Outstanding! I was moved to listen to the whole album. Great voice and arrangements.
I see online that Peter Asher produced her debut album, so it’s not like she went undiscovered!
Right around when I was graduating from college, a friend put this song on a mixtape for me: Stockholm by New Fast Automatic Daffodils.
Nobody else I’ve ever met has heard of them. I’ve never heard this played on the radio or even heard another song by them. Nevertheless, it’s a great song and I absolutely love it to this day.
Elton John’s drummer had two hits: a remake of A Little Bit of Soap and —
ABBA’s Anna-frid (as Frida) had this hit and if you can’t guess who produced and played drums, turn in your Monkees membership card and never darken our jukebox again.
My white whale of an earworm for decades was “White Mice” by the Mo-Dettes. I couldn’t recall the title or the band but hummed it for dozens of people, including musicians, for years with no luck. It was only a couple years ago this video showed up in a YouTube mix based on my preferences that I was able to identify it. Maybe it’s obscure, or more likely I just can’t hum very well.
Of the ones mentioned so far:
I probably still have the 45 of “Like a Sunday in Salem.” Two others by Gene Cotton (still living and will be 82 at the end of the month) that are also forgotten: “Me and the Elephants” and a duet with Kim Carnes “You’re a Part of Me.”
I tried to get a copy of “A Fine, Fine Day” several years later, but it was not to be found. I had an outstanding request at the “Wax Museum” in Charlotte that if a copy came across, I wanted it. Ended up getting it on the album at some point.
I have a copy of “Shaddupa You Face” somewhere. Similarly another novelty record from around that time “Marty Feldman Eyes” by comedian Bruce Baum.
I remember “Singin’ in the Kitchen” pretty well, as my mother listed to Country Music radio, and that was a big hit at the time.
I had “Please Come to Boston” on a K-Tel album. I didn’t realize at the time that K-Tel snipped intros, outros, and entire sections of songs, which they did in this case, too.
I remember “Calling Occupants” from AT40, the only place I ever heard it.
Some of my personal contributions:
“Storybook Children” by Bette Midler.
“Another Star” and “As” by Stevie Wonder.
“Saturday Night” by Herman Brood and His Wild Romance (Lyrics are mostly incomprehensible to my ears)
“Comin’ After Jinny,” another Shel Silverstein song, this one by Tex Ritter. A “High Noon” sort of story song with a twist ending.
And. . . if you watched any of the Apollo Mission coverage, this commercial aired frequently, Bringin’ Home the Oil.. At the time I thought they were saying “Bancy Bay.”
Pass the blood to me, Bud.
I know of that one because it was quoted in Stephen King’s book Christine. I only actually heard it once.
I quite like this. But I can’t imagine trying to hum it!
“Can’t Stop” by After 7 was a big hit in 1990. I heard it again on the radio a couple years ago. Afterwards, I started singing it and asking who else remembered it. I don’t remember exactly how many people I had to ask, but it took me a long time to find anybody else who remembered the song.
But did you know that the flip side was “13 Women (and Only One Man In Town)”? We actually owned that 45.
Hey, Daddy-o, make that Type O.
Played on Dr. Demento a lot.
It was in English, if that matters.
I remember Udo’s version of “Merci, Cheri.” I’ll have to check what other big hits he had in 1969.
I don’t have a specific song to contribute to this thread, but a few years ago I heard a podcast about this phenomenon. The subject of the podcast was trying to track down a song he remembered from his teen years, but no one else seemed to remember.
Apparently the reason was that back in the 1990s and early 2000s, record companies would sometimes test market a new song by getting it radio airplay in just a few markets. If the song got a positive response they’d expand its release, but if it didn’t it’d just fizzle out. So if you lived in one of those cities you would hear this song on the radio all the time, but if you went anywhere else no one would have heard of it.
How about “Detour (There’s A Muddy Road Ahead”? My mother and sister used to sing that on our excursions on the roads in Juneau.
I have that on a scratchy old LP that I found in a used record store back in the 80s. So you’re not the only one.
I remember this one from the '60s, but I hadn’t heard it in years. Then it was used at the end of Delivering Milo with Bridget Fonda, and it took me a while to realize it was a different (softer) version of the same piece.
He rarely sang in English, but yes, he did on “Matilda”. And “Merci, Cherie” was an original, he wrote it himself and won the 1966 ESC for Austria with it. Though he had his biggest hits, at least in Germany, in the 70s.