Middle of the road - Chirpy chirpy cheep cheep - the original
When I was in junior high (late '60s), I spent every weekend at the planetarium at the Minneapolis Public Library. “Starshine” was one of the music tracks they played pre-show, as people were coming into the chamber and getting seated. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it anywhere else (except maybe on*** Sesame Street*** around the same time).
Tommy Roe - Everybody
You know this one.
There are lots of well known Paul Williams songs (We’ve Only Just Begun, Rainy Days and Mondays, Evergreen) but several wonderful ones of his are undeservedly forgotten:
“Save Me a Dream”
Traveling Boy (It was covered by Art Garfunkel and Rumer)
Here’s a Baker’s dozen thread with songs that people hadn’t heard recently.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21706724&postcount=66246
That album has several great songs.
I Don’t Want to Hear it anymore
Harry Nilsson’s is often unappreciated. His Randy Newman cover album is great here’s Cowboy,the way it fades into Midnight Cowboy is genius
In the early '80s we learned this dance in gym class. It was barely known then but Pata Pata has been almost completely forgotten now.
Famously sample/covered by Biz Markie’s Just a Friend, people should remember Freddie Scott’s You Got What I Need.
In the past I’ve lamented the passing of guitar rock. It morphed into metal and lost me. But I remember such hits as Frankenstein and Hocus Pocus (by Focus, gotta add that part) were all the rage on the FM music making box.
[my bold]
Maybe the duet between Leonard Nimoy and Monty Burns? That’s where I heard it first.
I always sang “take a load of diarrhea and sent it to my wife…”
Really? I hear it all the time in TV when the pictures demand for “generic African party/dance song”. Indeed, I heard it just about two hours ago in a program about religious buildings. It was a scene of Ethopian Christians celebrating the baptizing of Christ, which seemingly is a happy party with song and dance, but what did the producers think was a good idea for background music?: “Pat Pata”, a secular dance song from 1960s Soweto :smack:. You know, Africa and party? “Pata Pata”! :rolleyes: It was like accompanying a documentary of Oktoberfest with Sami chants, because well, both Europe. But I disgress…
Anyway, I also hear “Pata, Pata” often on oldie stations, and Miriam Makeba is somehow still a household name, but I’m in Germany, could be different in the US.
Here where I am I haven’t heard Pata Pata played publicly in, well, ever. About two years or so ago I asked about learning this dance right here on in IMHO and barely anyone knew what I was talking about.
Then it’s really different. Miriam Makeba had a long and successful, pioneering career, but obviously not much in the US. Of course not everybody knows her (but I think everybody has heard her signature song some time), but for many she was the iconic figure for pop from Africa. I remember WDR2, a very popular FM station, doing a feature about her not very long ago in their daily segment “Zeitzeichen”, which covers a different historical event or person every day. She was also an important figure in the fight against apartheid and spent many years in exile. Fascinating career.
That’s brilliant! I remember this episode of The Simpsons (vaguely), but not the duet.
As for “Pata, Pata,” I used to go to Tuesday night folk dancing at the University of Minnesota back in the early '70s. It was definitely on the playlist and was requested quite often. It’s a fun dance; you get to flap your wings! 
When was the last time you heard these?
Carpenters, “Top of the World”:
John Denver, "Back Home Again": My lost love and I would cuddle on her couch and sing these to each other.It’s the sweetest thing I know of,
just spending time with you.
Pretty pathetic, right? 
The album is called “The Turning Point.” Not forgotten by me - I listen to it often.
Look him up on YouTube. There are videos of him playing this song. Quite amazing.
I hear The Carpenters frequently. Just today I heard Superstar and remarked on Karen’s so beautiful and clear as a bell’s voice. But then told hubby Luther’s version is much more heart rendering. He slowed it down and torched the hell out of it.
But, yeah, The Carpenters get a lot of play on oldies stations.
Yeah, those are definitely lesser played. “Son of A Preacher Man” was pretty well known in the 90s, due to the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, and still gets decent play today. I was working at a wedding about ten years ago – a Millennial couple – and their first dance song was “Son of a Preacher Man” (the groom’s father was a deacon.) It’s literally the first song I think of when I think of “Dusty Springfield.”
These may not be as obscure as some of the songs already named here, but it seems to me we don’t hear them much any more:
High Heel Sneakers by Tommy Tucker
Smile a Little Smile for Me by Flying Machine
Polk Salad Annie by Tony Joe White
The Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp by O. C. Smith
Bottle of Wine by The Fireballs
Yellow River by Christie
Third Rate Romance by The Amazing Rhythm Aces
Oh, Babe, What Would You Say? - by Hurricane Smith
Here are a couple from outside the era of 1964 through 1974:
Don’t You Just Know It? by Huey “Piano” Smith and the Clowns
Bad Boy by The Jive Bombers
Freakin’ ninja-ed on Hurricane Smith 
Ariel – Dean Friedman
I’ll throw in a couple that were recorded and released at least twice: “He’s In Town” (I prefer The Rockin’ Berries’ version) and “Needles and Pins.”
And who can forget, “Run, Baby, Run” by The Newbeats?
Plus, I’ll second the mentions of Spirit’s Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus.
Finally, I’ll mention that I have a copy of every single from the Billboard Top 100 from 1960 through 1990 on my media server. (I have virtually all of the singles from 1950 to 1960, but they are usually the Top 40 or Top 50.) When I shuffle play them, I get most of the songs that have been mentioned in this thread. I’m in heaven.