I have to give a shout to two more, not incredibly obscure, but two of my favs. Is that thing loaded yet?.. 
Aereoplane - John Hartford
A Wizard/A True Star - Todd Rundgren
My contribution to this thread…
Any frickin’ song at all by Happy Rhodes.
I’ve heard of Vienna and have seen her live a few times. I even have this poster on my wall. Did you know her new album, Dreaming Through The Noise, is due out today?
Did Raffi used to sing songs for children, or am I thinking of someone else?
I love that song and that album (and all their albums). That song is so fun. Everyone in the family is giddy with excitement about meeting their brother’s new girlfriend, who comes from England, to them a very exotic place.
I love The Dukes of Stratophere!
I know those two. I saw Jorane live once. It was a very good concert.
Well, other than a whole lot of South African alternative stuff that no-one else here would have heard, some of my fave songs seem pretty unknown:
Century Flower, Shelleyan Orphan
Disturbocharger, Honolulu Mountain Daffodills
Bedrock,** Foetus**
Also, I never see any love for early Swans on the 'Dope - Raping a Slave being particularly beloved by me.
I love Vienna Teng, good choice.
The Salvidor Dali Murder Mystery by Death By Chocolate.
Unemployed in Summertime by Emiliana Torrini
A Town Called Luckey by Rilo Kiley
Helicoptor by The Borrowers
Rabbits and Bears by The Billy Nayer Show
Not only does someone list Emiliana Torrini before me but the same damn song? Wow…
Do you like it as much as I do? My favorite songs are Postmodern and How Do They Do That?
But do you have Memorial Beach and Analogue? 
If not, You have some listnen to do.
GAH! (from a-ha…I meant to say…from a-ha)
Ding! I recognize that one. Can’t hum or sing it and can’t quote you any lyrics, but I have “heard of” it. What else did those folks do? I have them confused with Ferrante and Teicher and a singing duo whose name is escaping me at the moment. Not Shields and Yarnell. Not Seals and Croft. They were regulars on the variety shows of the 60’s and were more a “pop” act than anything else. I seem to have them associated with something like “Somewhere My Love” or that sort of thing.
I have that album. I haven’t listened to it in a long time but I remember it being very beautiful. I’ll have to dig it out along with the others I have by the group, Helleborine and Humroot.
You reminded me to check,and there are a couple of Shelleyan Orphan MySpace pages. This one has 4 songs and 4 videos (I’ve never seen a video!) and this one only has one song, “Burst” from Humroot. It’s a fan site, wheras the other one looks to be somewhat official, but I don’t know.
Oh, there’s also Lifelines (also a-ha)…I tried emailing you but it bounced, drop me a note at wildmail aaaaaaat millertwinracing doht com
I know this one, it’s on Gorilla, my pick from that album would be either The Intro and the Outro or Death Cab for Cutie – tho’ tha latter probably doesn’t qualify as obscure enough since some guys called “band name!” and called their group after it.
My obscure favourite would be something off one of the first three LPs by Doll by Doll, Butcher Boy, Palace of Love or Bright Green Field. I think of this band as another Big Star/Soft Boys type greatest never-successful/ignored-in-their-own-time band. Unfortunately you cannot get their albums on CD so there’s no way for people to discover them.
Another: (I want to be an) Anglepoise Lamp by The Soft Boys. I don’t even have a copy of the record (it was a single) IIRC there’s a live version on one of the releases (the CD?) of Can of Bees. To go utterly obscure a song I really like by them is The Lonsome Death of Ian Penman which I only have on a bootleg tape, they never released it.
:smack:, annoyed grunt.
Google “doll by doll” +download brings back a bunch of places where you can get two of the songs I listed, and a few others. Anyone care to give them a listen?
See this site for F&S. The only person they could reasonable be confused with is Tom Lehrer (they were essentially the British version – though quite good in their own right).
Thanks for the link. I had already done a Yahoo! search on their names to be sure they weren’t the ones I had been thinking of. I eventually located Sandler and Young as the ones I couldn’t recall. It’s peculiar that when I was trying to place where I had heard Madeira M’Dear (if not the Flanders and Swan version) Tom Lehrer’s records flashed across my mind. I worked in a record shop when I was in my just-out-of-college days and pretty well heard most of the comedy records of that period. I’m not sure I saw F&S among them, and maybe my memory of them is from TV, but the song is definitely from that part of my life.
“Fall On Tears” by Love Spit Love.
Oh, we’re going obscure now? Okay. I own TWO Dexy’s Midnight Runner’s albums. Betcha didn’t know there even -were- two, did ya?
And from the quality, they should’ve stopped at one. But still…!
Do you have Billy Murray singing “Fido Is a Hot Dog Now?”
It’s available on the Rhino box set No Thanks!: The 70s Punk Rebellion and also The Soft Boys 1976-1981 compilation put out by Ryko (out of print, but you can still find it around).