Deep cuts, non-hits and B-sides

Blondie's "Living in the Real World" (the B-side to "Union City Blue")

It was the last song on their vinyl album, "Eat to the Beat." I used to run over to the amplifier and crank it up LOUD!

And now almost 45 years later, the lyrics seem rather prophetic.

Tears for Fears….Elemental

EBTG with Johnny Marr (!) on harmonica.

Santana - Going Home

Keni Burke - Risin' to the Top

It only reached #63 on the R&B charts.

Isley Brothers - Footsteps in the Dark

It didn't chart on the Billboard Hot 100

Midnight Star - Curious

It wasn't released as a single

Almost anything by Big Country apart from their major eponymous hit. Extremely underrated outside of the UK.

Byrne & Barnes - Love You Out of Your Mind

The album was only released in Japan, I think.

R9 I'm very impressed. I have this album and thought I was one of a hundred or so people that know it existed!

It's a great album, r10. My favorite songs were tracks 2, 3 (the abovementioned song), 4, 6, and 7. It's too bad the song wasn't released in the U.S. I think it could've been a hit.

If we're allowed to mention a song by a singer who is not officially cool, I've always thought that this song should have been a hit.

The writer, Daniel Merriweather, made a big stink about Celine not mentioning on 'The Today Show' (USA) that he was the writer after she performed it. Longer story but it led to a change in the album (to be released) title from 'Water and a Flame' to 'Loved Me Back to Life.'

His ego probably cost him a lot of money. They never pushed it as a single after the contretemp.

(Wish we could do multiples in one thread.)

I was OBSESSED with everything "Poseidon Adventure" 1972 including 'The Morning After" but after all these years, the 'B' side still gets my attention; "Midnight Storm" by Maureen McGovern

Yes. Was always the other song, sadly.

This made me want to get up and ring my bell.

R9 and R10

Thank you for the heads up about Byrne & Barnes. If I had ever heard of them or their music I don’t remember it. ‘An Eye for an Eye’ is a GREAT album. I’m currently obsessed with it. It’s such a quintessential 80s album, and I am - as my friends tell me - stuck in the 80s. Also a good example of a studio session album from that time period.

We’re probably the same age group and listened to the same music, but if you haven’t already heard of all these people/groups, check out anything that David Pack (Ambrosia) has done - most people know Ambrosia but not all of Pack’s solo work. Check out the groups ‘Pages' and ‘Mr. Mister’, whose vocalists were Steve George and Richard Page, two of the most in demand studio back-up vocalists. They sing back-up on a wide variety of great 80s albums so their voices are everywhere and are distinctively recognizable after awhile.

You might also like the Alessi Brothers - similar, but not quite as accomplished. Twinkie twins from LI/NY that had modest success.

Thanks again!

R16 I don't think Byrne and Barnes were ever heard in America or anywhere outside of Japan...? They were songwriters of the era trying to get their songs placed with popular artists, if I remember right.

But it DOES have that sound of, wow, this feels so familiar and very much of that era.

Re: Byrne & Barnes, you can hear that album on Spotify.

One of my favorites of Lisa's. It must have been a single with a budgety video but I missed it if it was.

Thanks, R18. I should have mentioned that I found Byrne and Barnes on Spotify.

And if you let their album 'An Eye for an Eye' play out on Spotify, you'll hear a lot of similar music that Spotify offers up based on their algorithms. You end up hearing cuts and groups you may not have heard before. That's more or less what they do with something like 'Byrne and Barnes Radio.'

R16, funny you mentioned Pages because I have a few of their songs in my library. Tell Me is my favorite song from that album. It sounds like it would be a theme song to an '80s family sitcom.

I was never a huge Bananarama fan - preferring their earlier stuff to what they released once they fell down the Stock/Aiken/Waterman rabbit hole - but this always struck me as a song that should have been a much bigger hit, especially in America. It had sort of a dirty Go-Go's vibe.

'Pages' does a great cover of one of my favorite songs - 'Who's Right, Who's Wrong' - written by and recorded by Kenny Loggins - on their 'Future Street' album. You can hear Loggins doing backup on the cut.

Randy Crawford and Al Jarreau also did a great cover of 'Who's Right, Who's Wrong'. Really great version, live at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Not ever recorded by either of them. You can find it. on YouTube.

Speaking of 'Deep cuts, non-hits and B-sides'...

"Promises" from Streisand, 1981. Only hit #48 on the Hot 100. Should've been a bigger hit - was a fun, bouncy single. So different from the previous three singles she released off 'Guilty'.

Late 00s electro pop from Xenomania. Mini Viva were launched as Girls Aloud were coming to a natural end. Left My Heart In Tokyo was a hit but I Wish wasn't.

"The Twiiight Garden" is often cited as a favorite by fans of The Cure. .. It didn't get released on the album "Wish" and only appeared as the b-side to the lead single from that album, "High."

Blondie's "Suzy and Jeffery". It was only released as a B side to "The Tide Is High" until their CD compilations started coming out in the late 90's.

Gold Dust Woman, which was the flip side of You Make Loving Fun, which I loved, too.

Moonlight Drive, which was flip side of, Love Me Two Times, which also great.^^

I was supposed to be the A-side, and even got a video, but no, the female empowerment anthem on the flip side got the spins - and I'm all but forgotten.

I'm so totally of my time, and yes, that's Thomas Dolby

Lots of Tori Amos ones.

Take to the Sky is probably my favorite.