More Great Lost Singles, Part 987

Ah, why not blog about some more Great Lost Singles while I'm waiting 4 something else worth writing-about 2 smack me upside the head?
At my old website (http://www.tadsweirdassmusicandbooks.co.cc/) -- which still works, at least as of 2 am this morning -- I've posted a long series of reviews of great lost singles from the '60s & '70s, songs that got played a few times on the radio & then were apparently 4got10. But thanx 2 recent researches at sites like the Airheads' Radio Survey Archive (http://las-solanas.com/arsa/stations) & The Year in Music 1963-1988 (http://theyearinmusic.wordpress.com/), what I've discovered is that summa those Great Lost Singles I loved actually got played A LOT in a LOTTA diffrent places. & THEN they got 4got10.
Problem is, after writing almost a dozen installments of Great Lost Singles, I'm not sure I have NEthing 2 suprising left....
* Blue Oyster Cult: "Astronomy" (1988). From their album IMAGINOS. This is WAY better, much more dramatic & better produced than BOC's original version released on their 3rd album SECRET TREATIES. The original version bores me; it's not heavy enuf. This is more like the best, creepiest, most dramatic, most in10se Stephen King horror novel ever put on vinyl. All their mysterioso atmosphere & slick gloomy creepiness peaks here. I'm tempted 2 call it their best ever. Great guitars, great vocals, great drama. Jeez, words fail me....
* Rickie Lee Jones: "We Belong Together" ('81). The lead track on her PIRATES album, a gorgeous, hushed, dramatic, almost whispered vocal coupled w/ Jones' beautiful piano playing. Jones Cms 2 mumble a tragic story of love, violence, Btrayal & tragedy on those ugly Jersey streets. & I don't even care. Crashingly dramatic, great stuff. & her "On Saturday Afternoons in 1963" on her 1st album is pretty amazing 2, tho I couldn't tell U what it's about other than the passage of time, which is a Heavy Enuf subject 4 NE pop song....
* Graham Nash & David Crosby: "Immigration Man" (#36/'72) -- The best mix of Nash & Crosby's harmonies outsida CSN&Y. The lyrics R apparently a Dscription of Nash's frustrations & struggles 2 get in2 the US, but they're funny, & the song is a little more in10se than summa CSN&Y's stuff. (Don't get me wrong, I LIKE a lotta their stuff). The instrumentation has a lot more in10sity 2, especially the guitars. But Nash could make the most mundane subjects sound in10se & life-changing -- ever hear his "Helicopter Song"? GREAT!
* Donovan: "Season of the Witch," +"Wear Your Love Like Heaven" (#23, '67) -- Yeah, & I like "Atlantis" 2. OK, so I'm a sucker 4 this guy. "Love Like Heaven" is almost unbearably sweet, & was actually turned in2 a cosmetics commercial themesong a coupla decades back. "Season of the Witch" is a perfect Halloween song, in10se & brooding but also silly & self-mocking. Donovan has a lotta fun w/ it, especially on lines like "Beatniks are out to make it rich." & his backing musicians -- the best in Britain at the time, betcha Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones R in there -- really wail away at it. A classic. Crank it up!
* Jimmy Buffett: "Chanson Pour Le Petite Enfants" ('79) -- The best, prettiest song on his VOLCANO album. Just a beautiful fantasy lullabye 4 very young kids, w/ great singalong choruses & an Nding that aspires 2 pure gorgeousness. If U think Buffett's only about cool drinks under the palms of Key West, U needta hear this....
* Golden Earring: "Snot Love in Spain" ('79) -- OK, mayB this wasn't a single, but it sure as hell SHOULDA bn. From the guys who brot U the hits "Radar Love" & "Twilight Zone," just a nice little paranoid song about getting drunk w/ the natives & other tourists on the coast of Spain, & about how quickly 1 comment can turn the Good Times in2 Something Ugly. Drunken layabout Barry Hay's vocals R hysterical, & the choruses have the nicest little vocal harmonies, + great sleazy harmonica! The whole thing is an amazing travelogue that'd probly make a great movie. It's also hilarious.
* Beach Boys: "Kiss Me Baby" ('65), "Here Today" ('66), "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" ('65), "Let Him Run Wild" ('65) -- B-side mania Bgins here. The BB's threw away a lotta great stuff on B-sides. "Kiss Me Baby" was the B-side of "Help Me Rhonda" & is 1 of the most dreamy & anguished breakup songs ever -- it's freaking GORGEOUS (a word I use WAY 2 much). "Here Today" was the B-side of the hit "Darlin'," but originally appeared in the middle of Side 2 of PET SOUNDS, where it sorta anchored that side in something like Normality. The lyrics R sorta cliched (a little wordplay on "Here today, gone tomorrow"), but it's bright & direct & Xcellent NEway. "There's No Other" was the B-side of the failed single "The Little Girl I Once Knew" (sorta a preview of PET SOUNDS, very pleasant, but w/ 2 many stops & starts & 2 much dead air 4 '65 radio); "There's No Other" was a remake of an old Phil Spector/Ronettes #, included on BEACH BOYS PARTY!, where the Boys sang it absolutely straight -- obviously cos they realized how great it is. "Let Him Run Wild" was the B-side 2 "California Girls," & something about the song apparently bugs Brian Wilson -- he reportedly wouldn't let it B included on the Boys' best-of box set. 2 bad, cos it's great, w/ as-usual great vocals & marvelous falsetto vocal flights by Brian. How could they just throw away stuff like this?
* Byrds: "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" ('65) -- The B-side of their lame version of Bob Dylan's equally-lame "All I Really Want to Do." This is infinitely better -- great guitars (of course), marvelous group vocals, & Gene Clark's clever, elusive lyric that refuses 2 spell-out just what the other 1/2 of this relationship did wrong....
* Joe Cocker: "Feelin' Alright" (#33, '72) -- This is sorta an album-rock classic, but we otta hear it more often, it still sounds great. It's also about the only Cocker song I can actually STAND. Part of it I'm sure is Bcos of the GREAT piano that rolls around all thru it, which I assume was played by Leon Russell or Chris Stainton or Nicky Hopkins, somebody like that. Cocker's vocal is pretty good 2 -- not 2 much sweaty drama. Dave Mason wrote the song. It shoulda bn a bigger hit.
* Bob Seger -- "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" ('77), "Mainstreet" (#24, '77), "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" (#17, '69), "Feel Like a Number" ('78). This guy doesn't get enuf Respect. These R all album-rock classics, but it's AMAZING how many great songs Seger's put out w/o having MORE huge hits. "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" & "Feel Like a Number" didn't even make the Top 40. Hard 2 understand. Especially since the 1st of these means more & more 2 me as the yrs fly by.... "Hollywood Nights," "Even Now" & "Roll Me Away" still sound great 2....
* Tom Petty: "Even the Losers" ('79) -- 4 me, this is the 1 time Petty put it all 2gether. This sounds like THE song he was MEANT 2 sing. It's not whiny, it's ABOUT something, & it paints a perfect picture of a time & place he misses. + there's a great hook-chorus. But he's never followed it up. The rest of his career has bn pleasant-but-whiny & Not That Impressive.
* Genesis: "You Might Recall...." ('82) -- From the studio side of their album THREE SIDES LIVE. This, "Paperlate" & Phil Collins' ferocious vocals on the live version of "In the Cage" were about the only reasons 2 buy the album. "You Might Recall" is perfect music 4 a summer's evening, w/ the tune "bubbling away" (in the words of an Indianapolis DJ) as the sun slowly disappears in2 dusk. Very nice brokenhearted love song -- the verses R vivid, & the long choruses really build-up 2 the bubbly instrumental breaks. Probly about the last really good thing they did....
* The Rascals: "See" (#27, '69) -- This is an absolute blowout, Felix Cavaliere & the guys just screamin & poundin away, & there's a great organ fadeout & return at the Nd. But these guys were already going outta style (why?) & turning towards jazz (again, why?). 2 yrs earlier it probly woulda bn a bigger hit.
* Tracey Chapman: "Talkin' Bout a Revolution" ('88) -- THIS wasn't a hit? WAY better than the Grammy-winning "Fast Car," the lead track on her 1st album, EZ 2 get caught-up in & no problem 2 relate-2, played 2 death by radio & it wasn't a hit? OK, so it sounds a little 2 much like Joan Armatrading, so...?
* Bee Gees: "Spirits (Having Flown)" ('79), +"First of May" (#37, '69) -- "Spirits" is from the album of the same name, & tho "Tragedy" & "Love You Inside Out" were the big hits off that album, "Spirits" got lotsa airplay on my fave radio station, KFXD-AM 580. "Spirits" is sorta a cross Btween the BGs' falsetto-voiced disco hits & a sorta lilting Caribbean waltz, w/ dramatic choruses added. & it's marvelous, probly the best thing they ever did. "First of May" is a close 2nd -- a dramatic, precise tearjerker, in the same vein as "Lonely Days" & "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," only simpler. It's the simplicity that makes it work. If U're a sucker 4 melodrama (like me), U've gotta hear this....
+ Phil Collins: "Droned/Hand in Hand" ('81) -- Dspite the presence of "In the Air Tonight" & "I Missed Again," this was the best, catchiest song on Phil's 1st solo album, FACE VALUE. It's also probly the closest 2 old Genesis, starting w/ a sorta-directionless percussion-heavy backing track w/lotsa thumb-piano&woodblock stuff, then suddenly transforms in2 a bouncy, sorta driving riff led by the Tower of Power horns, then a kids' choir joins 4 wordless vocals that sound like the sun breaking thru the clouds. The thumb-piano&woodblock returns at the Nd, sounding moody & unresolved. Instrumental mood music, sure, but....
+ Pop Tops: "Mammy Blue" ('71) -- Sorta dark, downbeat, haunting bluesy # about a guy apparently telling his troubles 2 his Mammy. Well, I liked it.... Got lotsa airplay but couldn't break in2 the Top 40.
+ Mouth and MacNeal: "Hey, You Love" ('72) -- Just as obnoxious & much less catchy than Mouth & MacNeal's 1st (& only) Top 40 hit "How Do You Do" (which I actually bot back in '72). I don't know, I'm a sucker 4 the choruses. & tho they were obnoxious, this couple made a good team.
+ Rick Astley: "But is it Commercial?" ('89) -- OK, I heard this on the radio 1nce, so it musta bn a single, right? This guy was pretty useless, but here's a song that shows he was in on The Joke. After asking the title question, Astley sings (? croons?) "If it ain't got a hook, it ain't got a hope." That's good enuf 4 me, but apparently it wasn't good enuf 4 his fans(?). Hey folks, a cheap laff's better than no laff at all....
= Frank Mills: "Love Me Love Me Love" ('72) -- From the guy who brot U "Music Box Dancer." This is a morbid, downbeat, sorta creepy ballad about lost love that never broke in2 the Top 40 but actually reached #9 on my favrite radio station, Boise, Idaho's KFXD-AM 580, back in March of '72 (Thanx, ARSA). In a lotta ways it reminds me of....
+ Jud Strunk: "Daisy A Day" (#14, '73) -- Sorta a touching country-folk ballad about Love & Death, a 1-hit-wonder 4 Strunk, who I wanta say was a regular on TV's "Hee Haw" or something. (W/ a name like that he SHOULDA bn.) I actually heard a solo-gtr-&-vocals guy per4m this song at an awards dinner a few yrs back, while people were EATING. Well, it's not offensive....
I hereby promise at some future time (probly 2morrow or soon as I can manage it) 2 print a list of all the previous Great Lost Singles I've written about at my old website, & will then go in2 shock when I realize how many of them there really R....
I also promise 2 do some more Research & get some more shockingly overlooked singles posted here.... (If possible. Initial investigations indicate I might B "singled out." Like the writer said, U can't learn much from stuff U already know....)