So do I. Lightfoot is a fine example. Beautiful, Don Quixote, Seven Island Suite, 10 Degrees and Getting Colder,Shadows,Daylight Katy and especially Too Late for Prayin’ (which brings me to tears whenever I play it) are songs known to Lightfoot aficionados but unknown to the general public. The two you mentioned (and Carefree Highway) are fine songs, but they only scratch the surface of his talent as a songwriter.
Don McLean is best known for American Pie, but most of his output was more like Vincent, singer and solo guitar. I have many of his albums and he was an outstanding singer/songwriter. There’s nothing wrong with being known for one song, though. Most people aren’t known for any.
The Rover, yes indeed! soo much the best pure*rock song Led Zep ever did, especially Jimmy’s double track guitars and his outro’s bold sonic graffiti sequence of killer riffs.
I am a fan of Genesis in all of their forms, though their best years were the Peter Gabriel years. But let’s talk about 1986-87, when they were at the height of their success with Invisible Touch. Six of the eight songs on that album were all over the radio. You know what the two best songs on the album are? “Domino” and “The Brazillian.” The two songs that didn’t get any radio airplay.
ABBA - The Day Before You Came (released as a single, perhaps their last one, but it is so different from their other songs that it doesn’t seem to draw the same level of attention)
Cyndi Lauper - Change of Heart (also released as a single but I hadn’t heard it in decades when I stumbled on it a couple of years ago)
My favorite Monkees songs are “Papa Gene’s Blues”, “Porpoise Song” and “Goin’ Down”, none of which tend to be in their greatest hits lists. The last of those is worth listening to just to hear Mickey negotiating the insanely fast patter.
I love “Everybody Loves Me, Baby” from the same album - the honkytonk piano, the freely wandering bass, the fun OTT lyrics…it’s a great jam.
Also:
David Bowie: Wild Is The Wind, inspired by (but IMHO better than) Nina Simone’s version
Agree, Bowie has a deep collection of great songs you never hear anywhere like: Red Sails, TVC15 and Station to Station to mention just a few. The man had a great vocal range and truly had style.
I’d also like The Tubes song Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman.
Styx released the Cornerstone album. Babe became their first number 1 hit. From Wikipedia:
First Time, another power ballad also written by DeYoung, was intended to be Cornerstone’s second single. Shaw, however, expressed concern that releasing two ballads in a row would alienate the band’s hard rock fan base. He felt strongly enough that he threatened to leave the band over the proposed release.
Personally, I prefer First Time to Babe and it could be their best ballad.
And.. in the 2000’s they had a song Yes I Can, that wasn’t released. To me it is as good as their other hits.
It’s an… odd song. A bit of a mish-mash of a pop song with psychedelia?
To my ears, the chord changes in the title phrase just… don’t quite work. Like it’s a sequence of chords jammed together that don’t really have any harmonic flow.
Perhaps this could have been an intentional effect… but not one I particularly like….
For Fountains of Wayne, I would probably pick Leave the Biker which I have actually heard on the radio quite a bit, but I could also go for It Must Be Summer, and only when I’m in the mood, several of the non-Stacy’s Mom songs on Welcome Interstate Managers (if I had to narrow it down, Hackensack, Bright Future in Sales, and Little Red Light.)
People keep reminding me of songs I haven’t thought about for a while.
I doubt that Leonard Cohen has more than two songs that more people could name, although one of them is “Suzanne” and that’s a killer, but one of his few rocking numbers is “The Future” and the lyrics stun.
