'60s Songs You Don't Hear Anymore for Obvious Reasons...

[unitron]

...

I've always preferred the Nazz version of "Hello It's Me"

Ahh, a person of taste and discernment.

 

[unitron]

I haven't heard all of Todd's songs..but the one I mentioned is the only one I like...I only know of three others that got airplay, Hello, It's Me, Get You A Woman, and Bang the Drum..

Sirius XM's Deep Tracks plays lots of Rundgren, and hardly any of it has the broadly appealing pop sound of his three hits. Reminiscent of Van Morrison, who has recorded hundreds of songs but only impacted top 40 radio with Wild Night, Domino, Wavelength and, of course, the all-time focus group favorite Brown Eyed Girl. (Moondance wasn't a hit, but has become one in the revisionist eyes of classic hits programmers.) But you listen to his deeper cuts and realize that there was no way any of them would work in a CHR format.

OTOH, Nick Lowe knows his way around a catchy pop-rock song like few others, but only had one hit, Cruel to be Kind, despite filling his albums with plenty of equally accessible tunes. Go figure.

Did "Jackie Wilson Said" stall out at #41?

 

[rnigma1]

I recall James Taylor did an earlier version of "Carolina in my Mind" for Apple, that was performed at a faster tempo than the WB version (and had a string section instead of the draggy steel guitar). I preferred that first version.

I think LeRoux's "New Orleans Ladies" stalled at around #41 on the Hot 100 - even though their later song "Nobody Said it Was Easy" charted higher, "New Orleans Ladies" is better remembered.

 

[CTListener]

I haven't heard all of Todd's songs..but the one I mentioned is the only one I like...I only know of three others that got airplay, Hello, It's Me, Get You A Woman, and Bang the Drum..

Sirius XM's Deep Tracks plays lots of Rundgren, and hardly any of it has the broadly appealing pop sound of his three hits. Reminiscent of Van Morrison, who has recorded hundreds of songs but only impacted top 40 radio with Wild Night, Domino, Wavelength and, of course, the all-time focus group favorite Brown Eyed Girl. (Moondance wasn't a hit, but has become one in the revisionist eyes of classic hits programmers.) But you listen to his deeper cuts and realize that there was no way any of them would work in a CHR format.

OTOH, Nick Lowe knows his way around a catchy pop-rock song like few others, but only had one hit, Cruel to be Kind, despite filling his albums with plenty of equally accessible tunes. Go figure.

Did "Jackie Wilson Said" stall out at #41?

Could have. I don't remember hearing it, but that doesn't mean it wasn't being played somewhere. The album that came from, "St. Dominic's Preview," didn't have an obvious single on it, so I guess Warner Bros. just threw "Jackie Wilson Said" out there and hoped it would come out of left field and become a hit. Yes, the same people who didn't put out "Into the Mystic" or "Crazy Love" as singles. Not that Van needed (or wanted) to be all over Top 40 radio in the early '70s, but still...

 

[CTListener]

I recall James Taylor did an earlier version of "Carolina in my Mind" for Apple, that was performed at a faster tempo than the WB version (and had a string section instead of the draggy steel guitar). I preferred that first version.

I think LeRoux's "New Orleans Ladies" stalled at around #41 on the Hot 100 - even though their later song "Nobody Said it Was Easy" charted higher, "New Orleans Ladies" is better remembered.

I loved "New Orleans Ladies," but I remember hearing wise-guy criticism of its lyrics, which had the ladies sashaying "from Bourbon Street to Esplanade." The critics complained that those two streets don't intersect. Picky, picky, picky -- they could have gone down connecting streets, you know. It certainly wasn't as egregious an error as putting Durham, England, on the River Tyne, as Roger Whittaker did in "Durham Town." Durham is on the River Wear; if the singer were sitting on the banks of the Tyne, he'd have been well north of Durham, in Newcastle or thereabouts.

 

[cyberdad]

I loved "New Orleans Ladies," but I remember hearing wise-guy criticism of its lyrics, which had the ladies sashaying "from Bourbon Street to Esplanade." The critics complained that those two streets don't intersect. Picky, picky, picky -- they could have gone down connecting streets, you know.

Bourbon and Esplanade DO intersect. I believe the line in the song was "From Canal to Esplanade"....which makes perfect sense because they are at opposite ends of the French Quarter. A distance entirely traversed by Bourbon Street and several others (Decatur, Chartres, Dauphine, Burgundy, and Rampart). In fact, IIRC I'm not sure that Bourbon Street is even mentioned in the song. But in any case "From Canal to Esplanade" would simply be another way of referring to the entire French Quarter.

 

[deltas69]

Every version i've ever heard says Bourbon Street...Does it mention Canal in the song elsewhere ??

 

[cyberdad]

Every version i've ever heard says Bourbon Street...Does it mention Canal in the song elsewhere ??

Well, I haven't heard this song for at least ten years....maybe even longer, so my post is from memory. I'm pretty sure the "Canal to Esplanade" line is in there. Bourbon may well be....and since I always stand to be corrected, I'll take your word that it's in there. I just don't remember it.

 

[deltas69]

followed the song off my playlist as i read the lyrics..no canal mentioned http://www.risa.co.uk/sla/song.php?songid=22430 see lyric sheet

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Did You See Her Eyes? by The Illusions, a flash in the pan group whose performances I used to enjoy at local venues on Long Island in the summer of '69. What a thrill, hearing Did You See... on Albuquerque's KQEO that same year, one week after arriving there to attend college.

 

[deltas69]

One Hit Wonders always appealed to me for some reason especially very obscure ones like Hombre's- Let It All Hang Out...or Games by Redeye...funny how a group can have a big hit..then never heard of again..

 

[Ted Cramer]

if you ever want to hear all the music listed here that isn't played anymore, go online and stream the station I program...superoldies1580.com

 

[johnbasalla]

"The Wedding" by Julie Rogers, a top 10 hit in 1965.

 

[cyberdad]

followed the song off my playlist as i read the lyrics..no canal mentioned http://www.risa.co.uk/sla/song.php?songid=22430 see lyric sheet

My bad, then. Thanks for correcting.

 

[SolidGold16]

Here's one I actually did hear that shouldn't have been aired...EVER!
Jimmy Loves Mary Ann by Looking Glass......AWFUL!

Not only did I hear it once, I heard it 3 times within a week and I probably didn't even accumulate 4 total hours of listening to that particular station....

It was an even better song than "Brandy", but sadly radio audiences didn't realize it.

I'm actually in complete agreement with you on this one, "Jimmy" is a much better song than "Brandy", maybe because I heard Brandy so many times over the past 40 or so years it makes me change the station when it comes on. A lot of the guitar riffs are the same in both songs, as I am sure you noticed. It just has a better groove than Brandy, and I was happy years ago when Rhino put it on one of their "Super Hits of the 70s" discs. I went out and bought the entire set of those when they came out and played them to death on my CD player. I still have all of them today, and listen to them often. They chose almost all the songs I would have chosen, had I been able to. It's like they read my mind! ;D

BTW, I felt the same way about Gallery: I liked "Big City Miss Ruth Ann" more than "Nice To Be With You" for the same reason. Even "I Believe In Music" was better IMO than "Nice". It's not a bad song, I've just heard it enough times for one lifetime. And these were on the Rhino 70s CD set too!

 

[unitron]

I haven't heard all of Todd's songs..but the one I mentioned is the only one I like...I only know of three others that got airplay, Hello, It's Me, Get You A Woman, and Bang the Drum..

Sirius XM's Deep Tracks plays lots of Rundgren, and hardly any of it has the broadly appealing pop sound of his three hits. Reminiscent of Van Morrison, who has recorded hundreds of songs but only impacted top 40 radio with Wild Night, Domino, Wavelength and, of course, the all-time focus group favorite Brown Eyed Girl. (Moondance wasn't a hit, but has become one in the revisionist eyes of classic hits programmers.) But you listen to his deeper cuts and realize that there was no way any of them would work in a CHR format.

OTOH, Nick Lowe knows his way around a catchy pop-rock song like few others, but only had one hit, Cruel to be Kind, despite filling his albums with plenty of equally accessible tunes. Go figure.

Did "Jackie Wilson Said" stall out at #41?

Could have. I don't remember hearing it, but that doesn't mean it wasn't being played somewhere. The album that came from, "St. Dominic's Preview," didn't have an obvious single on it, so I guess Warner Bros. just threw "Jackie Wilson Said" out there and hoped it would come out of left field and become a hit. Yes, the same people who didn't put out "Into the Mystic" or "Crazy Love" as singles. Not that Van needed (or wanted) to be all over Top 40 radio in the early '70s, but still...

If "Jackie Wilson Said" wasn't the obvious single, the rest of the album must have been in-freaking-credible.

 

[unitron]

Here's one I actually did hear that shouldn't have been aired...EVER!
Jimmy Loves Mary Ann by Looking Glass......AWFUL!

Not only did I hear it once, I heard it 3 times within a week and I probably didn't even accumulate 4 total hours of listening to that particular station....

It was an even better song than "Brandy", but sadly radio audiences didn't realize it.

I'm actually in complete agreement with you on this one, "Jimmy" is a much better song than "Brandy", maybe because I heard Brandy so many times over the past 40 or so years it makes me change the station when it comes on. A lot of the guitar riffs are the same in both songs, as I am sure you noticed. It just has a better groove than Brandy, and I was happy years ago when Rhino put it on one of their "Super Hits of the 70s" discs. I went out and bought the entire set of those when they came out and played them to death on my CD player. I still have all of them today, and listen to them often. They chose almost all the songs I would have chosen, had I been able to. It's like they read my mind! ;D

BTW, I felt the same way about Gallery: I liked "Big City Miss Ruth Ann" more than "Nice To Be With You" for the same reason. Even "I Believe In Music" was better IMO than "Nice". It's not a bad song, I've just heard it enough times for one lifetime. And these were on the Rhino 70s CD set too!

"I'm actually in complete agreement with you on this one..."

When people are right, they usually are. ;D

Haven't heard "Ruth Ann" or "Believe in Music" in years, maybe longer.

Remember when everybody thought "Nice To Be With You" was Neil Diamond for the first couple of days after it hit the air?

Of course thinking of them makes me think of Daniel Boone's "Beautful Sunday".