It is secretly appreciated. Many Beatles’ fans (me included) include it as one of their favorite songs.
It only took them 50 years to correct that glaring omission. There was definitely a bias toward songs that were released as singles on that collection.
Not that it’s a “lesser known song,” but the Beatles’ “Long and Winding Road” has always touched me in a way that “Let It Be” never has.
“Run Through the Jungle” by Creedence Clearwater Revival (a flip side) has much more depth to it than any of their better-known Pop hits.
“All Along the Watchtower” was the closest Jimi Hendrix ever got to a 45 rpm single “hit” in this country, but I was always moosed by the flip side, “Burning of the Midnight Lamp.”
“Flaming Star” by Elvis Presley is a great song, one of his best I think, but it got buried as the main title song from the movie of the same name, which is also one of his best, directed by Don Siegel.
I loved, loved, loved the version of Long and Winding Road from the movie “Yesterday”:
So many to choose from! But I’ll go back to the 80s for a favorite:
Cyndi Lauper’s song and music video for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” from She’s So Unusual was a huge hit. But the first track on the album, “Money Changes Everything,” was IMHO a much better song. People would buy the album and listen to the song, of course. It got a lot of appreciation, but it didn’t get much airplay and the only music video of it available in the 80s was from a “live” performance. The video was not, and is not, that great.
“Time After Time” and “She Bop” were sort of the follow-ups to “Girls….” and “Money….” has just continued to fade away.
Out of Control - U2
Off of their incredible first album
Agreed. Fanny did a nice cover but didn’t quite have the ‘bite’ of the original?
“Slip Kid” by The Who may be my favorite song of theirs.
I like a ton of Gordon Lightfoot songs a lot more than Sundown and If You Could Read My Mind.
I suppose the Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald was his “greatest hit,” but I do like that song.
Roxy Music: “My Only Love”
Steely Dan: “Time Out of Mind”
R.E.M.: "Fall on Me’
Joan Osborne’s first album, Relish, is famous for “One of Us.” I think every other song on the album is better, with “St. Teresa” and “Ladder” being outstanding.
Pearl Jam’s Vs. (second album). All the DJs thought “Daughter” was the best song but most people I knew thought it was “Glorious G”.
The Mamas & The Papas. For me their most beautiful song by far, and the only one I still listen to 55 years later: Got A Feelin’.
Aqua is best known for their novelty hit, Barbie Girl. But their best song, Turn Back Time, failed to chart on the U.S. Hot 100 chart. Also, my favorite The Who song is My Wife.
Led Zeppelin: What Is And What Should Never Be
(there are a lot of Zeppelin deep cuts that could make this list)
That made me think of a song on their follow-up album, “Once Was a Time I Thought,” basically an a cappella minute-long tongue twister sung in gorgeous harmonies. I’ve never it heard it played on any type of radio.
Billy Joel - “She’s Right On Time.” Yes, there is a great music video, but I don’t think the song charted very high, if it all. Billy has a ton of hits, and this is just as good as any of them.
My favorite Pink Floyd song is “Fearless”, and though they never were much of a singles band, this was not only not a single but also never a repertoire song they played live, and it isn’t on any compilation.
“Heart Of Gold” is the only hit single Neil Young ever had, and mind you, it’s a very fine song, but he wrote and recorded more than thousand other songs. I could possibly name a hundred of his songs that are better. I think his two greatest songs are “Powderfinger” and “Cortez The Killer”, with “Thrasher” as a third.
Most of them.
Just an aside: a friend once said (back in the '70s when the only way to re-listen to music was to buy the album): “I never buy a band’s albums until they put out a greatest hits album. That way I’m not paying for the other junk they did.”
I was going to quit being her friend, but she’s now my wife’s best friend, so that means I can’t bring up her quote just to rub her nose in it.
Although they were probably big hits outside the States “Down in the Park” “Are Friends Electric” and “Me, I Disconnect From You” by Gary Numan are miles better than “Cars.”
But, as I say, these may not count.
That reminds me: Three of my favorite Cyndi Lauper tracks from her first two albums were never released as singles at all: “Yeah Yeah” from She’s so Unusual, and “Calm Inside the Storm” and “One Track Mind” from True Colors.