Thursday, October 6, 2011

More not-quite-so-lost singles

Still mining info outta Joel Whitburn's & BILLBOARD's TOP POP SINGLES 1955-2002 -- worth it if you're a chart fiend like me or just wonder what happened 2 some of those songs you heard on the radio back when you were 12 years old & haven't heard since....
Also intresting how many rock songs we've come 2 accept as "classics" that didn't really do that great sales-wise, officially. We all know they're classics, so that's what they became. I guess. 2 bad it doesn't work that way 4 all Good Stuff....
Anyway, here's another list, with some pretty-well-known stuff included, along with summa my Olde Faves & the usual oddities...

Freda Payne: "You Brought the Joy," #52, Fall 1971.
Peter, Paul & Mary: "A'Soalin'," #15 on the Christmas chart, Dec '63; "Settle Down," #56, Winter '63.
Plimsouls: "A Million Miles Away," #82, Summer '83; #11 on the Album Rock chart, Summer '82.
Poppy Family: "Where Evil Grows," #45, Summer '71.
Edgar Winter's White Trash: "Keep Playing That Rock 'N' Roll," #70, Winter '71.
Billy Preston: "That's the Way God Planned It," #65, Summer '72; #62, Summer '69.
Queen: "It's Late," #74, Summer '78; "Need Your Loving Tonight," #44, Winter '80; "The Show Must Go On," #40 on the Rock Tracks chart, Spring '92.
Pink Floyd: "Run Like Hell," #53, Summer '80; an edited version of "Comfortably Numb" failed to reach the Hot 100.
Ramones: "Sheena is a Punk Rocker," #81, Summer '77; "Rockaway Beach," #66, Winter '77; "Do You Wanna Dance?," #86, Spring '78.
Leon Redbone: "Seduced," #72, Spring '81.
Helen Reddy: "Crazy Love," #51, Summer '71.
Miss Abrams & the Strawberry Point School Third Grade Class: "Mill Valley," #90, Summer '70.
America: "Muskrat Love," #67, Summer '73 (The Captain & Tennille's inferior version made #4 in Fall '76); "Only in Your Heart," #62, Spring '73; "Woman Tonight," #44, Winter '75.
Buffalo Springfield: "Bluebird" b/w "Mr. Soul," #58, Summer '67; "Rock and Roll Woman," #44, Fall '67; "Expecting to Fly," #98, Winter '68; "On the Way Home," #82, Fall '68. "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing" failed to make the Hot 100, possibly because the lyric included the word "damn" (!).
Bulldog: "No," #44, Fall '72.
Kate Bush: "The Man With the Child in His Eyes," #85, Spring '79.
Byrds: "5D (Fifth Dimension)," #44, Summer '66; "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better," #103, Summer '65; "Ballad of Easy Rider," #97, Winter '70. "Chestnut Mare" failed to make the Hot 100.
Cream: "I Feel Free," #116, 1967; "Badge," #60, Spring '69.
Adam Ant: "Desperate But Not Serious," #66, Spring '83.
Billy Squier: "My Kinda Lover," #45, Winter '81.
Rush: "Closer to the Heart," #76, Winter '77.
James Gang: "Walk Away," #51, Summer '71.
Elton John: "Tiny Dancer," #41, Spring '72.
Journey: "Wheel in the Sky," #57, Spring '78; "Anytime," #83, Summer '78; "Lights," #68, Summer '78; "Just the Same Way," #58, Spring '79.
Kinks: "Victoria," #62, Winter '70; "Dead-End Street," #73, Winter '67.
REO Speedwagon: "Roll With the Changes," #58, Summer '78; "Time for Me to Fly," #56, Summer '78.
Triumph: "Magic Power," #51, Fall '81.
Bob Seger: "Rock and Roll Never Forgets," #41, Summer '77; "Katmandu," #43, Summer '75.
Rolling Stones: "Street Fighting Man," #48, Fall '68; "You Can't Always Get What You Want" (edited), #42, Spring '73.
Linda Ronstadt: "Someone to Lay Down Beside Me," #42, Winter '76.
Grateful Dead: "Uncle John's Band," #69, Summer '70.
Flying Lizards: "Money (That's What I Want)," #50, Winter '79.
Bob Dylan: "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat," #81, Summer '67. (& of course we know Dylan's brilliant "One of Us Must Know," also from BLONDE ON BLONDE, failed to make any known chart, one of the great injustices of the mid-'60s....)
Eric Clapton: "Let it Rain," #48, Fall '72; "Bell Bottom Blues," #91, Spring '71/#78, Spring '73; "Another Ticket," #78, Summer '81. "Let it Grow" failed to make the Hot 100 despite lots of airplay as the follow-up to "I Shot the Sheriff"....

...That's all 4 2nite. More of this likely coming soon....

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