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Non-Hits you couldn't live without

Harry Nilsson: Turn On Your Radio
Randy Newman: Jolly Coppers On Parade
Paul Simon: American Tune
Marvin Gaye: Come Get To This
Bruce Springsteen: Jungleland
The Band: Rags and Bones
Thunderclap Newman: Something In The Air
Pete Townshend: Pure and Easy
Stevie Wonder: Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)
Randy Newman: Political Science
Tower Of Power: You're Still A Young Man
Bette Midler: Do You Wanna Dance
Earth, Wind & Fire: Reasons (Live)
Stephen Bishop: Red Cab To Manhattan
Eurythmics: There Must Be An Angel
Lindsey Buckingham: You And I
Donald Fagen: Florida Room

The entire "A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night" album by Harry Nilsson.

The entire "Gate of Dreams" album by Claus Ogerman.

...and just about everything Van Morrison committed to vinyl in the 1970s.
 
I'm with you, Mr. Hagerty on the "bandwith" comment. Some of the tunes you shared did have some chart success. The Dwight Twilley Band and Raspberries records were Top 20 hits nationally. The Doobie Brothers was at least a Top 40 hit even if only reaching near the bottom of the Top 40 and "Carolina In The Pines" peaked at #21 in 1975 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Sail On Sailor" was released twice as a single, and while not making the Top 40, I think airplay on fairly new album rock formatted stations helped it squeak into the Top 50 the second time around.
 
johnbasalla said:
I'm with you, Mr. Hagerty on the "bandwith" comment. Some of the tunes you shared did have some chart success. The Dwight Twilley Band and Raspberries records were Top 20 hits nationally. The Doobie Brothers was at least a Top 40 hit even if only reaching near the bottom of the Top 40 and "Carolina In The Pines" peaked at #21 in 1975 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Sail On Sailor" was released twice as a single, and while not making the Top 40, I think airplay on fairly new album rock formatted stations helped it squeak into the Top 50 the second time around.
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John: Without re-starting the argument from another thread...I draw the line on "hit" versus "stiff" (or "near miss") at about #15...and that's probably too liberal. Truth be told, there was a much bigger difference in the number of singles sold between a #1 record and a #10 record than there was between a #11 and a #40.
 
oldies76 said:
Talk_Dude said:
That's why so many of us switched over to AOR on FM as soon as it became available.
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AOR in the 70's?? Maybe. Top 40 radio, AM or FM ruled the airwaves then.
Click to expand...

Depends on where you were, I think. In Los Angeles, where I grew up, KHJ peaked with a 13.0 in 1969, but was down to 6s by 1972, and a year later album rocker KLOS beat them at night (meaning a huge shift in teen and young adult listening). By 1978, KMET eclipsed KLOS and was #3 with a 5.8. KHJ had fallen out of the top 10. So, in Southern California, album rock was a serious force for the entire decade of the 70s.
 
Inspired by the surprising reply I got about something I posted long ago, here's more hot misses:
BOB CRANE, HIS DRUMS AND ORCHESTRA- "Theme From Hogan's Heroes"/"Theme From 'F' Troop". Epic Records, 1966-1967 television season. Being fascinated by the Bob Crane story, I spent $65.00 to buy this silly novelty record. Bob's a drummer. On the "Hogan's Heroes" side it starts with Bob saying to Sgt. Schultz, "We're going to walk right out that front gate". Then "Schultz" (probably not John Banner) starts whining "Please Col. Hogan..." every once in a while more snippets of dialouge are heard like "See you in Paris Shultz" and "Come back Col. Hogan".

RON DANTE - "Charmer". Bell Records, 1974. The studio voice behind The Archies and The Cuff Links comes out of hiding with this song written by Tim Moore. Medium-upbeat, bubblegum pop.

DOROTHY MORRISON - "Spirit In The Sky", 1970 Buddah Records. The solo voice on the Edwin Hawkins Singers Gospel hit "Oh Happy Day", covers the Norman Greenbaum smash. Medium-upbeat R&B/Rock in which horns somewhat replace the ubiquitous electric guitar of the original. She sings the tune a bit differently too. The B-side, "Black California" written by the often seen team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil is pretty good too.


NINO TEMPO & APRIL STEVENS - "Twilight Time", Bell Records (Late 1960s). Here's one of my favorite misses of all time! An upbeat and fun soft rock rendition of the romantic hit. Great production values and a winning vocal performance make this a head scratcher as to why it didn't become a hit. The most exciting remakes are those where the song is re-invented, made new again, and is done so effectively. That's what happened here. One time is not enough for me. Once I put this record on, I have to play it at least 3 time before I've had my fill.

Tell us about some of your favorite non-hits.
 
Wow, this thread made me think of a song I've not heard even one time since I last heard it back in 1969...until tonight. It was on Labor Day Weekend, August 31 1969, I was 11 years old and using my dad's old Sony TC-200 Reel-to-Reel and happened to catch just part of a song that I had no idea of the title or artist. I was never able to remember enough of the lyrics to find it, but after reading this thread I decided to Google the only words of the song I can remember (keeping in mind I was 11, and haven't heard that tape since back then, it's a miracle I can remember any of the lyrics at all).

I only remembered "Sunshine peeking through my window" and something about diamonds. Well, thanks to Google, I found the title.

It was "No One For Me To Turn To'' by Spiral Starecase. I had no idea this was the B side of "More Today Than Yesterday". Even more ironic, I had the single up until about 5 years ago but never played the B side, or I would have recognized it immediately! :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPjf5unY09w

I guess our local station WLCY - Tampa decided to flip the single and see if it stuck. I guess not, because I only heard the song one time (when I recorded it by accident, forgetting to stop the tape after recording "A Boy Named Sue".

Does anyone else remember hearing this song on the radio back then? I'm virtually certain it didn't chart at all. Anyway, thanks for giving me a reason to look this up. I've wondered all these years about this song, now I can download it and bring back some more memories...
 
Unlike most people, I would always, and I mean ALWAYS, play the B-sides of singles. You never knew what you were going to get. B-sides ran the gamut from boring junk, to even songs that are the equal of the hit side.
 
johnbasalla said:
Unlike most people, I would always, and I mean ALWAYS, play the B-sides of singles. You never knew what you were going to get. B-sides ran the gamut from boring junk, to even songs that are the equal of the hit side.
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You must have been the rare exception. I don't remember this happening on any Top 40 AM stations I listened to in Florida back then (late 60's - early 70's). Were you on an AM or FM? Out of curiousity, did you make any good discoveries yourself by playing B-sides (or ones that later became hits in their own right?).
 
There was a male singer who had been in a group and in 1970 released his first solo album, singing and playing most of the instruments on it. Yeah, yeah, you think I mean Paul McCartney. Well...him too, but I'm talking about Emitt Rhodes, former lead singer of the Merry-Go-Round (whose two chart hits, Live and You're A Very Lovely Woman, were much bigger here in Los Angeles than nationally). Rhodes' self-titled debut album included his sole chart single, Fresh As A Daisy, along with several other tracks, including She's Such A Beauty and With My Face On The Floor, that could have been hit singles.
 
SolidGold16 said:
johnbasalla said:
Unlike most people, I would always, and I mean ALWAYS, play the B-sides of singles. You never knew what you were going to get. B-sides ran the gamut from boring junk, to even songs that are the equal of the hit side.
Click to expand...

You must have been the rare exception. I don't remember this happening on any Top 40 AM stations I listened to in Florida back then (late 60's - early 70's). Were you on an AM or FM? Out of curiousity, did you make any good discoveries yourself by playing B-sides (or ones that later became hits in their own right?).
Click to expand...

I think John was talking about personally, off the air. I did the same thing with the singles I bought as a kid. By the time I got my first station record service from the labels (replacing a local record store trade out), most singles shipped to us were promo copies with the same song on both sides...stereo on one, mono on the other.
 
I'm with Mr. Hagerty again. I was referring to off-air. I'm thinking of starting a thread pertaining to B-sides. My favorite B-side story is when I was high school aged, I was at a party one time at someones house. I ended up being the one to switch the records on their record player. I played the dynamic "Overture from 'Tommy'" by The Assembled Multitude. I knew the B-side had an interesting sound to it which might go over with the kids. Boy did it! They all were talking while hit songs they've heard "a hundred" times before played, but when I put on the B-side to the Assembled Multitude '45', virtually everybody sat there quietly and listened soon after it started. I know this to be the case because I remember that after it ended, I didn't hear a word spoken as I switched records.
 
johnbasalla said:
I'm with Mr. Hagerty again. I was referring to off-air. I'm thinking of starting a thread pertaining to B-sides. My favorite B-side story is when I was high school aged, I was at a party one time at someones house. I ended up being the one to switch the records on their record player. I played the dynamic "Overture from 'Tommy'" by The Assembled Multitude. I knew the B-side had an interesting sound to it which might go over with the kids. Boy did it! They all were talking while hit songs they've heard "a hundred" times before played, but when I put on the B-side to the Assembled Multitude '45', virtually everybody sat there quietly and listened soon after it started. I know this to be the case because I remember that after it ended, I didn't hear a word spoken as I switched records.
Click to expand...

By all means, do start a thread about B-sides. Maybe there's some great stuff out there by known artists that I've not heard - I'm open to new discoveries by old artists. Personally, I can't think of any B's off the top of my head that I liked or remember right now. Maybe someone will jog my memory with some of their favorites.
 
Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy" was actually the B-side of a tune called "Good Lovin". This is the only instance I know of in the 1980s, where the B-side ended up being a hit.

R
 
Good Lovin' had been a hit for the Olympics and the Rascals. I liked McFerrin's version of that song much more than I liked Don't Worry Be Happy. Those "boop-boops" got really irritating after two or three listens.

In 1958, an Atco Records promotion man took Bobby Darin's new single, Judy Don't Be Moody, to fairly new top-40 station KFWB in Los Angeles. Program director Chuck Blore liked the B-side better. Darin raised no objections to KFWB playing the B-side. It was Splish Splash and it went to number one on the station's Fabulous Forty Survey and #3 nationally.
 
I think that, technically, anything that peaked below #50 would fit, although my personal standards are for records that peaked below #90, or didn't hit the charts at all.
 
This Side of Forever by Roberta Flack from Sudden Impact Soundtrack was a single I liked that didn't chart. 1983 I Believe..
 
Mister Bass, you are correct about Mrs. Abdul---she had three number-one hits in 1989: Straight Up (with Cold Hearted as the B-side), then Forever Your Girl, then Cold Hearted, which had been re-released as an A-side (with a different B-side).

In late 1967 the Dells got to #61 with O-O I Love You. Then the B-side, There Is, was re-released as an A-side (with a different B-side) and got to #20.
 
Here are three "B" sides I've always cherished:

Marlena Four Seasons, flip side of Candy Girl No Surfing Today Four Seasons, flip side of ??? ]Coming Home Baby[/i] Kai Winding, flip side of More
 
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