# Great songs that deserved to be hits but weren't **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 24, 2018, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717 "2018-05-24T05:44:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/41 "2018-05-26T05:13:56Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > “Yes It Is” is definitely a Beatles song, and a truly interesting one - but IMO it’s not “hit material” because… well, I’m not sure why… because the lyrics wander? because it needed more songwriting attention than it got? I don’t know, it’s like a picture that’s slightly out of focus. Hunh. I paid closer attention to the lyrics and damn if you arn’t right. I LOVE the theme of a guy who is with a perfectly good girl but isnt over another girl.( ill pretend he’s talking to himself and not actually telling his new girl these things)… Love the arrangement but yeah…the other lyrics are just kinda there to make it rhyme and need closer attention. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/42 "2018-05-27T03:42:09Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > In the US it peaked at #94, so not really. It mostly got airplay on college and alternative rock stations. R.E.M. didn’t break through to the mainstream until their next album _Document_. Huh. I was into REM and listened to alternative rock stations a lot at the time and for some reason thought REM was pretty popular even then. Just living in my own bubble I guess. This is probably my favorite REM song. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/43 "2018-05-27T06:37:31Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > [“Gimme Some Water”](https://youtu.be/rU-KVObNEd4?t=5) isn’t even on Eddie Money’s greatest hits album, but it’s another one in my everyday shuffle playlist. His greatest hits has about 8 songs I’ve never heard of, but not this one. Weird to me, particularly because I heard it on the radio enough to like it and seek it out. The first concert I ever went to was by Eddie Money, though it wasn’t exactly the reason I was going and I wasn’t all too familiar with his music other than what I passively heard on the radio. There ended up being some people shouting “Gimme Some Water”, but he didn’t play that song. Maybe Eddie just doesn’t like it all that much. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/44 "2018-05-27T07:45:52Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > It went to #17 in the UK, which made it his highest charting song. Higher than, “She Blinded Me with Science”? > [@glowacks](#): > > The first concert I ever went to was by Eddie Money, though it wasn’t exactly the reason I was going and I wasn’t all too familiar with his music other than what I passively heard on the radio. There ended up being some people shouting “Gimme Some Water”, but he didn’t play that song. Maybe Eddie just doesn’t like it all that much. You might be onto something there. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/45 "2018-05-27T10:15:10Z")
Apparently [Starlight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h61QG4s0I3U) by the Supermen Lovers never charted in the US. It should have. It’s rockin’ ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/46 "2018-05-27T10:25:56Z")
Also, [Change](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNlouS56zkA) by Daniel Merriweather. I’m a sucker for a good piano riff… ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/47 "2018-05-27T15:23:29Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > Higher than, “She Blinded Me with Science”? Hyperactive went to #17, Science to #49, according to Wikipedia. And I hadn’t realized its tangled history. It wasn’t on the UK release of _The Golden Age of Wireless_. > [@](#): > > When Dolby released the single “She Blinded Me with Science” backed by “One of our Submarines” in late 1982—complete with a music video for the A-side—Capitol saw a golden opportunity. They removed “Urges” and “Leipzig”, added the extended version of “Science” (also known as the “U.S. Mix”) and “Submarines”, and changed the album’s cover art back to its original “comic book” design. Capitol also swapped the full-length version of “Windpower” for the single version (with an edited intro and outro). The strategy worked, as The Golden Age of Wireless sold better and “She Blinded Me with Science” became a major hit, with constant radio and MTV airplay. The album only went to #65 in the U.K. _The Flat Earth_, containing “Hyperactive,” went to #14. MTV meant everything in those days. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/48 "2018-05-27T17:08:48Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Huh. > > I was into REM and listened to alternative rock stations a lot at the time and for some reason thought REM was pretty popular even then. Just living in my own bubble I guess. > > This is probably my favorite REM song. It was when they went “mainstream,” regardless of what the charts looked like. They were part of an industry sector that wasn’t chart bound at that time anyway, and didn’t have that as their realistic desired goal. Fall on me was the break point, where they became the REM of the second and later parts of their career. . ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_lining](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@Silver\_lining](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_lining)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/49 "2018-05-27T22:26:00Z")
Summer, Highland falls. One of Billy Joel’s best. It wasn’t a hit ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/50 "2018-05-28T03:40:43Z")
Chaz Jankel’s original version of “Ai No Corrida” was poised perfectly to be a huge post-disco dance/new-wave hybrid hit in 1980. Jankel’s song was released in North America and Europe, but charted only in Belgium. A year later, Quincy Jones’ faithful cover version hit #28 on the US Hot 100. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/51 "2018-05-28T05:40:59Z")
“Black” was my favorite track on Pearl Jam’s debut “Ten,” but never received airplay. I recall the band said at the time they didn’t want to give that song too much overexposure to “preserve” it for their fans. I am sure if they did a video and made it a single, it would have been fairly big. Led Zeppelin had only 3-4 singles, and no real chart hits, but a number of songs that are still staples on FM radio. Still “The Rover” off Physical Graffiti is as FM radio-ready as any of their “hits.” The Beatles had many songs that could have easily been hit singles. “Drive My Car” sounds made for radio, and “For No One” would have been huge too (instead, “Yellow Submarine” was the single off Revolver!). “With a Little Help from My Friends” could have been a #1 for Ringo too. I don’t know if XTC ever had any promoted released or airplay in America, but “Life Begins at The Hop” a lot of their other songs deserved to be big hits. Indeed, the Clash also deserved recognition for a lot more than “Train in Vain” and their singles from /Combat Rock/. “Rudy Can’t Fail,” “Death or Glory,” or The Right Profile" could have made it. But they obviously were not pursuing hit singles. ---
**Author:** ![Egnu\_Cledge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@Egnu\_Cledge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Egnu_Cledge)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/52 "2018-05-28T05:42:48Z")
Eleven Pond - [Watching Trees](https://youtu.be/EsGyHIZ2w-U). Instantly catchy synth pop from a band that was all set to open for Joy Division on their first American tour before Ian Curtis died. Fred Schneider, like you’ve never heard him before! [Bulldozer](https://youtu.be/yjvBdWnygIY), from his solo album _Just Fred,_ with members of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet, and Six Finger Satellite. Pretty much anything by [Quintron & Miss Pussycat](https://youtu.be/FdzY0c9dixU). They’re kind of like the B-52s crossed with The Cramps. They’re the most fun you’ll ever have at a concert. I Am the World Trade Center - [Metro](https://youtu.be/2WTFjdTLzGY). Delightful twee-tronica. Having the world’s unluckiest band name probably didn’t help. Black Tambourine - [Throw Aggi off the Bridge](https://youtu.be/vIWsBcIO-W8). Fuzzed out, barnstorming dream pop. The Flaming Lips - [Frogs](https://youtu.be/ohSJv901UdI). A vertiginous sugar-rush of happiness and effects pedals. Cocteau Twins - [Carolyn’s Fingers](https://youtu.be/NhGoZLudKyk). Also [Lorelei](https://youtu.be/3diz8I0AVVk). Indescribably beautiful perfection. ---
**Author:** ![bionic\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/49beb7/32.png) [@bionic\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bionic_man)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/53 "2018-05-28T06:07:16Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > I like the Kinks’ “Better Things” (1981) a lot. My recollection is that it got no radio play in the US, but that may have just been regional; according to Wikipedia, it reached #12 on the Billboard Rock Top Tracks chart and #92 on the Billboard Hot 100. Most of the songs done by the kinks the were not hits should of been… what about songs that should not of been hits ilike toosee this thread. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/54 "2018-05-28T11:24:27Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Spirit had several. “[I Got A Line on You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnrt6ykm6Do)” might have been a big hit It wasn’t? I remember it being all over top-40 radio in Jan/Feb 1969. (Great song, btw.) > [@JKellyMap](#): > > [Fall on Me, by R.E.M.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lf6vCjtaV1k) I have no sense of whether this was a big hit, or merely a fair-to-middlin’ hit at the time, but it got airplay then, and continues to do so. (ETA: Looks like this has been discussed a bit in the thread.) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/55 "2018-05-28T11:43:59Z")
Peter Wolf’s 2002 solo album _Sleepless_ might have spawned a hit or two, but he decided to not release any singles. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/56 "2018-05-28T11:53:37Z")
Was The Negro Problem’s 1999 track “Repulsion (Show up Late for Work on Monday)” released as a single? In any case, it wasn’t a hit, but should have been. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/57 "2018-05-28T12:11:49Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I have no sense of whether this was a big hit, or merely a fair-to-middlin’ hit at the time, but it got airplay then, and continues to do so. (ETA: Looks like this has been discussed a bit in the thread.) [This detailed article](https://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/talk-pageant-rem-bloomington-1986/)puts it this way: “‘Fall On Me’ was released as a single and managed to nose into the bottom ranks of the Hot 100, with an accompanying video that Stipe had shot at a Bloomington quarry, while the album rose all the way to number 21 on Billboard’s album charts–the highest ranking yet for an R.E.M. LP–and became the band’s first record to go gold, taking the band one step further towards mass popularity.” And, I recall some R.E.M. album liner notes (_Eponymous_?) describing it as either a “near-hit” or a “near-miss.” ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/58 "2018-05-29T13:50:47Z")
My nominee: Jimmy Buffett’s “[The Weather Is Here (I Wish You Were Beautiful)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLGUBhCJlXw)” has been my favorite Buffett song since I heard it \>30 years ago. [Buffettworld.com](http://Buffettworld.com) has [a list of the Buffett singles that have charted](http://www.buffettworld.com/chart-history-singles/), and it’s not listed. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/59 "2018-05-29T16:12:32Z")
> [@syncrolecyne](#): > > I don’t know if XTC ever had any promoted released or airplay in America, but “Life Begins at The Hop” a lot of their other songs deserved to be big hits. Indeed, the Clash also deserved recognition for a lot more than “Train in Vain” and their singles from /Combat Rock/. “Rudy Can’t Fail,” “Death or Glory,” or The Right Profile" could have made it. But they obviously were not pursuing hit singles. “Senses Working Overtime” was, by default, in rotation in the early days of MTV. "Mayor of Simpleton" was a minor hit a decade later, and I still hear it sometimes on overhead music channels. And then there's "Dear God", which didn't get a lot of radio airplay outside of college radio due to its controversial content. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDQ_WxPE4sM) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717/60 "2018-05-29T16:17:00Z")
> [@syncrolecyne](#): > > “Black” was my favorite track on Pearl Jam’s debut “Ten,” but never received airplay. I recall the band said at the time they didn’t want to give that song too much overexposure to “preserve” it for their fans. I am sure if they did a video and made it a single, it would have been fairly big. p.s. I remember hearing “Black” all the time. Maybe it was because I was in college and listened to the free-form college station a lot. In 1993, a band called the Candy Skins released a terrific album that got extensive airplay on that station. This is the only video I know of from it. Enjoy! (ETA: The song, not the video.) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/JVoRzT9gpa0/maxresdefault.jpg "The Candy Skins - Wembley") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVoRzT9gpa0) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-that-deserved-to-be-hits-but-werent/814717.md?page=4)