# Relatively well-known songs you were absolutely gobsmacked to discover so recently **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [April 14, 2021, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942 "2021-04-14T03:03:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/1 "2021-04-14T03:03:32Z")
“Recently” would be kinda relative - about a year ago I heard this tune on the radio, and when I was informed it was McCartney’s “Another Day”, I was like - buh? I thought I had the whole post-Beatles catalogue thing down, but lo and behold…absolutely positive I’d never heard it before. I even knew about Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?”, but not its lyrics well enough to spot the (heh, I’ll bet cynical!) lyric referencing Paul’s song. I even grew up with _Ram_ - the only Wings album my family ever owned - and the tune was evidently recorded at the same time as that album, but was released as a separate single. I checked wiki and it says it got to no. 5 in the US. Confounding. 🤦‍♂️ ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/2 "2021-04-14T03:35:32Z")
The Queen song _Don’t Stop Me Now_, which is included on the _Best Of_ album - but only in some markets. Not, it turns out, in mine (NZ/Aus). So when I first heard it, in _Shaun Of The Dead_, and subsequently then hearing that to many people it’s a classic that everyone knows, I was mystified for quite a while as I had not ever heard of it at all. ---
**Author:** ![DeathPool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e95f7d/32.png) [@DeathPool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeathPool)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/3 "2021-04-14T04:08:33Z")
I only recently discovered true colors by Cyndi Lauper it was before my time in the 80’s but I guess they’ve been playing it on the radio a lot because Justin Timberlake had a cover version. Not my usual cup of tea but I actually like it. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/4 "2021-04-14T04:32:30Z")
(Not me, because I was THERE, back in the day,) but the Pet Shop Boys ‘Opportunities’ in that car commercial - some people think it was written FOR the commercial. No, 30-some years ago, it was a great dance song. I think it’s a bit odd of a choice for the gentleman driving… ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/5 "2021-04-14T08:20:42Z")
I still haven’t discovered all the well-known songs from the past XX years. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/6 "2021-04-14T11:31:12Z")
Another Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen. And I had the Live Killers album that included the song. But I guess it never made an impression. Also, I recently discovered Without Your Love by Roger Daltrey which was a top 20 song. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/7 "2021-04-14T11:47:07Z")
I didn’t discover Johnny Cash’s cover of **Hurt** until earlier this year. It blew me away. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/8AHCfZTRGiI/maxresdefault.jpg "Johnny Cash - Hurt") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHCfZTRGiI) ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/8 "2021-04-14T14:36:39Z")
I hadn’t heard Radiohead’s _Creep_ until some time in the last five years, and then only because it came up on my Spotify stream. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Sponge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dark_sponge/32/121_2.png) [@Dark\_Sponge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Sponge)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/9 "2021-04-14T14:47:13Z")
Psycho Killer by Talking Heads is a masterpiece. I first heard it a couple years ago after “My friend Jeffery Dalmer” came out. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/10 "2021-04-14T15:26:13Z")
Neil Young’s “Like A Hurricane”. It’s the final track on Jason Isbell’s “Live From Alabama” album, and the more I listened to it, the more it sounded to me like something Neil Young could have written. Then I checked the songwriting credit in the liner notes. 🤦🏻‍♂️ Around the same time, there was a thread here about songs played on a pipe organ, and someone posted a video of Neil playing “Like A Hurricane”. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/11 "2021-04-14T16:26:11Z")
Same thing for me. I mean, I was very aware of Queen before that- “Another One Bites the Dust” was one of the top 40 songs when I got my first radio as a boy, and I’d seen _Wayne’s World_ and heard “Bohemian Rhapsody”, as well as a lot of other songs like “Killer Queen”, “Somebody to Love”, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, etc… that are on the rock stations. I had also watched _Highlander_ and had a college roommate who had “A Kind of Magic” and played it all the time. I had a different roommate in college who had the “Classic Queen” album and played it all the time (which doesn’t have “Don’t Stop Me Now” included). I even loved _Flash Gordon_ as a kid, including the soundtrack. Somehow, I managed to have “Don’t Stop Me Now” fail to register until I saw _Bohemian Rhapsody_, which is totally weird because I had seen _Shaun of the Dead_ already as well. All I can figure is that it somehow skated just outside of my awareness, having been a radio hit a few years before I got my first radio, and managing not to make it into any movie soundtracks or anything like that until _Shaun of the Dead_, and didn’t manage to otherwise get any radio play or anything like that. It’s like it fell into a black hole, and then I got wind of it with _SotD_, and finally was fully aware of it in _Bohemian Rhapsody_. Very strange stuff, as pretty much every other Queen hit was well known to me by that time. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2021, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/12 "2021-04-14T16:53:18Z")
Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” didn’t break big in the U.S. (#86 on Hot 100) or New Zealand (didn’t chart), but was a Top 10 hit in the U.K and Ireland. The song was also not included on the North American 1981 version of Queen’s _Greatest Hits_, but was included on the 1992 re-release. The U.K. versions of _Greatest Hits_ have always included “Don’t Stop Me Now”. How familiar one is with that song might track closely to (a) where you lived when the single was released and (b) which version of the _Greatest Hits_ album you’re familiar with. There have been many Queen compilation albums since the 1992 re-release mentioned above, and the newer compilations typically do include “Don’t Stop Me Now”. For many casual Queen fans in North America, Australia, and New Zealand … older fans might well be less hip to a track like “Don’t Stop Me Now” than younger fans who’ve heard the newer compilations. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/13 "2021-04-14T18:06:01Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > How familiar one is with that song might track closely to (a) where you lived when the single was released Indeed; “well-known” can depend on where one lives. > [@Songs that hit #1 in some areas, and sank without a trace in others](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-hit-1-in-some-areas-and-sank-without-a-trace-in-others/851673): > > These threads about #1 songs made me think of this, and in particular of Wings’ “Mull of Kintyre”, which in the late 1970s was a monster hit pretty much everywhere in the world that kept a chart, except the United States, where it seemed nobody heard it. When I finally did hear it, I knew why: It just wasn’t American. That’s all. Anyone else have anything similar? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/14 "2021-04-14T19:03:14Z")
Somehow, I completely missed hearing Billy Joel’s _Scenes from an Italian Restaurant_ until several years ago. After I first heard it I had to replay it multiple times. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/15 "2021-04-14T19:24:13Z")
Pretty sure the first time I heard “ **Don’t Stop Me Now** ” was a few years ago in a television advertisement. McCartney’s “ **Single Pigeon** ,” from his 1973 Red Rose Speedway. First heard it in a YouTube documentary. Great tune. A couple of friends hadn’t heard it, either. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/blG-1kzxY9o/maxresdefault.jpg "Single Pigeon (2018 Remaster)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blG-1kzxY9o) Also, “ **Little Green Bag** ” from the Tarantino film. I thought it sounded familiar, but no. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/16 "2021-04-14T20:38:49Z")
About 5 years ago, my SO was singing Black Betty by Ram Jam. That was my first exposure to that song and I was alive in the 70s. Everyone else I know, including my sister was shocked I had never heard it before. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/17 "2021-04-15T00:36:26Z")
I don’t think I ever heard, or even heard about, The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset” until about five years ago. I discovered it as I perused _Rolling Stone_’s list of the 500 best songs ever. It was #42 on that list, and I think the only one in the top 100 I was completely unfamiliar with. It immediately became one of my favorites. [Waterloo Sunset](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_MqfF0WBsU) ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/18 "2021-04-15T00:54:14Z")
You missed out then. I just heard Ringo Starr’s it don’t come easy last year. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/bvEexTomE1I/maxresdefault.jpg "Ringo Starr - It Don't Come Easy (Official Video) [HD]") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvEexTomE1I) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/19 "2021-04-15T01:04:16Z")
I’ve only discovered David Bowie’s early catalog in the last decade. I like it better than any of his post-Spiders stuff. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/RqZ-e5z33Eo/maxresdefault.jpg "David Bowie - Cant Help Thinking About Me 1966 Mega Rare 7" Single £600") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqZ-e5z33Eo) ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942/20 "2021-04-15T03:17:55Z")
I am an American in my mid 40s and I don’t remember ever hearing the song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” until last winter’s kerfuffle about the song condoning rape. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relatively-well-known-songs-you-were-absolutely-gobsmacked-to-discover-so-recently/939942.md?page=2)