Songs That Could (or really SHOULD) Have Been Hits

[SoundscapeMN]

I posted something in my blog last week and have been adding to a list of songs that while are mostly favorites of mine, but at the same time well written and accessible enough songs, they could and I feel should have been heard by a lot more people and been bigger hits per say than they were, even mainstream.

Marillion - Easter (1989)
XTC - King for a Day (1989)
Toy Matinee - Last Plane Out (1990)
Jellyfish - New Mistake (1993)
Echolyn- As the World (1995)
Saigon Kick - Russian Girl (1995)
King's X - Mississippi Moon (1996)
Pain of Salvation - Reconciliation (2000)
Transatlantic - We All need Some Light (2000)
Dream Theater - Solitary Shell (2002)
Porcupine Tree - Trains (2002)
Spock's Beard - Long Time Suffering (2002)
Marillion - Don't Hurt Yourself (2004)
Pure Reason Revolution - Apprentice of the Universe (2004)
dredg - Bug Eyes (2005)
Klimt 1918 0 They Were Wed By the Sea (2005)
Mew - The Zookeeper's Boy (2005)
The Receiving End of Sirens- Between the Heart and the Synapse -The Armistice (2005)
Men Women & Children - Dance in My Blood (2006)
Under the Influence of Giants - Mama's Room (2006)
Paulson - I Knew You When (2007)
Bend Sinister - Time Breaks Down (2007)
Fair to Midland - Walls of Jericho (2007)
Kaddisfly - Empire (2007)
Kiss Kiss - Machines (2007)
Strata -Poughkeepsie, NY (2007)
Anathallo -- The River (2008)
Annuals - Springtime (2008)
Apes and Androids - Johnny and Sarah (2008)
Ours - The Worst Things Beautiful (2008)
The Reign of Kindo - Til We Make Our Ascent (2008)
As Tall As Lions - Circles (2009)
Umphrey's McGee - Cemetary Walk (2009)
22 - Gotodo (2010)
Cloud Cult - Running with the Wolves (2010)
Emanuel and The Fear - jimme's song (2010)
Foals - Spanish Sahara (2010)
Jazzkamikaze - Music is My Heroin (2010)
Timmy Sean - Wait (2010)
Hotel of the Laughing Tree - Bad Canterbury (2011)
3 - React (2011)
The Orion Experience - Nyc Girl (2011)
House of Fools -Need to Be Free (2012)
Oedipus - Gimme a Chance (2012)
Pepe Deluxé - Go Supersonic (2012)
Mayer Hawthorne - Designer Drug (2013)
Fjokra -Infinite Loops (2014)
The Dear Hunter - Waves (2015)

anyway, I'd love to see anyone else's idea of songs that are really melodic or well-written, but for whatever reason, they never got heard by as many people as you think.

[King Postwhore]

Dada -- Bob The Drummer.

[Imaginos]

Good call on Mississippi Moon.

Concrete Blonde - Happy Birthday
Blue Oyster Cult - Dancin' in the Ruins

[MirrorMask]

All of DT's easy songs... I Walk Beside You and Forsaken on top.

[twosuitsluke]

Was totally going to post Waves by The Dear Hunter, but you already had it 

That is a perfect example of a song that I could see becoming a mainstream hit. I could see it appealing to the masses and most people enjoying it. It is my go to song when I try to get friends and family, who only listen pop chart music, into music with a bit more depth and ambition.

I find the biggest problem with people who only listen to the radio, or what's in the charts, is that they seem incapable of making their own mind up about if they like a song. If it gets forced down their throats, via the radio, they know it's 'popular' and know it's ok to like it. They generally also only want a quick fix and then move onto the next 'hit' single and play that to oblivion. That's a whole other debate. I don't mean to generalise the casual music listener but that's my experience. 

[MirrorMask]

I find the biggest problem with people who only listen to the radio, or what's in the charts, is that they seem incapable of making their own mind up about if they like a song. If it gets forced down their throats, via the radio, they know it's 'popular' and know it's ok to like it.

That's exactly like it is.

Take the song Christmas Eve - Sarajievo from Savatage.

Savatage release it on their album, no one gives a damn.

The very same song gets released as "Trans Siberian Orchestra", it becomes a smashing hit and turns the band into one of the richest touring acts of all time.

[twosuitsluke]

Yep, the song 'Turn the Radio Off' by Reel Big Fish describes that problem (and solution) best 

[RoeDent]

Porcupine Tree have a ton of songs that should have been hits. Piano Lessons, Pure Narcotic, The Sound of Muzak, Lazarus, Waiting (Phase 1), to name just five.

Marillion's Dry Land absolutely should have been more of a hit than it was.

And I agree with Toy Matinee and Jellyfish on the list above.

[Stadler]

Was totally going to post Waves by The Dear Hunter, but you already had it 

That is a perfect example of a song that I could see becoming a mainstream hit. I could see it appealing to the masses and most people enjoying it. It is my go to song when I try to get friends and family, who only listen pop chart music, into music with a bit more depth and ambition.

I find the biggest problem with people who only listen to the radio, or what's in the charts, is that they seem incapable of making their own mind up about if they like a song. If it gets forced down their throats, via the radio, they know it's 'popular' and know it's ok to like it. They generally also only want a quick fix and then move onto the next 'hit' single and play that to oblivion. That's a whole other debate. I don't mean to generalise the casual music listener but that's my experience.

Yeah, I'm sorry to be the contrarian, but I don't believe that at all.  Yeah, some of those songs get play because they're by "Artist X", not purely on their merits, and yeah, I know there is some science to the idea that "repetition works", but the list of bands that have crashed with a bad song as a follow up to a hit is as long as my arm.   I think that generally - not always, but generally - the songs that are hits are hits for a reason.   This idea that "everyone would LOVE Tales From Topographic Oceans if they only heard it!" (and I'm being facetious here) is really nonsense.  It's not like Marillion is releasing songs into the ether.  They sent these songs to radio.  They MADE the charts by brute force, but people heard the songs and didn't respond.   

And as for the people who listen to the radio, well, that's my wife and my daughter.   I don't at all consider them people that "can't make up their mind".   They actually LIKE that music.   Believe me, they've heard their share of Transatlantic and DT and Marillion and Genesis... which sort of proves my point; how many people got into Genesis with "That's All" (one of my least favorite songs ever) and heard "Dance on a Volcano", and rather than saying "Holy shit that's so much better than the crap they're doing now" ACTUALLY said "Time for a BEER!".   Why do you think their setlists were predominantly post-Abacab? 

Honestly, "Dry Land" was as big a hit as it should have been.   

Having said all that, in the spirit of the game, I would put "Kayla" by Flying Colors here. 

[TheCountOfNYC]

Flying Colors-Kayla

It's like the perfect song. It's catchy, not too aggressive for a rock song, simple despite the verses being in 7, and the guitar solos are so melodic. I hear this song and know that it could be a massive crossover radio hit if given to the right people in the industry.

[RoeDent]

Honestly, "Dry Land" was as big a hit as it should have been.   

No need for that. Come on now. The thread isn't for dismissing/countering others' suggestions.

[MirrorMask]

Flying Colors-Kayla

It's like the perfect song. It's catchy, not too aggressive for a rock song, simple despite the verses being in 7, and the guitar solos are so melodic. I hear this song and know that it could be a massive crossover radio hit if given to the right people in the industry.

I agree!

[mike099]

Steven Wilson  -   Hand Cannot Erase  - Sing along song
Pyramid Theorem  - Another Day Slips By
Dream Theater  - This is the Life
Vanden Plas -   Fireroses Dance -   Beautiful song with a bit of everything

[Stadler]

Honestly, "Dry Land" was as big a hit as it should have been.   

No need for that. Come on now. The thread isn't for dismissing/countering others' suggestions.

I'm sorry if it seemed dismissive; wasn't meant to be that.   HUGE Marillion fan, and while Holidays is not among my favorites, I was one of those who wept a little during "Neverland" on this last tour.  It was a comment meant to reinforce a bigger point. 

[Stadler]

Steven Wilson  -   Hand Cannot Erase  - Sing along song
Pyramid Theorem  - Another Day Slips By
Dream Theater  - This is the Life
Vanden Plas -   Fireroses Dance -   Beautiful song with a bit of everything

BIG FAN of "This Is The Life".  That's a great, great call.