early Warning", it didn't connect at pop radio like Signals did in '82. For their next release, Power Windows, Rush did to a lesser extent what prog-rock peers Genesis had done, tighten their songs and add the synthesizers like extra cheese on a pizza. The first single from the album, "The Big Money", held promise...

While "The Big Money" scored another big hit for the threesome on rock radio, peaking at #4 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, the single stalled right under the pop top-40 at #45. The single also came close to the British Top-40 at #46, and stalled a little lower in Canada at #52.

"The Big Money" would be the trio's last time so far on the pop chart, though they would continue to be successful on rock radio, going to #1 four more times with the first singles from consecutive albums from 1989 to 1996. The latest, "Test For Echo", even became a top-10 hit in their native Canada. Most recently, Rush made it to #5 on Billboard's rock chart with "Headlong Flight".

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Here's Rush from their 1988 tour..

...and again from their 2002 show in Rio...

...and lastly, still going strong on their 2012 Clockwork Angels tour...