Steely Dan’s Aja;
Black Cow
Aja
Deacon Blues
Peg
Home at Last
I Got the News
Josie
I think Home at Last is only track that didn’t get heavy airplay on top “###” AM radio in the late 70s / early 80s. The Royal Scam was almost as successful.
CMC fnord!
The Pretenders - first album:
Side one
1.“Precious” – 3:36
2.“The Phone Call” – 2:29
3.“Up the Neck” – 4:27
4.“Tattooed Love Boys” – 2:59
5.“Space Invader” (Pete Farndon, James Honeyman-Scott) – 3:26
6.“The Wait” (Hynde, Farndon) – 3:35
7.“Stop Your Sobbing” (Ray Davies) – 2:38
Side two
8.“Kid” – 3:06
9.“Private Life” – 6:25
10.“Brass in Pocket” (Honeyman-Scott, Hynde) – 3:04
11.“Lovers of Today” – 5:51
12.“Mystery Achievement” – 5:23
The Police - Ghost in the Machine
Side one
Side two
6. “Too Much Information” 3:43
7. “Rehumanize Yourself” (Sting, Stewart Copeland) 3:10
8. “One World (Not Three)” 4:47
9. “Ωmegaman” (Andy Summers) 2:48
10. “Secret Journey” 3:34
11. “Darkness” (Copeland)
One or two don’t get played.
drad dog you’re right; I wouldn’t have considered Neil Diamond, but that’s impressive.
I also assume someone has mentioned Appetite for Destruction by Gn’R - I’ll go check…
ETA: Nope, I didn’t see it. There are a few songs that don’t get a ton of play.
How about The Rolling Stones - Some Girls
Side one
Side two
6. “Far Away Eyes” 4:24
7. “Respectable” 3:06
8. “Before They Make Me Run” 3:25
9. “Beast of Burden” 4:25
10. “Shattered”
I’d guess Carole King’s Tapestry.
I Feel the Earth Move
So Far Away
It’s Too Late
Home Again
Beautiful
Way Over Yonder
You've Got a Friend
Where You Lead
Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
Smackwater Jack
Tapestry
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural WomanGenesis had two of these in the 80s. From the Genesis album, the only song that didn’t get radio airplay was “Silver Rainbow” (and, I suppose, “Second Home By the Sea,” but I think of both parts as a single song). From Invisible Touch, all songs got airplay except “Domino” and “The Brazillian.”
I think this is the closest to the OP. And Home at Last is one of the best tracks too.
It took so long to get Aja out that they got around to just about all the songs on Royal Scam on FM radio, in these parts anyway, and some too much even for this fan.
Ah, I’m guessing this must be a UK vs US thing. You hardly hear any Air here in the US. (I’m only familiar with Moon Safari, and I didn’t recognize anything on the bits of Talkie-Walkie I sampled, although I do know the album by name.)
I’ve heard seven of the twelve tracks off of No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom on the radio. Though from your OP, it sounds like you may mean songs that are still widely played, and in that case, I think “Don’t Speak” is the only one that still gets played a lot.
Two albums I can think of with few or no wasted cuts-- Lyle Lovett and his Large Band and Come On Come On by Mary Chapin Carpenter-- might be completely unknown outside their fan base. But within those fan bases, these albums are solid!
Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet has to be in the same league.
Getz/Gilberto: the album that popularized bossa nova in the USA. It included tunes like The Girl From Ipanema, Corcovado and Desafinado.
Santana Abraxas would be a candidate.
Cheap Thrills, Janis Joplin (Big Brother and the Holding Company)
Depends on the audience. When I was in college, everyone knew all the songs on Woodstock and Tommy
On Crosby Still Nash LP:
The least (known) song IMO is Lady of the Island. Pretty good lineup. I’ve heard it all at one time or another on the air.
If soundtracks aren’t cheating, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever would probably qualify.
Huey Lewis and the News’ Sports has 9 songs, including 5 that you could not escape in the 80s and early 90s:
“The Heart of Rock & Roll”
“Walking on a Thin Line”
“If This Is It”
“Heart and Soul”
“I Want a New Drug”
As others have said, it depends on the audience (age, location, etc). A few Beatles albums would probably count. Thriller’s a good shout, too. I’d throw in Nevermind as well. I don’t know how many “hits” were on the album besides Smells Like Teen Spirit and Come As You Are, but most of the songs pop up in film/tv/video games.
That’s a lie, I barely ever hear any of those songs outside of my itunes. But I know them all and that’s all that matters to me.
I know Thriller is the obvious one, but I think Michael Jackson had a remarkable FOUR album run of just about every track finding some success at radio. His weak album of the bunch only had 4 top-10 singles. Crazy. I’m realizing this now, as I was looking up the performance of Bad to make the argument Bad was possibly in the same league as Thriller as far as successful radio singles to total number of album songs ratio.
Off the Wall- 5 Singles, 4 were legit hits in US, 5 in UK if you count the #41 one
Thriller- 7 Hit singles out of 9 songs
Bad- 9 Hit Singles in UK, 7 US, but the 2 international singles were played in the US. I’ve definitely heard (bonus track) “Leave me Alone” for example, and I’ve never owned a MJ recording. Out of 11 songs, 9 made the top 15 in the UK and/or US, and 1 of the 2 non-singles even featured Stevie Wonder.
Dangerous- 9 Singles, again 2 that didn’t play as much in the US but are still recognizable. More filler with 14 tracks total, but when I read through the track-listing there are only 2 I really have no idea about.
Thinking of Michael Jackson made me think of Prince, and I would have to say I know every song from Purple Rain. I’ve never owned it, never played it, but heard it all.
I recognize none of these, and it’s not like I was on another planet during the Pretenders’ heyday. And “Back On the Chain Gang” is one of my all-time favorite songs. But I’m drawing a blank here.
Hell, I own this one, and I don’t remember half the tracks. Where I am, maybe “Every Little Thing” pops up on classic rock every now and then. Lord knows when the last time is that I’ve heard tracks 3,6,7, and 8. And 4,5,9,10, and 11 I haven’t heard since I last listened to this album, a couple of decades back, nor do I have the faintest recollection of what they sound like.
IMHO, this album suffered from being after Zenyatta Mondatta and before Synchronicity.
3 out of 10 get airplay around here: tracks 1, 9, 10. Haven’t heard the title song since the year or two after the album was released, and I wouldn’t recognize any of the others.
Yeah, that’s one of my all-time favorite albums, but there are only a small handful of songs I hear from that album on the air. You should recognize “Brass in Pocket,” though. And maybe “Stop Your Sobbing” and “Kid,” but definitely “Brass in Pocket.” And “Tattoed Love Boys” is you’ve played Guitar Hero or Rock Band (I forget which one has it.)
Yes had three albums in a row where nearly every song got airplay or were concert faves.
The Yes Album: “Yours is No Disgrace”, “Clap”, “Starship Trooper”, “I’ve Seen All Good People” and “Perpetual Change”. Only “A Venture” is forgettable.
Fragile: “Roundabout”, “South Side of the Sky”, “Long Distance Runaround”, “Mood for a Day” and “Heart of the Sunrise”. Of course you’ll have to ignore the silly solo bits.
Close to the Edge: “Close to the Edge”, “And You and I”, “Siberian Khatru”. Songs too long for most radio, but all were concert staples.
Later, there was the massively popular 90125, with nearly every track a radio hit: “Owner of a Lonely Heart”, “Hold On”, “It Can Happen”, “Changes”, “Leave It”, “City of Love” and “Hearts”. Only “Cinema” and “Our Song” rarely (if ever) made it to radio.
I was going to say the same thing. Most of Moby’s songs I least recognize as background tracks for ads or intros, but none of the tracks on Air’s Talkie-Walkie sound familiar at all.