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So, I was thinking about songs I like and what stays in the popular consciousness, gets heralded as great (see the recent "greatest single of all time" thread) and which ones that seemed great at the time don't seem to get the same attention nowadays.
There's something about artists that maintain their status and those that fade - you'll hear more early 80s U2 or Queen on the radio than, say, Adam Ant or Simple Minds, not necessarily because they're intrinsically better songs but, I contend, because the artists are still "up there" decades later.
So, and hopefully avoiding the temptation to post wilfully obscure stuff that most of us had never heard of when they were current, what great songs were hits "back in the day" but don't get the notice or credit they should years later?
Here's mine - one of my favourites and a song I honestly think is up there with the greatest of pop songs written in any era, but one that rarely if ever appears in the "greatest" lists. As a bonus there's two bands that can claim it as their 'original' (as co-written by members of both bands, who then each recorded it) so here are both:
Most things that Terry Hall got involved with are great but often forgotten.
Anything by Creedence
Ten - Pearl Jam
Insane in the Brain - cypress hill
Mr Wendall - Arrested Development
Mr Wendall - Arrested Development
Had this on a compilation back in the day. Great song. Not heard it for years. Thank you!
Dunno, I've forgotten.
Midlife Crisis by Faith No More.
Might just be me but you don't seem to hear much Fatboy slim & The chemical brothers from late 90's/early 2000's? Too many good ones to list like this one for example.
Nice idea for a thread. Fun Boy Three stuff has aged really well IMO.
Also on a 1980s tip...
There was a crap cover of this particular song, that gets played frequently on the radio, while the vastly superior original gets ignored.
This is the original:
The (shudders) Bay City Rollers had a significant hit with this particular song, while the much better original only ever got played on Radio Luxembourg, as far as I know; this is the original and better song:
One of those artists that was big the US, but didn't cross the pond so well, besides the odd track like Hazard.
Tricky thread for me to objectively post in, because until ~2000, I had to have music on in the background while at home. But since then, I rarely have the radio on at home, I think partly because I got into sim racing online. So in recent years, the only radio I hear is the one at work for ~two hours each morning.
Count Zero, you seem to have mistaken this for the "cover versions where the original was better" thread.
And the Mondays' Step On was better anyway.
😛
Midlife Crisis by Faith No More.
IIRC that one was quite a sizeable hit, but nowadays if you hear anything by them you can guarantee that if it isn't Epic it's gonna be Easy (like Sunday Morning).
A song by a band who are all but forgotten in their entirety these days, but Wikipedia tells me that The Wildhearts actually managed thirteen top 40 singles. They also managed a remarkably large number of appearances on Top of The Pops, allegedly due in part to the producer of the show being a fan.
Despite getting to No. 16 in the charts, I wonder how many non-Wildhearts fans remember this beauty?
A few kind of similar ones that might bring memories flooding back.
Was reading a thing (in the Guardian I think) this morning about Terence Trent D'Arby, although he no longer uses that name.
Quite a sad story really, never came close to replicating the massive success of hit first album, and he didn't take it well. He's seemingly convinced that industry conspired to actively sink his career to protect more established 'rivals' (Prince, Michael Jackson etc. - he was never short on self-confidence back in his heyday) and can't conceive that maybe his ambition exceeded his talent on his subsequent releases.
For me though, his finest moment hit-single wise was the equally "when did you last hear this one the radio?"..
thread/
I've been drinking.
[i]Quite a sad story really, never came close to replicating the massive success of hit first album[/i]
That's cos he was shit. And after the hype, mostly because of how pretty he was, after the appearance on The Tube, people lost interest. Sounds so badly dated. Like most of this thread really.
Mr Wendall - Arrested Development
Great tune. Though not, in my opinion, their best:
heard this on the radio the other day. Always overlooked in favour of the more obvious
One I'd completely forgotten until I saw it again a while ago on the BBC4 TOTP reruns, got to No. 21 and she / they never really troubled the charts again.
This is one of those times my tastes aren't exactly alighed with the STW collective... I think most of the above are terrible songs, best forgotten ha ha.
Hocus Pocus is one of the best songs ever. Delightfully mental and so awesome!!
P-Jay -
This is one of those times my tastes aren't exactly alighed with the STW collective... I think most of the above are terrible songs, best forgotten ha ha
Except for Hale & Pace, of course.
Didn't that Hale & Pace one have quite a lot of A-list British rockers involved - the cheesier half of Queen, Tony Iommi from Sabbath, Mike Moran all names that ring a bell? Cozy Powell possibly on drums?
EDIT: H&P's wikipedia page tells me Dave Gilmour's on it as well!
Daft title, horribly over played at the time and now mostly featured in one hit wonder lists but a beautifully understated dark/weird song:
My vote would be Suzanne Vega. Okay, it's the 90's DNA version not the original acapella, but hey.
You’re not wrong there. Saw her a couple of weeks ago, doing her first two albums right through, one after the other, including Tom’s Diner, of course, then she did the DNA version as one of the encores.
Great evening and she’s delightful live.
chakaping - Member
Count Zero, you seem to have mistaken this for the "cover versions where the original was better" thread.And the Mondays' Step On was better anyway.
No, I haven’t, and no, it isn’t, it’s trite and horribly dated. And was never good in the first place.
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Is it too late to point out that I didn't post that Hale & Pace song as a serious entry into the underrated songs thread and that I've never actually heard it ?
Always liked this at the time and can't remember the last time I heard it in the radio.
Also this was a favourite on the school bus mix tape... This is the only copy I can find in YouTube that plays ...
The best punk/NW song you may have (never) heard: