This is a thread that lets you name songs that never got the sales/airplay/adulation you think they deserved.
So,
On Pete Townshend’s album Empty Glass, the songs “Let My Love Open The Door” and “Rough Boys” got all the airplay, but the best song is “A Little is Enough”.
On Bob Seger (and the Silver Bullet Band)'s album Stranger In Town, the songs “Old Time Rock and Roll”, “We’ve Got Tonight”, and “Still The Same” are the radio hits, but the best song is “Feel Like A Number”.
On REM’s album Automatic For The People, the songs “Man On The Moon” and “Everybody Hurts” got the airplay, and “Nightswimming” and “Find The River” are critical favorites, but the best song is “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite”.
on Pearl Jam’s “ten” album, "Jeremy " got the most play but “black” was the best song, i wouldnt even put “jeremy” in the top 4 on that album.
i also think that “estranged” is the best song off of “use your illusion” by guns n roses although “don’t cry” and “november rain” seemed to be the biggest hits
Well, the big hit off the first LP by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels (Take a Ride) was “Jenny Take a Ride”, but the song I really love from that LP is “Baby Jane (Mo-Mo Jane)”, which sounds like the Velvet Underground being silly.
Queen’s album A Night at the Opera contains the overplayed “Bohemian Rhapsody” as well as the forgettable but often-played “You’re My Best Friend”, but the track to drop the needle into and crank it to 11 is most definitely “The Prophet’s Song”.
On Guns n Roses’ Appetite for Destruction it’s always Welcome to the Jungle and, of course, Sweet Child (the song that *made *them). But I think the best song is *Rocketqueen *(and I despise the sappy Sweet Child!)
Nirvana’s **Nevermind **is of course Smells Like Teen Spirit, which I also hated! Hated the band itself for the first six months because this stupid song is all anyone ever talked about. Then In Bloom was released and I thought, hey, that’s a killer song! Plus I started hearing that the band members themselves didn’t really like Smells Like…
The Beatles’ Revolver has a lot of very famous, much played songs: “Eleanor Rigby”, “Taxman”, “Yellow Submarine”, “Got to Get You into My Life”, “Tomorrow Never Knows”.
“For No One” is a seldom heard gem that is, IMHO, superior to all of those (except, perhaps, “Eleanor Rigby”).
Oh, and Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The song “Ziggy Stardust” often gets played (presumably because people consider it the title song), but in my opinion it is close to being the weakest on the whole album. “Five Years”, “Starman” (the original hit fer crissake!), “Lady Stardust”, “Suffragette City” (OK, that does some play), and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” are all indisputably much better songs. (Personally, I think nearly all of the other tracks are superior to “Ziggy Stardust” too.)
Agreed! Also, *My Michelle* would be a close second too!
Rush’s Moving Pictures - Tom Sawyer and Limelight get alot of airplay, but *Red Barchetta *and the instrumental *YYZ *are the masterpieces on that album.
On Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms, “Money for Nothing” and “Walk of Life” get the most airplay (around here anyway), but the best songs are everything else.
I was going to mention this album but I didn’t because I think of “Starman” and “Suffragette City” as being the two songs that get the airplay, and I love both of them. I do think that “Five Years” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” are as great, and “Lady Stardust” is close.
(I could list many many non-hit songs that I love from various albums that contained hits, but in most cases I loved the hits just as much.)
You forgot “Disarm”, which was a big hit (and is a personal favorite), and “Rocket” was in heavy rotation on MTV, but the best song by far on that album was “Soma”.
Yeah, those two got plenty of radio play, too. I think the big single is “Today,” but “Disarm” probably gets played almost as often (maybe more). I actually can’t stand it. Not sure what it is about that song, but I usually skip it when I’m playing through the album.
I could see an argument for “Soma.” Not my favorite, but solid. Same with “Geek U.S.A.” Those three middle-of-the-album tracks are awesome.
It’s pretty whiny. Billy Corgan doesn’t pull off ballads very well. Still, somehow he made it work, at least for me.
That’s the case with a lot of albums. It’s always curious that one song is released when there are so many “better” songs to choose from. Then again, how many albums are there where that one song is all that’s worth listening to?
Dude. Duuuude. “Nightrain.” Far and away the best GNR song evah. But I definitely agree with you about the sappy “Sweet Child.” And “Welcome to the Jungle” is an amazing song and I’m pretty sure it burned a hole in my eight-year old brain that’s never been fixed, but I’ve just heard it so many times now that it’s lost its power.
OutKast’s Stankonia is one of my favorite albums, but “Ms Jackson” is possibly the worst song on it. I like it, but there’s just so much other amazing, original, inventive material on that album, that “Ms Jackson” feels a little plain. Plus it also suffers from “heard it too much” syndrome.