Shoulda Been A Single

Going back quite a bit - "Any Major Dud Will Tell You" from Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic. I'd never heard this song until earlier this year and was surprised that such a snakey melody never made it's way to radio.

There's also the idea of 'should have just been a single' - i.e. when the band releases a whole album it's a big disappointment. I thought you meant that from the thread title.

good point: I think most Cure records fall into the "shoulda just been a single" category.

SINGLES that shoulda-been but weren't:

"Aeon" by Killing Joke, off DEMOCRACY

"Love Her All I Can" by Kiss, off DRESSED TO KILL album

"Wiggly World" by Devo, off DUTY NOW FOR THE FUTURE

"These Little Monkeys" by Jonathan Fire*Eater, off WOLF SONGS FOR LAMBS

"Tomorrow She Goes Away" by the Ramones, off MONDO BIZARRO

They used to say this about 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out'. When they finally put it out with Sandie Shaw on the covers, it did make top 20 or at least 30, 6 years on. (6 years seemed a long time then. It doesn't seem such a long time now.)

I seem to remember that David Devant were supposed to release I Think About You as a single and a few people thinking it could be their 'break-through' single but apparantly it was felt that the line "Ooh-aah in the garden with my famous purple heart on" could be misheard by those with filthy minds and so it was never released.

Morrissey's 'Nobody Loves Us' - the b-side to the dreadful 'Dagenham Dave'. 'NLU' would have made a great (better) A-side.

This kinda fits.

'How Soon Is Now', before they'd released it as a b-side and an album track. It could have been massive on it's eventual release, but they fucked up.

Just listened to "Nobody Loves Us." Great song.

I can think of a few occasions when I feel bands could be a bit more daring with the singles they choose. My favourite Duran song is 'The Chauffeur', and I always had the sneaking suspicion that it could have been a surprise big hit in the 'Vienna' mould.

Roxy- How fantastic would it have been to have had 'Mother Of Pearl' instead of 'Street Life'?

I was quite pissed off at Pulp going for 'Something Changed', because it's really unrepresentative of the venom and excitement from that album, and if I remember rightly, 'I-Spy' had already garnered quite a lot of radio play.

Bowie, '1984' instead of 'Diamond Dogs'; Auteurs, an edited-down 'The Upper Classes' instead of 'Chinese Bakery'; Scott Walker, 'Montague Terrace In Blue'; Tindersticks, 'A Night In' and 'Dying Slowly'; Bunnymen, 'Villiers Terrace'; 'Miss Europa Disco Dancer' off the disappointing new MSP.

yes, i echo jamies comments re: pulp here. something changed seemed an odd choice for a single, looking back now i think of something changed as a closure of the BOUNCYCOLOURFUL britpop era

"I Spy" could have been one of the most unpop Top 10 singles ever. "Something Changed" is sweet, and the melody line seemed pleasantly Bacharach-influenced to me at the time, but I see how it was very unrepresentative of the whole record.

"Something Changed" is an absolutely wonderful song that should have been a worldwide # 1 - even my utterly non-alt-rock girlfriend who has never heard of Britpop loves it.

Ultimate why-on-earth-wasn't-this-a-single? = "Gimme Shelter"

Well, exactly. It's almost MOR, but in a good sense. I remember being surprised that "Something Changed" only charted at #10 in the UK, but then most people had the album by then and it was just so familiar that people didn't really feel motivated to buy it.

One track which I'm amazed the record company haven't pushed as a single, coz it's a guaranteed top 5 hit if (ahem) Radio 2 play it is 'Down to the river' by Alison Krauss from the 'O Brother where art thou' soundtrack. It's so far out of sync with what's happening that it would pick up on all those listeners who can't stomach Nu Metal, hip hop or any other modern beat music.

"Ballad of El Goodo"- Big Star... had it been released as a single and marketed properly, you'd be hearing it every day sanwiched between Rick Springfield and The Eagles... Too bad.

i actually think the magnetic fields could be an incredible singles band. in fact, i was thinking that i would have definitely included a mf single in my 40-records list if only they were that sort of band (as opposed to the sort of band that just expects its audience to buy a $70 3-cd set of catchy pop tunes). i mean that i even think they might make the charts as a singles band. some fantasy mf singles: "desperate things you made me do," "smoke and mirrors," "busby berkeley dreams," "if you don't cry," "no one will ever love you."

sonic youth are/were miserable at releasing singles. for some reason, they've never chosen lee ranaldo songs even though he has the cleanest voice and sweetest tunes. "wish fulfilment," the best and most obviously commercial tune on dirty may actually have been the smash it deserved to be. "mote," even a radio edit, would have been a strong choice too, as would "saucer-like."

i agree re "there is a light" but the two ultimate smiths-singles- that-should-have-been for me are "still ill" and "girl afraid."

joy division's "insight."

if dischord hadn't been so tight-assed and released more album tracks as singles, i think they might have been able to milk the 90s for more than they did. fugazi's "do you like me?" and "foreman's dog," and shudder to think's "chocolate," "red house," and "get your goat" are some that come to mind. smart went crazy's "when you were sick" too.

in general i think a lot of indie bands might have been able to succeed more commercially in the 90s if they'd aggressively marketed some singles, e.g. unrest's "breather xoxo," team dresch's "screwing yer courage."

"take me back" is my favourite cinderella song. it's short, catchy, and upbeat and should have been a single. so should "die for you," the best song on bon jovi's slippery when wet.

also "gyroscope" and "the city" by the dismemberment plan.

definitely radiohead's "let down," which struck me as the most obvious choice off ok computer (and also the best song). was "idioteque" a single? it should have been.

"hello kitty kat" and "landslide" by smashing pumpkins too.

if "I Think About You" by david devant would have been released on 1996, it would have went strrrraight to number...18. It doesn't matter, it's GRRRATE. I'm sure everett true swears by it.

"Any Major Dude" -- flip of "Rikki (sic) Don't Lose That Number," at least in the U.S. Tom Robinson used the bridge as an extra bridge (sic!) in his version of "Rikki." Very nice.

Singles that were singles but just should've been bigger -- Nick Lowe's "So It Goes" and "Breaking Glass" (I know the latter was Top 10 in England; I mean here in the States).

Biggest lost chance ever: "Pump It Up" (the single here was "This Year's Girl" . . . just when America was succumbing to the lure of the Supermodel).