What songs could've been hits?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by NothingBrightAboutIt, Feb 20, 2017.

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  1. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    Great song! Tom Petty could have also released that one as a single, when he covered it with Jeff Lynne on the "Full Moon Fever" album.
     
  2. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    Not sure how well New York Minute charted, but it got and still does get quite a bit of radio play around here
    Great song :)
     
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  3. sean monaghan

    sean monaghan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    It charted at #48 in 1991, though I think it made the top five on the AC chart.
     
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  4. readr

    readr Forum Resident

    I think Paul McCartney's

    Maybe I'm Amazed

    Would have been a #1 smash
     
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  5. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    I see that Tim Neely is occasionally posting in this thread and I'm sure with his great knowledge, that he could shed more light on the subject, but "New York Minute" was a hit (#5, Adult Contemporary Chart), but it did not chart very high on the actual Billboard Top 100. This is why I've always hated that the music industry decided to "categorize" songs by formats, instead of how it all used to be done, leaving a "hit" a "hit", no matter what it was in reality (Country, Rock, R&B, etc.).
     
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  6. mrbobdobalina

    mrbobdobalina Forum Resident

    Location:
    Not here
    It was a thrill! I was a certified Monkee-maniac by that point, thanks to the Saturday morning reruns, and I had never heard "Tapioca" before. I remember thinking, "wow, Mike never said anything about Tapioca or Tundras!"
     
  7. geo50000

    geo50000 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canon City, CO.
    That's rarely been an impediment to success, though. Many follow-ups to top 40 hits were 'soundalikes'.
     
  8. mrbobdobalina

    mrbobdobalina Forum Resident

    Location:
    Not here
    But they really don't sound the same. Sure, they approached all the songs in the same way, but "Swallow My Pride" sounds nothing like "Rockaway Beach", which sounds nothing like "Questioningly" etc.....
     
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  9. geo50000

    geo50000 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canon City, CO.
    Some wags bootlegged a 45 rpm single of 'Revolution 9' back in 1990...it was backed with that toe-tapper 'Wild Honey Pie'.
     
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  10. SJB

    SJB Beloved Parasitic Nuisance

    [​IMG]
    The live version from Wings Over America was released as a single, and reached #10 on the U.S. singles charts, #28 in the U.K. (The B-side was "Soily," a good choice because the song was unreleased prior to that album.)
     
  11. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    Nez used to be notorious for rarely ever singing the title of his compositions in his early songs, which I found strangely unique. Of course, he was also the guy who called one of his albums "And The Hits Keep Coming", with no hits of any kind on it, when his record label at the time, RCA, requested songs that could be hits, like "Joanne" was. That crazy Nez ..., he was always fighting against everything in his life, especially on how to be a Monkee, under "his" terms!
     
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  12. Spruce

    Spruce Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brigg, England
    I only had two albums. One was the first, I think, the other was Rocket to Russia. Both albums sounded almost identical, to me. As did other stuff of theirs that I heard. I just quickly grew tired of the "Hey Ho, Let's Go" routine. Maybe me but I always thought they were overrated. I think their actual being there at the start of punk gave them historical importance that their music never lived up to. I have seen them live, as well.
     
  13. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    Locally, one Michael Stanley had nearly every chance to get a "major" hit, as he was an artist, at one time or another for MCA, Epic, Arista and EMI America. Today Michael is 68 and he is still releasing new albums to his small fan base and does "afternoon drive" at Cleveland rock radio station WNCX.

    This song made it to around #33 on the Billboard Chart, which is close, but still no cigar. This is still one of his catchiest, but sadly Michael didn't sing lead on it, that honor goes to another future one-hit wonder, Kevin Raleigh, who later hit the charts with his Atlantic Records single "Moonlight On Water" (see below)



    "Moonlight On Water" here ...

    Kevin Raleigh – Moonlight on water
     
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  14. idleracer

    idleracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    :kilroy: The biggest blunder this group made, was not recognizing this as the obvious choice for a single, instead of the three tunes that actually were released as singles off of their first album. This is the track that anticipated what E.L.O. would sound like in the next decade:

     
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  15. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    To add to my post #85, regarding Michael Stanley, this is another song that should have been a hit for him, but it strangely didn't chart at all, so go figure?

     
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  16. sami

    sami Mono still rules

    Location:
    Down The Shore
    Correction - it's as good as rock 'n' roll gets or has ever gotten.
     
  17. sami

    sami Mono still rules

    Location:
    Down The Shore
    I know that album had a number of singles, but how this wasn't one of the Cars' biggest singles is beyond me.

     
  18. sami

    sami Mono still rules

    Location:
    Down The Shore
    If you saw them live in the '70's and you still don't get it, I don't know what to tell you.
     
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  19. Astralweeks

    Astralweeks Diamond Dog

    Location:
    Concord, NH
    I always felt Rocks Off by The Rolling Stones (opening track of Exile, my personal favorite side one, track one of all time) could've been a big hit. An upbeat, catchy track that rocks as hard as Brown Sugar. I'm glad it is where it is though, it's perfect as an opener for Exile, an album with minimal hits for a Stones album.
    It wasn't a hit mainly because it wasn't released as a single (to my knowledge) and it was on an album that had very few hits (Tumbling Dice and Happy are the only big hit tunes on it)
     
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  20. andy749

    andy749 Senior Member

    MC5 - "Shakin' Street"
    Steppenwolf - "None Of Your Doing"
    Rockets - "Turn Up the Radio"
    Flamin' Groovies - "Teenage Head"
     
  21. John54

    John54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Burlington, ON
    I'm still in love with If You Ever Need Me by Margaret Mandolph (1965):

     
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  22. Spruce

    Spruce Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brigg, England
    Far better live than on record. You don't have to tell me anything, record wise.
     
  23. Catch22

    Catch22 Forum Resident

    Bram Tchaikovsky ~ "Girl Of My Dreams"
    This hit #37 in 1979, but always thought it should have been a bigger hit.

     
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  24. Bigbudukks

    Bigbudukks Older, but no wiser.

    Location:
    Gaithersburg, MD
    When I was in high school (early to mid 1970's) stuff like that was on the radio anyway, especially late at night. In fact, when a friend of mine told me he went sleep every night with the radio on I thought, "What a great idea! I'll try that!" Bad move. If I liked the music I wanted to stay up and listen to it, and If didn't I wanted to change the station. Way too much musical involvement for me. What a first world dilemma!:D
     
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