Iron Maiden has sold over 100 million albums worldwide in its 30+ year career but oddly never really achieved much chart success in the USA. The band has endured as one of the most successful acts in what was dubbed the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and is legendary in its native England, having even scored a #1 single, “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter”, as well as several number one albums. The band is still a huge live draw to this day, with its last tour chronicled in the documentary, Flight 666.  The band has just announced a new album, The Final Frontier, and a tour of North America and Europe that kicks off June 9 in Dallas, Texas.

So why the lack of success in the US? It could be that Iron Maiden was much more accomplished musically and lyrically than US metal bands during their peak period of success in the 1980s, and maybe mainstream US metal fans just preferred songs about getting drunk and getting laid. Iron Maiden’s less commercial songs featured longer running times, aggressive tempos, elaborate arrangements, numerous time changes and lyrics inspired by history. It could be that the band members were not a bunch of “hair-sprayed pretty boys” like Bon Jovi and Poison. Whatever the reasons, Iron Maiden is an amazing band, and it’s a shame more US fans never latched on to them the way other fans around the world did.

Iron Maiden’s first single to chart in the USA was “Wrathchild” from the band’s 1981 Killers (#78, Billboard 200) album.   The song hit #31 on the Mainstream Rock chart and featured original vocalist Paul Di’anno, shortly before he was fired from the band and replaced by former Samson vocalist Bruce Dickinson.  Dickinson’s vocal range allowed the band to move beyond its punk beginnings and many epic songs were to follow.

In 1982, the band released The Number of the Beast, which is ranked as one of the best heavy metal albums of all time.   The album hit #33 on the Billboard 200 but was  controversial due to the lyrics of the title track and the cover art depicting Satan being controlled by the band’s mascot Eddie.   The title track was not really Satanic; it was actually inspired by bassist Steve Harris’s nightmare about being trapped in Hell, triggered after watching the movie Damien: Omen II.    Only one of the album’s three singles charted in the US,  “Hallowed Be Thy Name” which managed to crawl to #50 on the Mainstream Rock chart.  The other singles “Run to the Hills” and “The Number of the Beast” charted in the U.K. and remain concert staples for the band.

Iron Maiden’s 1983 album, Piece of Mind, was a bigger success in the US, hitting  #14 on the Billboard 200 and charting two singles on the Mainstream Rock chart.  “Flight of Icarus” rose to #8, and it remains the band’s highest charting single in America to this day, and “The Trooper” hit #28.

1984′s Powerslave charted at #21 on the Billboard 200 and had the single “2 Minutes to Midnight” hit #25 on the Mainstream Rock chart.

Surprisingly, “Wasted Years” from Iron Maiden’s 1986 album Somewhere in Time (#23, Billboard 200) didn’t chart in the US, despite being one of the band’s catchiest songs in the 80s.

“Can I Play With Madness” from Iron Maiden’s ambitious 1988 concept album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (#13, Billboard 200) only managed to hit #47 on the Mainstream Rock chart while it hit #3 on the U.K. singles chart.  Three additional songs from the album were top ten hits in the U.K.

The aforementioned and decidedly cheesy (it was written for a Nightmare on Elm Street movie) “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter” from the 1990 album No Prayer for the Dying (#17, Billboard 200) hit #1 in the U.K. but did not chart in the US.

After flirting with a solo career in 1990 with his album Tattooed Millionaire and the side band Skunkworks, Bruce Dickinson left Iron Maiden in 1993 after a lengthy farewell tour.  The band soldiered on and put out two live albums from the farewell tour and eventually hired new vocalist Blaze Bayley who sang on the poorly received albums The X Factor (1995) and Virtual XI (1998).  Bayley was fired and a reunion with Dickinson ensued in 2000.

The reunited Iron Maiden released Brave New World in 2000 which hit #39 on the Billboard 200.  The album produced the band’s last Mainstream Rock chart hit to date, “The Wicker Man” which hit #19.

For the sake of comparison, here are the U.K. chart positions of Iron Maiden’s singles from 1980-1990:

From Iron Maiden (1980):

Running Free/Burning Ambition #34
Sanctuary/Drifter #29

Non-album single (1980):

Women In Uniform/Invasion #35

From Killers (1981):

Twilight Zone/Wrathchild #31
Purgatory/Genghis Khan #52

From The Number of the Beast (1982):

Run To The Hills/Total Eclipse #7
The Number Of The Beast/Remember Tomorrow #18

From Piece of Mind (1983):

Flight Of Icarus/I’ve Got The Fire #11
The Trooper/Cross-Eyed Mary #12

From Powerslave (1984):

2 Minutes To Midnight/Rainbow’s Gold #11
Aces High/King Of Twilight #20

From Live After Death (1985):

Running Free (Live)/Sanctuary (Live) #19
Run To The Hills (Live)/Phantom Of The Opera (Live) #26

From Somewhere in Time (1986):

Wasted Years/Reach Out #18
Stranger In A Strange Land/That Girl #22

From Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988):

The Evil That Men Do #4
The Clairvoyant #6
Infinite Dreams #6
Can I Play With Madness #3

From No Prayer for the Dying (1990):

Holy Smoke – debuted at #3 (highest debut ever for a single by any group or singer)
Bring Your Daughter…To The Slaughter #1