Which lesser known songs do you think are better than the well known greatest hits? Let’s consider all genres of pop music (I don’t want to get into classical music in this thread), and any solo artist or group you enjoy listening to. As far as which song is considered a “greatest hit”, I don’t want to restrict it to just the best selling single for any given artist. Let’s instead go with the standard of the greatest hits being the songs that are on the regular rotation for mainstream radio stations. In other words, which “deep cuts” do you think are better than the greatest hits?
While it’s technically one of their greatest hits, I’ve never heard Paper Sun by Traffic until a couple of years ago when it came up on my YouTube recommendations. I prefer it to the ones that got the most radio play in the preceding decades, Mr Fantasy and Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. It’s a straight ahead psychedelic song and there’s nothing wrong with that. I just don’t like Mr Fantasy for some reason. Low Spark has the makings of a classic rock epic, but never gels into one. If all of its good parts were condensed into a shorter song, it might be more equal in my mind to Paper Sun.
Arguably, the Beatles’ most ground breaking song, “Tomorrow Never Knows” has never found its way onto a compilation of their greatest hits and is largely unknown outside of the Beatles fan base.
I always thought Hey Bulldog is an under-appreciated song. Perhaps because it didn’t appear on any of the ‘canonical’ albums….
Excellent one.
I was too young to hear the Beatles the first time around but in the late 70s they still played all of their radio hits on the radio in almost hot rotation. Then, during the early 80s the “oldies” format really took off, but the late Beatles stuff wasn’t old enough to fit the format, so they only played the stuff from their first few albums along with only some of their later stuff. For some reason the stations my mom listened to were fond of “Get Back” and “Michelle” but hardly any other post-Hard Day’s Night ones.
I’m still not 100% sure I’ve heard Eleanor Rigby, Nowhere Man, Got To Get You Into My Life, Baby You’re a Rich Man, or Yellow Submarine on the radio since the 70s, when they used to be played all the time. So they feel to me like deep cuts even though they aren’t. For any other artist, I would say that they were deep cuts, but it’s the Beatles.
Tomorrow Never Knows was included in the 2023 re-issue of 1962-1966 (aka the “Red Album”)
“The Prophet’s Song”, from Queen’s A Night At The Opera album, is far superior to either “Bohemian Rhapsody” or “You’re My Best Friend”, the two better known cuts. Although honestly that entire album kicks ass from start to finish.
That’s a good one. For me, “'39” has become my favorite song from that album, and “Love of My Life” is an amazing song – it’s probably better-known among fans because of sing-along of it at concerts, but it was never a single (save for a live version, which was mostly popular in South America) and doesn’t often get airplay.
Sometimes I prefer covers to the originals. Case in point - Junior Parker’s version:
It did make it into the Yellow Submarine film, but again I prefer the 1972 version by the band Fanny:
On Paul Simon’s album The Rhythm of the Saints the big single was “The Obvious Child”, but I find “Can’t Run But” to be a much more interesting song.
Wonderful - thanks.
To the OP, where to begin? I’ll just throw out a few that come to mind:
R.E.M.: Flowers of Guatemala
Led Zeppelin: The Rover
Jethro Tull: One Brown Mouse
Rolling Stones: Moonlight Mile
Beach Boys: Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)
The Rolling Stones: Live with Me
David Bowie: Look Back in Anger
Jimi Hendrix: Who Knows
The Grateful Dead: New Speedway Boogie
For some of my favorite bands (I’ve already mentioned my Queen picks upthread):
Electric Light Orchestra: Fire on High, So Fine, Nightrider, Poker
The Moody Blues: The Voice
Yes: South Side of the Sky
For ABBA, I really like “Sorry, Cassandra.”
“Mutiny” by Greg Kihn. Quite different stylistically from his “hits” and very much a lesser-known song.
“Sing Our Own Song”, by UB40. I’m not really a fan of this group, but this song I love.
Yes’s Heart of the Sunrise is much better than Roundabout.
Back in the days of teeny-bopper, radio-oriented, singles–heavy artists, any decent rock and roll band put out stuff which was better than the hits that worked their way up the charts. The Turtles covered the Clark/McGuinn You Showed Me, a far better composition than Happy Together or Eleanor.
Me And Magdalena won’t be found on any Monkees “greatest hits” or compilation albums, but it’s arguably the most beautiful song they ever released.
Tom Bissell makes the case for “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window”: