Deep cuts that are better than all the singles on the album

"Passion Play (When All The Slaves Are Free)" - Joni Mitchell, Night Ride Home

 

I don't know about "better," but really great.

 

THIS was the cut that got lots of airplay on KROQ in Los Angeles, and it's easy to see why. What a great bouncy shuffle! I have no idea why the obviously inferior "You Little Fool" was chosen as the single instead.

 

Almost all of my favorites by The Doors are not the singles, especially from the first album...

Soul Kitchen
Twentieth Century Fox
Back Door Man
I Looked at You
Take It As It Comes

 

Tusk
Court and Spark
A Hard Day's Night

 

The Rolling Stones - "Moonlight Mile"

Don't get me wrong, "Brown Sugar" is great, but the aforementioned is transcendent.

 

Ditto "Sway", from the same album.

 

While on the Stones, "Winter", from Goat's Head Soup, is sublime. It easily outstrips both "Heartbreaker" and "Angie".

 

Speaking of Holy Diver...

 

This one doesn't get as much talk as the others on the album. It's probably my favorite Rolling Stones song, if not certainly right up there.

 

And one of my favorite Santana tracks...

 

The Stones have several examples of albums where the deep cuts are far superior to the songs chosen as singles. The recent career spanning compilation, GRRR!, highlighted this by failing to include several outstanding deep cuts. For example, the lead single and title track from It’s Only Rock 'n' Roll gets a spot (naturally), but it's joined by "Dance Little Sister", which is above average at best. The album's two best tracks, "Fingerprint File" and "Time Waits For No One" are unbelievably ignored.

 

My definition for "better" is these are the songs I play much more than others on each album

Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers - Can't You Hear me Knocking
Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark - Down to You
Joni Mitchell - Hejira - Song for Sharon
U2 - Joshua Tree - One Tree Hill
Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive - I Want to Go to the Sun

 

Neil Young - "Birds", from After the Gold Rush

 

One More Time by Skynryd off Street Survivors
Tourniquet off Marilyn Manson record
Tonight I Feel So Far Away From Home off Alive on Arrival - Steve Forbert
Screen Kiss off The Flat Earth by Thomas Dolby
Idol and Chameleon off Blue Moves by Elton

 

Morrissey's Your Arsenal had pretty poor singles ('We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful', 'You're the One for me Fatty' and 'Certain People I Know') but featured the great song 'I Know it's Gonna Happen Someday' that was later covered by Bowie.

The Smiths also foolishly, in my opinion, decided not to issue 'There is a Light that Never Goes Out' as a single (at the time). It is a much stronger song than the singles on The Queen is Dead as are the title track and 'I Know it's Over'.

 

• Hole - "Boys on the Radio" from Celebrity Skin
• Madonna - "I'm Addicted" from MDNA
• Madonna - "Beautiful Scars" from Rebel Heart
• Queen - "Fight From the Inside" from News of the World
• Janet Jackson - "Island Life" from Damita Jo
• Bruce Springsteen - "Death to My Hometown" from Wrecking Ball
• Kylie Minogue - "Your Love" from Fever
• Joe Jackson - "Kings of the City" from Fast Forward

 

Marillion - Jigsaw, Blind Curve, The Last Straw, Fugazi
David Bowie - Andy Warhol, Bewlay Brothers, Cygnet Committee, All The Madmen, Kingdom Come, Thru These Architect's Eyes
Paul McCartney - Beware My Love, Don't Let It Bring You Down, Footprints, Sun Is Shining, Wild Life, Ram On
Rolling Stones - Time Waits For No One, Winter, 100 Years Ago, Moonlight Mile, Salt Of The Earth, Sister Morphine
George Harrison - Beware Of Darkness, Be Here Now, Beautiful Girl, Life Itself, That's What It Takes, Your Love Is Forever
Genesis - Ripples, The Brazilian, Domino, Driving The Last Spike
Pink Floyd - Mother, Poles Apart, Sorrow
Fleetwood Mac - My Heart Beat Like A Hammer, Woman Of A 1000 Years, Silver Springs, World Turning, Wish You Were Here, Isn't It Midnight
The Who - Another Tricky Day, Bargain, Armenia City In The Sky, New Song
Yes - Yours Is No Disgrace, Heart Of The Sunrise, Astral Traveller, Turn Of The Century, Hold On, Shoot High Aim Low

 

One of my favourite Doors deep cuts is "Wintertime Love", a lovely li'l piece of baroque pop that's better than either of the singles off Waiting For the Sun ("Hello, I Love You" and "The Unknown Soldier").

 

I'm sure I could come up with an example for the majority of albums, but if you want an extreme case where I prefer almost every other song, there's The Beatles' Revolver. And I mean both sides of the single.

 

Blur - This is a Low

 

I don't recall hearing anything from IB on the radio, but if here's a "deep cut" that deserved to be heard it's "Man Out of Time".

 

Or Can't You Hear Me Knocking, or Sister Morphine, or Bitch, or Dead Flowers...

 

doors - Indian Summer
beatles - there's a place
kiss - Almost Human
Norah Jones - Can't Stop

 

Most of the tracks on Summerteeth - Wilco.