A Guy On Youtube Says These Super Obscure Late '70s/Early '80s Songs Should Have Been Bigger Hits

Apparently most if not all of them hit the Top 100. But lots of them, I swear I never even heard of before. Here is his list from 1976, in three parts (the first part is all instrumentals, he says):

Lee Oskar - BLT
The Band of the Black Watch - Scotch on the Rocks
BCG - Street Talk
The Glitter Band - Makes You Blind
Hagood Hardy - The Homecoming
John Handy - Hard Work
Spin - Grasshopper
Michel Polnareff - Lipstick
Tom Scott - Town and Country
Andre Gagnon - Wow!
Walter Murphy - Flight '76

Suzi Quatro - Can the Can
Sun - You Wanna Make Love (Come Flick my Bic)
The Tubes - Don't Touch Me There
Easy Street - I've Been Lovin' You
Head East - Love Me Tonight
Gallagher and Lyle - Heart on My Sleeve
The Hudson Brothers - Help Wanted
Sherbet - Howzat
Penny McLean - Lady Bump
Blaze - Silver Heels

The Real Thing - You to Me Are Everything
Yvonne Fair - It Should Have Been Me
Attitudes - Sweet Summer Music
Ray Sawyer - (One More Year of) Daddy's Little Girl
Fools Gold - Rain, Oh Rain
Prelude - For a Dancer
Sundown Company - Norma Jean Wants to Be a Movie Star
Ellison Chase - Let's Rock
American Flyer - Let Me Down Easy
Rick Derringer - Let Me In

1979 next (haven't been able to find his 1977 or 1978 lists, if they exist):

Call Out My Name - Zwol
Can't Sleep - The Rockets
Cuba - The Gibson Brothers
For Love - Pousette Dart Band
I Need You - Euclid Beach Band
Killer Cut - Charlie
Know Her When I See Her - Cooper Brothers
Mirror Star - Fabulous Poodles
Mistrusted Love - Mistress
No Chance - Moon Martin
I'm Not Gonna Cry Anymore- Nancy Brooks
No Time to Lose - Tarney Spencer Band
One Way Love - Bandit
Since You've Been Gone - Cherie and Marie Currie
Stay the Night - Faragher Brothers
You and Me - Liner

1980, Part 1

Live Every Minute - Ali Thompson
Takin' It Back - Breathless
I Wish I Was 18 Again - George Burns
Trust Me - Cindy Bullens
Real Love - The Cretones
Looks Like Love Again - Dann Rogers
Who Were You Thinking Of - Doolittle Band
Mirage - Eric Troyer
Money - The Flying Lizards
I Love Women - Jim Hurt
Let Me Be - Korona

1981:

Shot in the Dark - Playing with Lightning
Joe Chemay Band - Proud
Shamus M'Cool - American Dreamer
Sky - Toccata
McGuffey Lane - Long Time Lovin' You
Max Werner - Rain in May
Leon Redbone - Seduced
Lani Hall - Where's Your Angel?
Yutaka - Love Light
Larry John McNally - Just Like Paradise

1982:

The Clocks - She Looks a Lot Like You
Shooting Star - Hollywood
The Monroes - What Do All the People Know
Richard "Dimples" Fields - If It Ain't One Thing It's Another
The Frank Barber Orchestra - Hooked on Big Bands
Cheri - Murphy's Law
Sparks - I Predict
Spys - Don't Run My Life
Toronto - Your Daddy Don't Know
Rick Bowles - Too Good to Turn Back Now
The Waitresses - I Know What Boys Like
Aurra - Make Up Your Mind
Conductor - Voice on the Radio

"Let Me In" by Rick Derringer might be the worst thing I've ever heard him associated with. None of the things on the songs on 1976 part three sound any better than the things that were hits back then.

I duno, '76-wise, I agree with him on "Can The Can," "Howzat," and "Don't Touch Me There," at least.

Also, the Waitresses song is not "super obscure" in retrospect, I guess. (Must have turned more famous as the years went on.) Maybe "Money" by the Flying Lizards and a couple others, too. But not many.

Best band names I never heard of before: The Band Of The Black Watch, Doolitle Band, Shamus McCool.

Favorite songs I already knew from his later lists:

Can't Sleep - The Rockets
Cuba - The Gibson Brothers
Mirror Star - Fabulous Poodles
No Chance - Moon Martin
Money - The Flying Lizards
Shooting Star - Hollywood
Richard "Dimples" Fields - If It Ain't One Thing It's Another
Cheri - Murphy's Law
The Waitresses - I Know What Boys Like

(Actually, James K Polk may be right, since none of the three '76 songs I just said I liked -- or the Head East or Penny McLean ones either -- were from Part 3. Maybe he was really digging by then. Part 2 from that year looks pretty good to me, though.)

Those 1982 songs sound incredibly dated for 1982. I remember hearing The Clocks song before, I wonder if it is the reason Honeymoon Suite sounded familiar a year or two later.

I used to hear the Sparks song on college radio, and I saw the Waitresses song on VH1 Classic this Saturday. I remember the Spys and Toronto ones now too. Toronto is pretty good.

(I'm just listening to the years in random order)

1979

The Fabulous Poodles' first album was produced by John Entwistle, and according to Wikipedia, their third (1979) album sold more copies in America than the Clash.

First time I've heard them, but as a Who fan, the name stuck.

whoaH, my favorite Rainbow song done by Cherie Curie and her sister. (Russ Ballard -Since You've Been Gone)

Those 1982 songs sound incredibly dated for 1982.

UGH.

Everything is dated until a canon opens its arm to them and gives them the "timeless" tiara, rite?

(Sorry. "Dated" is such a sore spot for me in music discussion. It's an empty term to me, but that's my problem. Anyway...)

I've alway thought this "shoulda been a hit" trope was illogical, and bad writing when used by critics. since when were the pop charts a meritocracy?

it's only bad writing if the writing was bad, no matter what angle it is.

And I think this angle has more potential for good writing than most. It may dance around the whole "what is a proper pop song?" question instead of lunge toward it, but at writing or youtubing about it *can* raise some interesting questions. (I'm at work and haven't been able to see the YouTubes, so I can't judge these specific YouTubes for that yet.)

xp Agreed, but I don't think that guy's a critic.

And yeah, as I've said before, I've never really understood what "dated" means. It presupposes "newer sounding" stuff is better as a matter of principle, which is ridiculous. (But I don't think I want to get into that pissing contest all over again.)

As for the Fab Poos selling more in 1979 than the Clash, I was skeptical (the way I remember it, "I Fought The Law" got as much AOR play at the time as my beloved "Mirror Star" did), but the Poos' '79 album definitely charted a lot higher, it turns out -- #61 to #129. (Mirror Stars was their U.S. debut, but was their "third" album in the sense that it was a compilation of the first two U.K. ones, which didn't come out in the States. Title track went to #81 on the singles chart, whereas the Clash didn't even crack the Top 100 'til "Train In Vain.")

(Sorry. "Dated" is such a sore spot for me in music discussion. It's an empty term to me, but that's my problem. Anyway...)

What I meant by it was something like "These songs probably didn't hit in 1982 because the sound more like major label offerings from 1979"

I understand what you are saying though.

if it's a hit in yr house then it's a hit. that said, some good songs listed. including some pretty big hits. I've been listening to LOTS of early 80s stuff lately and on one hand it sounds dated but OTOH i hear synth-pop and nu wave echoes when I eavesdrop on my kid listening to today's top 40.

been listening a bit to The Rockets lately, xhuxk, and I gotta say they sound better than they did at the time. but not especially 80s-ish, though.

Have only ever heard Bryan Ferry's cover of "Heart on my Sleeve"--great song.

To explain more about what I meant by "dated", only because it is interesting to me. We are talking about a time period where major label A&R reps had ultimate control over a smaller band's material and production, and radio station programmers had control over them.

If you look at number ones from 1982, "I Can't Go For That", "I Love Rock 'N Roll", "Don't You Want Me", "Abracadabra", "Jack and Diane" etc. , you can see that the songs on this guy's "Should Have Been Bigger Hits" list are using production styles that seemed more likely to hit big on hold out rock radio stations, the near past, or nowhere at all, rather than early MTV and current top 40 of 1982.

I'm talking about before you get to the relative merits of the talent or song, there were production and promotional considerations involved with what became a big hit. (maybe these songs and bands just weren't as good as Saga and Quarterflash and I imagined they were dated at the current date that they were being manufactured and produced. I was just a kid then)

i count 30 people on those lists that i've owned albums by or currently own album by, so i must agree with this guy somewhat.

(and 17 of those albums come from that 1976 list. apparently, i am not the only person on earth with a hagood hardy album.)

"I Can't Go For That", "I Love Rock 'N Roll", "Don't You Want Me", "Abracadabra", "Jack and Diane"

i don't know much about production styles but these songs have big fat juicy HOOKS that most of the shoulda-beens don't. and I like some of the shoulda-beens BETTER'n these but it seems obvious why they hit #1. just typing the title "abracdabra" will put the chorus in my head and I HATE that fuckin' song. such is the power of pop.

but what i really want to know: are we human, or we dancer?

or ARE we dancer...

Well, for these songs, "bigger hits" doesn't necessarily mean hitting #1; it might just mean hitting #40 (or, in lots of cases, even #70). So maybe what you guys should be comparing them to is songs that topped off at #40 in 1982, not at #1.

I'll tackle the 1976 list first. I very much like funky "Street Talk," by BCG, i.e. the Bob Crewe Generation, i.e. Bob Crewe who produced the Four Seasons among many others. "Wow!" is also deliciously & funky - an all-time favorite, and "Lipstick" is the cool-sounding song from the movie of the same name starring Margaux Hemingway. "Lady Bump" is very cute - that's Penny McLean from Silver Convention. All of the above are not dated but rather state-of-the-art disco. But maybe that's why I know them & not the others on the list (actually I do know the Walter Murphy - that's the disco "Flight of the Bumblebee" I think).

^sorry about the grammar