Bruce Hornsby and the Range had lots of hit songs, but this one wasn’t…and it damn well should have been: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C555rExz4ds
And it only reached #21 on the Billboard, but it still my favorite Eagles song:
And this one
In response to the post above about Rose Royce. Haven’t figured out how to “reply with quote.”
Don’t Follow - Alice in Chains, Jar of Flies album.
Take Me Down to the Infirmary - Cracker, Kerosene Hat album
Spoon - Dave Matthews Band, Before These Crowded Streets album
Love “Take Me Down to the Infirmary!”
I’ll nominate “Open the Door, Homer” by Bob Dylan. It’s on “The Basement Tapes,” but there’s an amazing cover by Thunderclap Newman on their criminally under appreciated album “Hollywood Dream.”
My Melancholy Blues - Queen
Killers, by Motörhead, is a great rocker that would make a good unapologetic apocalyptic anthem for a group of killers.
1916 , also from them, is the song that happens after the killers get there, and the bravado leaves. A very un-Motörhead sounding song.
“The Gold it’s in the …” by Pink Floyd on Obscured by Clouds, which has a few other criminally neglected songs.
The smashing pumpkins had a lot of good songs that never became hits.
By Starlight, for martha, luna, soma, etc
Patti Smith’s “Ain’t It Strange.” It is a strange little song, but somehow emotionally compelling. It’s the song she was performing when she almost accidentally killed herself; she put herself into a trance with the music and twirled. She twirled right off the edge of the stage. Next stop intensive care. That fact doesn’t help me like the song any better, but it is genuine rock-‘n’-roll trivia. When the song’s weird atmosphere draws you in, you can understand how it put her into a trance.
I’ve got a few, with bonus videos:
Spoon, The Underdog The video is shot to make it look like the song was recorded live with no overdubs, with every room and corner of an Austin studio being used.
Aimee Mann, Charmer. The video has John Houseman and Laura Fuckin’ Linney.
Wilco, Outtasite (Outa Mind). Back when labels could throw money away making videos for bands that were never going to have number one hits, I imagine Jeff saying “Let’s shoot a video where we skydive while playing the song” and the A&R man saying, “Sure, why not?”
I mean, look at her performing the song in 1976. I love how passionately she throws her whole self into the music like a shamaness. In this video, her dance includes three traditional ecstasy-inducing techniques: 1) Whirling your long hair about, bending from the waist, done by women in the Persian Gulf region; Patti’s hair isn’t quite long enough for this. 2) Dropping to the floor and dancing on your back. This is the tarantella spider dance done by women of Apulia and Calabria in southern Italy. 3) Twirling like the Mevlevi Dervishes of Turkey.
Just Like That - Abba
I can second that on the Smashing Pumpkins. To Sheila and Spaceboy are personal favorites of mine.
“Prelude To Afternoon Of A Faun,” adapted from Debussy by (Eumir) Deodato for his Prelude album.
Queen’s “In the Year of '39”. What’s not to love about a song about interstellar exploration and time dilation?
“Mr. Natural” by the Bee Gees. Great song, but wasn’t a hit.
From Kansas’ Point of Know Return: The Spider | He Knew
–G!
“WHAT?!”
–Beethoven
“Man in the Wilderness” and “Lights” from Styx are my recent obsessions.
My favorite grunge/grunge-adjacent songs are where they ditch the nuance and do a completely formulaic soft-loud transition. So my favorite Pumpkins song is Silver****, my favorite Foo Fighters song is For All The Cows, and I also like the beginning to the (hit song) Starseed by Our Lady Peace.