I’ve heard Lawyers Guns and Money more often than Werewolves, but I never hear my favorite The Envoy.
Traffic is badly represented, but the only song of theirs you ever hear on the radio “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” is actually one of their best.
The Animals are only represented by “The House of the Rising Sun,” which is OK, but not their best.
But that’s a common issue with classic rock: other than the Beatles and maybe the Rolling Stones, there is a very small number of songs for any group, and almost never any album cuts.
Pearl Jam had a lot of great hits, so why do I keep hearing “Evenflow”?
Ditto Alice in Chains and “Rooster”.
Zappa’s “Valley Girl.”
The Canadian group Trooper had a minor hit in the US with the song Raise a Little Hell It charted 59 on the Billboard 100, probably the only song Americans are familiar with. It is a bit of novelty song given the “profane” lyrics.
But they had some other songs in the mid to late 1970s like Cold. Cold, Toronto ; Round, Round We Go and my favorite (it’s Been a) Long Time.
I am — coincidentally —right this very moment digitizing my ancient vinyl copy of Johnny Paycheck’s country music album “Someone To Give My Love To”.
You probably aren’t familiar with the eponymous track, nor “Your Love is the Key to it All”, “Love is a Good Thing”, “She’s All I Live For”, “The Rain Never Falls in Denver”… I bet the only thing you’ve heard him do is “Take This Job and Shove It”, right?
I love Dire Straits, and I do like “Walk of Life,” but it gets way more airplay than it deserves. They have so many better songs; Money for Nothing, Sultans of Swing, and Tunnel of Love come to mind.
WTF is wrong with you? “Toy in the Attic” album anyone? “Rocks”? “Get Your Wings?” Come the fuck on.
Wow, you guys still listen to the radio for music?
I can’t imagine a bigger waste of time. My car has a 6 CD changer so I can listen to my favorite songs at any time. At home, I have custom playlists. I have the radio off about 95% of the time. Actually, I don’t even listen to music anymore. If I do, it’s the music video, not only the song.
I think the last time I actually tried to listen to the radio was maybe 1998 or before Napster. I used to listen to music stations to hear what the kids were listening to and to keep my music tastes up to date.
Around that time, maybe the only one I would nominate for this thread would be David Bowie’s sellout record…the one he made just to pay the bills. I think Dancing in the Sheets was on it.
Gary Numan’s “Cars”. He did a lot of neat stuff in the late 70s and early 80’s, but all you heard on the radio was “Cars”.
“Owner of a Lonely Heart” was a good call. Even after they stopped making progressive albums, that’s one of their weakest singles. “Shoot High, Aim Low” is much cooler.
I occasionally goto the grocery store or a restaurant or other public place that has the radio on. That’s about it. That’s enough to know what the kids listen to these days.
That, and the MTV, which still periodically plays music when Snookie can’t post bail, and Xzibit needs more time to finish pimpin’ an '81 Yugo.
John Lennon’s only #1 hit in his lifetime was “Whatever Gets You Through The Night”.
Chuck Berry’s only #1 hit is “My Ding-a-Ling”.
“Rock the Casbah” by The Clash. I think that in terms of records sold it was their biggest hit, but it (and, for that matter, the whole of “Combat Rock”) is artistically far below their earlier work.
Yup, it’s catchy, bouncy, happy, no “deeeeeep thoughts” required.
No Rain by Blind Melon.
Not that it’s necessarily a bad song, it was just WAY overplayed and I don’t think many people realize what a phenomenal (if way too short lived) band they were. They show up on “One Hit Wonders” shows and it just kills me. I prefer almost every other song of theirs to No Rain.
So you only listen to music you already own, that’s clear. How do you find new music to like? And in fact you say you don’t even listen to music, so why are you in this thread?
I feel the same, but I think this is an example of why an artist’s most ambitious work might not be suitable for airplay. “No Quarter” is a late-night song if it’s a radio song at all. “The Ocean” is not complete if you don’t get to hear We’ve done four already but now we’re steady… at the beginning, and perhaps the DJs won’t or can’t jack the sound up and back down again. Radio songs have to grab the listener’s attention and hold it, but without distracting them too much. And many fine songs require more concentration than “D’yer Maker” or “Owner of a Lonely Heart” or “Werewolves”.
You still listen to CDs?
The first song that popped into my head was “Time In a Bottle” by Jim Croce. “Operator”, “Big Bad Leroy Brown” and “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim”, get some airplay, but they don’t bother me.
Gary Wright had hits with “Dream Weaver” and “Love is Alive”. I prefer Love is Alive, but I hear it maybe once for every hundred Dream Weavers.