# Rediscovering obscure old songs from your youth
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** music
**Created:** [November 10, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234 "2015-11-10T23:14:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 8
### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2023, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/142 "2023-04-10T22:35:26Z")
On a related note, when I was in college in the first time in the early 1980s, I went to a screening of a short-form documentary called “Men’s Lives” that was made in 1974. I saw many references to it over the years but was never able to find it anywhere, on any format, until last night. We’ve changed a lot in 50 years, and we haven’t changed either. 43 minutes in length; it appears to have been a film-school project that was mostly, if not entirely, filmed in Ohio.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgnUoU-tTCE)
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2023, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/143 "2023-04-11T14:35:51Z")
I know [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7X43Cfowz4&ab_channel=TheLimePopsicle) got played on Dr. Demento, but my Mom was playing it around the house much earlier.
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### Author:  [@sb1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sb1953)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2023, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/144 "2023-04-18T17:10:26Z")
This may not have been the greatest song ever but it was the first song I heard when I bought a car that had an FM-stereo radio. 10CC **“I’m Not in Love”** That breathy background singing had me hooked . If it was playing when I arrived,… I would just sit in my car and listen until it was over. The music would go from one side of the car to the other, then back -to-front! Amazing through the stereo
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2023, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/145 "2023-04-18T17:47:26Z")
Great song! [There are several, “The Making of…” videos of that tune](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=making+of+i%27m+not+in+love) and they’re just fascinating. It’s said Billy Joel nicked the back-up vocal technique for, “Just The Way You Are.”
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### Author:  [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2023, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/146 "2023-04-18T18:17:10Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#):
>
> Hadn’t heard or even thought of this wonderful tune, which was a big hit in Canada but never made it past moderate rotation on MTV in the States.
I used to run into Lorraine Segato once in a while as she rented at the video store at which I worked. Very nice lady. I really liked that Parachute Club sing, and the original video is such a crazily evocative time capsule of early-80s Toronto. I think you can see my office building in the background of a few shots.
Cancon hits of yesteryear could fill this thread. There were plenty of acts that were played on the radio or MuchMusic or (showing my age) _Samantha Taylor’s Video Hits_ simply because they were made north of the 49th, but have since largely vanished. There’s a song called “He’s The Man Who Would Be King” that I loved but I don’t remember who performed it and I haven’t heard it since 1988 or so. Sometimes one of those few-hit-wonder bands has an oddly long life: National Velvet only released a few albums to declining sales, but “Flesh Under Skin” and “68 Hours” from their first record still slay at the clubs here.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0CZvhutBPE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0CZvhutBPE)
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2023, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/147 "2023-04-18T19:11:36Z")
I remember hearing a radio spot from the 1970s where a guy is asking a little girl(?) if she knows what certain words mean, like “prejudice.”
50 years later, I’m listening to Casey Kasem’s “American Top 40” on Sirius, and out of nowhere, I hear that same exchange. Turns out it wasn’t a radio spot at all, but a [song by a DJ named Tom Clay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEyFxPD8KBc), which would peak at #8 on the Hot 100 in 1971.
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2024, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/148 "2024-12-03T04:37:40Z")
Was the song “The Man Who Would Be King” related to this 1975 movie?
[The Man Who Would Be King (film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Would_Be_King_(film)#:~:text=This%20song%20is%20heard%20at,and%20the%20London%20Symphony%20Orchestra).
I actually revived this thread because I had an earworm a few days ago, and eventually figured out it was this Deep Track, which really should have been a big late 1970s hit. It’s a remake of a 1970 single by Vanity Fare (“Hitchin’ A Ride”) that did not chart.
> **[Shaun Cassidy ; Carolina's Comin' Home](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9wpHv2qspM%2F)**
>
> Carolina's Coming Home
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### Author:  [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2024, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/149 "2024-12-03T11:15:05Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#):
>
> Was the song “The Man Who Would Be King” related to this 1975 movie?
I assume so. There are plenty of songs by that title, including one by Iron Maiden, apparently, but I still can’t find the 80s one.
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2024, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/150 "2024-12-04T23:35:47Z")
Also, are you sure that’s the title? Many songs can be hard to identify because the title, and even the artist, is not what or who most people think it is.
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### Author:  [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/151 "2024-12-05T14:38:07Z")
I remember the lyrics to the chorus, and googling that comes up empty as well. It’s like a bunch of Canadian and/or undergroud music from the eighties (before "alternative was codified), it’s gone into a cultural black hole, it seems.
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### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/152 "2024-12-05T16:36:25Z")
When I was 6 to 7 years old (1974 - 1975), my mother would sunbathe on the back porch while listening to a country station on her AM radio. I remember the (non-obscure) song _Rhinestone Cowboy_ by Glen Campbell being played all the time. By my favorite was a now-obscure song called [Singin’ in the Kitchen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM8hmwp2tWM) by Bobby Bare. (As a side note, Bobby Bare is still alive, at 89 years old.)
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/153 "2024-12-05T16:47:42Z")
I think I posted this earlier but the site was taken down:
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cn_woPvjQI)
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### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/154 "2024-12-05T16:59:03Z")
I Think I Love You- Partridge Family
Dizzy-Tommy James
Mama Told Me Not to Come-?
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/155 "2024-12-05T17:09:49Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#):
>
> Mama Told Me Not to Come-?
Three Dog Night (written by Randy Newman)
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2025, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/156 "2025-01-19T05:55:06Z")
Also from my late 1970s tween years: “Time Bomb” by the German-British band Lake. They never really made it in the States, but charted in other countries.
> **[Time Bomb : Lake](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4kv46ZF6bI%2F)**
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2025, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/157 "2025-01-19T14:55:24Z")
This was the first 45 I ever bought. When I discovered the album version is almost twice as long, I gave it to someone else.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92H_wvHHtIY)
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2025, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/158 "2025-01-19T15:12:57Z")
I have that Lake album on vinyl (now ripped to mp3). Great album, too bad the band never got much traction. The AOR station I listened to back in my teens used to play “Between The Lines” quite a bit.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2025, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/159 "2025-01-19T15:37:17Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#):
>
> By my favorite was a now-obscure song called [Singin’ in the Kitchen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM8hmwp2tWM) by Bobby Bare.
When I was a kid (40ish years ago), there was a Sunday morning request program on the local country station. I would hear this song every dang week (alongside the awful teddy bear duo: “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” and “Teddy Bear” by Red Sovine).
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### Author:  [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2025, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/160 "2025-01-19T15:40:28Z")
Which came first, the song or the streakers
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/XtzoUu7w-YM/hqdefault.jpg "Ray Stevens - "The Streak" (Music Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtzoUu7w-YM)
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2025, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/161 "2025-01-19T20:46:40Z")
Had no idea there was a video for that. Thanks for sharing. Boogity, boogity.
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