They Should Have Been Hits!
They Should Have Been Hits!
Thanks for visiting this channel. Created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of when I began collecting records, I aim to use it to promote songs that I personally believe should have been hit singles here in the UK but weren't. Perhaps they lacked radio airplay or sufficient promotion, or that the record company didn't think they were right for UK single release. Some may even have become B sides, or were simply left to languish on an album.
Well now it's time to revisit them, and starting on 1st January 2022 (and every day throughout the year) I'll be uploading a song from my collection and giving you the chance to express your own views. If you agree that it was UK Top 20 singles material then give that song a like, but if you think it sucks then dislike it and there will be no offence taken. Then at the end of the year I'll review your preferences and we'll see which songs got the highest votes.
I'm looking forward to doing this, and hope you'll enjoy the ride!
Johnny Delusional
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Perfect song for us here in the UK today
And, as usual, the greedy, petty Beatles have seen to it that the audio is, as it were, inaudible. Thanks, Fabs. Peace and Love, guys. Furthermore, I hope your next one's a hedgehog. By the way, I've already bought the bloody album several times on vinyl, cassette and CD. It would be nice if I could, you know, listen to it here. Anyway, The Beatles are never getting another penny out of me, either for Sgt. Pepper or any other Beatles product. I've decided now that I prefer The Kinks anyway. And Bob Marley. And Genesis. And Sinatra. And The Move. And Paul Simon. And the Pipes & Drums of the Royal Highland Regiment. And a Peruvian nose-flute player that I haven't ever heard. And the guy out in the street who's whistling while he empties my bins. In fact, anybody other than The Beatles. Fun fact: Paul Simon released his last album for sale in the various, current, standard formats. Simultaneously, he made the entire product available online for free. I appreciate that so I bought the CD anyway.
A classic track. In a fair world it would have done respectably well in the British tracks, albeit it would have been fighting for its place against heavyweights such as The Wombles, Alvin Stardust, Barry White, The Bay City Rollers, The Glitter Band, Mud, Slade and The Stylistics. Hmmm. Tough competition there and I haven't even mentioned Lena Zavaroni, Peters and Lee, Donnie & Marie Osmond, Charles Aznavour, David Cassidy, Showaddywaddy, Terry Jacks and of course the legendary Mouth & MacNeal, all of whom were clogging up the Top Ten in 1974. I tell you, it's a jungle out there in Hit Parade Land.
Well, once again I find myself surprised by what I've just learned. This song was on the radio so much that I'd always assumed that it was a hit single. Apparently not. It should have been. I spent several months in America around the time that "Breakfast In America" was released and I don't think a day went by when I didn't hear at least one of the tracks from that album coming from somewhere, whether it was the radio, somebody's boogie-box or a jukebox in a bar. What a monster hit album that was!
Isn't this just beautiful? It's one of the finest melodies that Neil ever composed (and he knocked out more than his fair share of beauties.) It never ceases to amaze me that this collaboration took place at all - a world-famous American singer-songwriter with a string of huge hits under his belt, having found himself in a career slump, somehow turned to a relatively obscure, English, musical co-operative based in the outskirts of Manchester to resurrect his prospects. And it worked! It worked brilliantly! I think it's one of the most amazing stories in rock & roll history. Not only did Neil get a new lease of life and subsequently turn out a succession of excellent, commercial hits which put him back in the spotlight but the aforementioned, obscure, English co-operative realised their potential and, with their self-confidence boosted by what they had achieved, determined that they could probably achieve something noteworthy in their own right. Thus, we got the brilliant, creative act that we know today as 10 c.c. Legendary stuff! P.S. I've always had a soft spot for Andy Williams. Good guy. For one thing, despite being a lifelong Republican he was a very close friend of RFK and was even present in the Ambassador Hotel when Bobby was murdered. Bobby's widow, Ethel, asked Andy to sing at RFK's funeral and Williams complied. Williams was also one of the relatively few celebrities who bravely and vociferously spoke out publicly against Nixon when he was trying to deport John Lennon from America. Apart from that, Williams' best material is really top notch. Regardless of what your bag is, I don't think anybody can objectively deny that "Can't Get Used To Losing You", "Music to Watch Girls By", "Moon River", "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", "The Impossible Dream", "(Where Do I Begin) Love Story", "Speak Softly Love (Love Theme from The Godfather)" as well as his version of "Solitaire" are all popular music classics. I have spoken. The matter now rests. 😉
I came to "Memory Almost Full" rather late because I was under the impression that it was a collection of rejects from the superb "Chaos And Creation" project. I was very pleasantly surprised that it's not only a very good album musically but that the lyrics display a level of self-awareness which I'm not used to from His Paulness. This song in particular really grabbed my attention. Sir Thumbs-up, of all people, gets caught contemplating his own mortality? Who knew? Who'd have thunk it? Not me. When the dread day finally dawns when the sad news is announced that we have lost one of our greatest musical talents - may it not occur for many years yet! - I suspect that this great song will, ironically, take on a new lease of life as a profoundly moving, self-penned obituary. It may well be that it moves out of the "They Should Have Been Hits" file and into the "Biggest Hits of the Twenty-First Century" list.
This is almost certainly the very best Beach Boys single of the seventies and it thoroughly deserved to be a huge hit. Unfortunately, the preceding few years had witnessed a continuous procession of abysmal, unworthy releases under the brand name of the Beach Boys. The group's reputation had deservedly plummeted accordingly. (For that, we can thank Mike "don't fuck with the formula, Brian" Love.) When Brian briefly rallied from his mental troubles and a really great song finally emerged, the general reaction from those who still cared was more, "Phew! This one isn't an absolute embarrassment!" rather than, "Wow! This is finally up to the standard of material that we've been waiting for". It truly did deserve a better reception. Alas! It was too late to rescue the credibility of the Beach Boys as a serious creative force and it proved to be a mere blip on their inexorable transition and subsequent decline into an increasingly pathetic and irrelevant legacy act. It's still a great single though.
In an advanced civilisation, this is the sort of uplifting, inspiring, challenging material which would be the staple musical diet of the masses and such a society would undoubtedly thrive. In the world in which we actually live, the ongoing collapse of British culture in 1979 was further confirmed by the overwhelming public approval of such substantial fare as "Y.M.C.A" and "In The Navy" by the highly acclaimed Village People; "Hooray! Hooray! It's a Holi-Holiday" and "Painter Man" by those great artists, Boney M; "I Was Made for Dancin'" by some entity called Leif Garrett; "He's the Greatest Dancer" by Sister Sledge (although I suspect she wasn't a real nun); and last - and arguably least - a grim dirge about a dead rabbit by Art Garfunkel. It gets even worse - things have only declined further since that time. I suppose we are where we are, God help us.
FTB is one of the greatest tracks of the seventies. It deserves every second of the eleven and a half minutes that it occupies on the Deceptive Bends album. This is a very decent attempt to edit its brilliance down to the length of a single and it might have had commercial success as a taster. Still, it lacks the superb development and climax of the fully-fledged magnificence of the album track. Hard one to call. I'll give it a thumbs-up as a matter of principle although, objectively, I fear it might well have been a miss.
I'm astounded to learn that it was indeed released as a single in the UK and failed to make any impact. For years, I've wondered why it wasn't a chart hit and I simply presumed that it had never been released as a single, for some inexplicable reason. This is yet another indictment of the British record-buying public, adding to their previous convictions of sending Englebert Humperdinck's maudlin dirge "Please Release Me" to number one at the expense of the Beatles masterpiece "Penny Lane / Strawberry Fields Forever" which stalled at number two, and, worse still, making The Wombles the biggest selling singles act of 1974! Sometimes I think that we in Britain don't deserve to have any good music!
In terms of musical merit, this should unquestionably have been a hit. But in 1975, there were only about six or seven women in the whole of Britain who willingly listened to prog bands (apart from bikers' girlfriends and the wives of the actual musicians). Most girls would sneer disparagingly at the very thought of listening to music which might, at any moment, transition into a 7/4 or 13/8 time signature, causing them to pull a hamstring or fall over on the dance floor in an undignified fashion. "Put on Disco-Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes or Gloria Gaynor," they would demand in shrill tones, while wiggling their hips in a seductive manner. (I know because I was there.) It was men who were into prog and they comprised 99.999% of the prog market. They had already bought advance copies of the album. Who's left that's going to buy the single? It's still a great track and a great single. But life isn't fair.
It's a very nice song. It's not a hit single. As a general rule, a four minute single offering shouldn't already be a quarter of the way through before the song starts in earnest. The first minute is pleasant enough music but if you're trying to make an impact in the few minutes you may be afforded on national radio, you have to get straight to the point of what you've got to say. You can't hold back. This would have a far better chance of being a hit single if the first minute was totally absent from the single edit and the record started at around the 0:58 mark. You usually have to catch the public's attention immediately with something spectacular, if you're not going to start singing immediately. Cases in point from the same era: ABBA - "Money, Money, Money", "The Name Of The Game" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You"; Stevie Wonder - "I Wish" and "Sir Duke"; Queen - "We Are The Champions"; The intros to those songs, if they even have one, are all immediately recognisable, instantly memorable and unique at some level. Queen don't even bother with an intro - the first thing you hear is the vocal line. Stevie hits us with either one of the funkiest bass lines in pop history or the best brass line you could hope for and in either case it's only a matter of less than twenty seconds before he starts singing. ABBA's intro to "Money, Money, Money" is a hook in itself but in any case it's immediately identifiable and impactful within two seconds, at most. "Five O'Clock In The Morning"? There's no comparison. If you're a DJ who wants to attract listeners' attention, are you going to play the Godley & Creme track rather than ABBA or Stevie or Queen? This is a competitive business and there's no time waste on one minute-long noodling introductions if you want a hit!
Was this actually released as a single? It should have been. It would have The Wilburys were very hot for a few years. All of their material seemed to be fairly well known, from where I was observing.
Good songwriting, good arrangement and good production. This should (or would ) have charted in 1980. Thumbs up!
Sadly, it appears that the audio has been muted by our supreme YouTurd overlords. That's a pity. I was hoping to hear this track for the first time but not today, apparently.
Okay, I cheated. I found the track elsewhere on YouTurd. It's lovely. I don't know if it would or should have been a hit in 1981 but I always had the hots for Barbara Dickson so I'm not going to give it a thumbs down. Barbara is a great musician and a beautiful singer. I remember her from when she was known mostly as a folk singer in Scotland, back in the early to mid-seventies. Then she suddenly had a pop hit with a super cover of "Answer Me" and everyone who knew her was very pleased for her. She's a lovely lady who is very talented and she deserves every bit of the success she has achieved.
Talents such as Graham Goulman and Andrew Gold should have been able to create more creative and distinctive melodic content than this. It is "sound and fury, signifying nothing" other than two talented songwriters on a bad day, manfully trying to knock out a track before the end of another day's hard labour in the song mines. Unworthy of each of them. But certainly very loud.
Unquestionably, this would have been a monster hit if it had been released in 1967. I don't even care if I'm right or wrong. (I'm right, by the way). I assert that this masterpiece would have been a huge hit in 1967 and no mortal is capable of convincing me otherwise. I will eat the liver of anyone who even tries. The sheer beauty of this musical jewel is almost overwhelming, especially in the sublime purity of all of the vocal parts. The lyrics almost totally suck, but who cares? It's music, not philosophy. Most of the words SOUND good and they sing well so I can live with their almost complete meaninglessness (cf "I Am The Walrus" and "Whiter Shade Of Pale" in which the lyrics are colours and tones rather than narrative or meaning but they are perfect for the superlative tracks of which they are intrinsic parts of the magical, finished product.) Brian's creativity at this point was unquestonably on a par with that of The Beatles. He was a world leader. This would be a good moment for millions of us to once again direct our malevolent thoughts and ill wishes towards the foul, hedonistic being who is known as Mike "so-called" Love, whose greed, unloveliness and selfishness played such a huge part in bullying Brian into his mental collapse and loss of self-confidence which denied us the timely release of what would have been the seminal masterpiece of the "SMiLE" album, as Brian originally conceived it. I had the pleasure, privilege and honour of being present at the astoundingly brilliant live performance of "Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE" in Glasgow, just a couple of days after its long-awaited world premiere in London (in the presence of such luminaries as Sir George Martin, Sir Paul McCartney and dozens of other all-time musical greats). As wonderful as that performance was, it was impossible not to regret the thought of "what might have been?" if SMiLE had come to fruition in 1967. A hit, I say! A MOST PALPABLE HIT!
Firstly, I'd like to thank you for bringing to my attention the fact that Genesis had re-recorded this great song with an eye to having a hit single. I really like this alternative version for its variations. Sadly, the British singles-buying public just wasn't up to the challenge at that time. Fortunately, those of us who were buying the albums kept the prog show on the road. Prog music and hit singles were generally in different universes throughout most of the seventies. There were very few exceptions. Prog artists generally considered a hit single as the kiss of death for their credibility as serious heavyweights (unless they were appearing out of nowhere, such as the brilliant Dutch outfit, Focus, who alerted us to their existence through their superb simultaneous hit singles, "Hocus Focus" and "Sylvia"). It could be argued that ELP managed to get away with having a few hit singles ("Fanfare For The Common Man", "I Believe In Father Christmas" and "Honky-Tonk Train Blues") but it generally just wasn't the done thing for serious prog artists to demean themselves by appearing on Top Of The Pops rather than The Old Grey Whistle Test. Therefore, my final verdict is that "Watcher Of The Skies" not only would not have got anywhere near the charts, but we are all the better for it. God forbid that they might have turned into a singles-focussed band before they had recorded "Selling England By The Pound", "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway", "Trick Of The Tail", "Wind And Wuthering", "And Then There Were Three" and "Duke"! Nevertheless, what a brilliant track "Watcher Of The Skies" really is!
Nope. No question of this being a Top Twenty hit. It's a splendid album track from the very fine and sadly underrated "London Town" LP but it wouldn't have stood a chance of reaching the top 20 at that time. McCartney put out a series of very fine singles at the tail end of the 1970s but they had vastly different degrees of success. "Mull Of Kintyre" quickly became the biggest selling UK single ever, making McCartney "Bigger Than The Beatles", yet the beautiful single "London Town" stiffed at #60 and the excellent rocker, "I've Had Enough" peaked at a measly #42. However, the delicious single,"With A Little Luck" deservedly made it to the top five. Subsequent releases had bizarrely poor chart performances. "Getting Closer" deserved much better than its pathetic #60 top placing in the UK charts. Similarly, "Old Siam, Sir" should have gone higher than number 35. "Arrow Through Me", which is an excellent track, made absolutely no impression at all. It's almost inexplicable. I saw Wings in concert twice during this period (in the greatly missed Glasgow Apollo theatre, one of the finest venues in the UK at that time). As I recall, each of the singles I've mentioned above was performed live to highly enthusiastic acclaim by the audience but it seems that beyond the devoted McCartney fans, the rest of the UK music-buying public was indifferent to much of his excellent output. As George Harrison correctly observed, "It's a game - sometimes you're cool, sometimes you're lame."
A law should have been passed in 1986 to make it obligatory for every UK citizen over the age of 10 to buy this single. Thatcher's government failed us on that but when I rule the world I'll introduce retrospective legislation to enforce this edict. If Art Garfunkel doesn't like that, too bad. He will buy a thousand copies or else I'll have him extradited to face my unique brand of justice. Of course it should have been a hit! It's Paul Simon! The greatest living songwriter! From the greatest album of the Eighties! It's a no-brainer!
Yeah, possibly. If Golden Earring or Cozy Powell could have a hit instrumental single, then anything is possible. I didn't realise that he'd re-recorded it with an eye to having a successful single. If it had received enough airplay, it might have made some kind of chart impression. What could have made a difference would have been if a section of it could have been placed into a mainstream tv programme as a theme tune. I remember the opening bars of ELP's magnificent "Fanfare For The Common Man" used to be the introductory music for BBC Scotland's 6 o'clock news bulletin. But it always comes back to the hook. Hooks equal hit singles. "Fanfare" has a strong, unforgettable, instantly recognisable theme tune. Ditto, Focus's "Sylvia", Hot Butter's "Popcorn", Fleetwood Mac's "Albatross", to name but a few instrumental singles, from the top of my head, which have charted. What is it about Clocks/Angel Of Mons which makes you think it could have made that kind of commercial impact? (Apart from the fact that it is an excellent piece of music - but that's an entirely different thing from outselling The Wombles or Englebert Humperdinck).
Nothing continued to happen for 5 minutes and 22 seconds. What happened to their quality control? The men who had given us "Cinema Show", "Firth Of Fifth", "Supper's Ready", "One For The Vine", "Duke's Travels", "Watcher Of The Skies", "The Musical Box", "Mad, Mad Moon", "In The Cage", "Los Endos", "Dance On A Volcano", "Burning Rope", even "Me And Sarah Jane" and "That's All"; they listened to the playback of this limping dog of a track and they turned to each other and said, "Yes. This is well worthy of being a Genesis release. In fact, we'll make it the title track of our new album. The old magic is still there, eh?" Surely somebody must have said, "Er... not really, chaps. I'm sorry, but I honestly don't think so. If you really want to release this plodding piece of nothingness, release it as 'Banks, Rutherford & Wilson" or 'Dry Well' or 'Firing Blanks' or 'Just Kidding'. But for God's sake, don't call it 'Genesis'! You'll just diminish your legacy. Oh, and by the way, you badly need a drummer. You shouldn't have refused to bring in Chester as a full member of the band. Just saying." Did nobody dare to say that? Really? Oh well. I've still got the good stuff in my collection.
Nope, I'm afraid I'm not hearing a hit here. This is musically monotonous and unimaginative. Dull. Feeble. There's no sign of a hook and the clumpy, lead-booted riff that is given the thankless task of carrying the track is exceptionally unexceptional. Yes, they have a lyrical talent which few pop writers can match but a good tune is a far better bet if you want an actual hit single. ABBA's lyrics are hilariously bad but their melodies are tremendous. (And they don't pretentiously imitate Frank Zappa if they've completely run out of decent musical ideas.) Godley and Creme ought to have been capable of much better than this but unfortunately they preferred to show us how clever they are.
This is a simply gorgeous piece of music from a magnificent album which I rate as one of the very best solo Beatles LPs. Top five, at least. "Your Love Is Forever" has never failed to move me deeply. It is absolutely sublimely beautiful. However. By the time the British record-buying public had disgraced itself by rejecting tremendous offerings such as "Blow Away" and "Love Comes To Everyone" in favour of crass tripe such as Lena Martell's "One Day At A Time", Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell", and God knows how many other abominations which were awarded high chart placings --- well, I guess it was time to stop casting pearls before swine. If the public wants rubbish, then the public shall get rubbish, and the relentless decline of the quality of chart music over the last forty years proves precisely this point.
I think the album had been well and truly milked of all its realistic potential hit singles by the time this one was up for consideration and it surely wasn't up to the standard of "Wouldn't It Be Good" or "The Riddle". Still, it might have scraped into the Top Twenty since he was on a roll but I think we'd be looking at diminishing returns. Bearing in mind that singles were, at least partly, supposed to direct the record-buying public in the direction of the (more lucrative) album, I think that goal had already been well and truly achieved by the time that any consideration would have been given to "You Might" as a single release. If anybody hadn't bought the album by that time, they probably weren't going to. I bought the album. It's excellent. I didn't buy any of the singles but after I'd heard a couple of them on the radio, I took a chance on the LP and I was pleased with what I discovered (apart from the song about the whales, which was a weak filler track.) "You Might" is a good track but the best tracks from the album had already been released as singles so I guess it was time to stop going back to the well.
Jeez! I'd forgotten about this one! Great track. I first got turned on to Aphrodite's Child by a colleague of mine who toured with Demis (playing bass) back in the day and he recommended that I give him a listen. That was good enough for me since I had great respect for my friend's musical taste so, since he rated Demis as a great talent, I checked out the "666" album and instantly agreed with his assessment! I first heard this track after that and it further confirmed my opinion. It could well have been a Top Twenty hit in the UK if it had the right promotion but, to be fair, there was a lot of very stiff competition in those days!
Excellent track. It was as worthy of a top twenty place as any of the junk that people were buying in 1991 but by that time the public had stopped relishing being challenged by sophisticated music. By the way, there are a few moments in this song which remind me of Tony's brilliant song, "Me And Sarah Jane".
Yes! This should definitely heve been an A-side and I think it would have done very well. In my opinion it's far better than "Lady," which is just a somewhat forced Son Of Dreamer. "Crisis? What Crisis?" is actually my favourite Supertramp album, although I realise that I'm very much in the minority with that evaluation. Musically and especially melodically, it's absolute terrific. I also wonder how "Ain't Nobody But Me" would have fared as a single.
I've been a Beatles fan all of my life but their ruthless, aggressive suppression of KZread uploads really pisses me off now. Greedy hypocrites, preaching about peace and love, while all they really care about is grabbing even MORE money to add to the millions they already have stashed away. If this single ever goes out, I hope it stiffs!
It's okay. With only a couple of exceptions**, the material which was released under the Badfinger brand name after Pete Ham's tragic death lacked the exceptional spark which made Pete's songs the highlight of all their best albums. The others were competent and occasionally excellent but Pete had the knack of consistently coming up with something really memorable that rose above the best that Tom and Joey could write. Even then, their songs often featured beautiful, melodic guitar breaks from Pete which raised the quality of the final track. This is typical of many Joey Molland compositions. It's repetitive, predictable, cluttered and sounds like he's trying to rewrite the last Beatles song he listened to ("Blue Jay Way", anyone?). Also, it isn't at all enhanced by his lugubrious vocal delivery. And since nothing very worthy is happening, the production solution is to saturate it with heavier and heavier guitar noise. Fine, if that's your thing, but it wasn't the way to offer up a potential top twenty single in 1981. For a start, the first 40 seconds are a waste of valuable radio airtime. (Compare the intro of this offering to "Day After Day" or "No Matter What" which get straight to the point as soon as the needle drops.) This is a tolerable, occasional listen for those of us who already had a lot of affection and goodwill for Badfinger but it was never going to win over a new audience. ** Those exceptions in full: Lost Inside Your Love Love Is Going To Come At Last. Both of these deserved to be substantial hits.
There's barely a track on SITKOL (including the bonus EP) which wouldn't have been a hit single. The entire album is a masterpiece.
I should first declare an interest. If, please God, I ever become the supreme dictator of the entire world, I shall make it compulsory for every Top Twenty chart to contain a minimum of eighteen Paul Simon songs. My secret police shall be authorised to enter and search every household to ensure that it contains every published work that Paul Simon has ever recorded. Now that we've got that out of the way... Yes. I think this should have been a big hit in the UK when it was released. Was it even a single in the UK?
Smallcreep's Day is a great album and this is a beautiful track but I can't imagine it being a Top Twenty hit in 1980. It's an ideal track for late night Radio 2 but that really wasn't a route into the singles charts in those days. Or now. (Did we even have late night Radio 2 music programmes in 1980? I can't remember.) It certainly wouldn't have featured much on daytime Radio One and that's what generally shaped the charts, with very few exceptions such as some novelty records which Terry Wogan would occasionally promote. Listening again to this track, all these years later, I'm struck by its similarity to "If That's What You Need" from the final Genesis album. When I first heard it on the (late night) radio in a hotel after I'd finished a gig, I was drifting off to sleep. I had no idea it was Genesis. I just liked it immediately, sat up in my bed and turned up the radio to make sure that I didn't miss the name of the artist. "Genesis! Good heavens! I'll need to buy this album," and I did but, like everyone else who bought it, I was disappointed. But I'll never forget how lovely "If That's What You Need" sounded that first time. Now THAT'S a song which I thought should have been a reasonably successful single. That just goes to show how much *I* know!
Definitely should have been a big hit. I didn't realise that Alan Tarney had released material under his own name. I first became aware of him because of Barbara Dickson's super-catchy "January February" hit. Around that same time, to my utter amazement, I also found myself liking some Cliff Richard singles. I even bought a couple. And then, when I saw the name of Alan Tarney credited as the writer/producer, I realised that this man - who could make me buy Cliff Richard records - must be a force to be reckmoned with! I always presumed that he was "just" a songwriter and producer so I'll be interested to see what else he's released as an artist.
I haven't heard this before. It's quite a good song although I'm very uncomfortable with the lyrics - "He got hung up..." My God, man, have some taste! I could never sing a line like that about a friend of mine who had hanged himself, far less two of them! Even apart from that, I don't think it would have had a chance of reaching the top 50, never mind the top 20. Joey Molland simply doesn't have a voice that sells a song. He can more or less hold a tune and he was a valuable contributor to the superb harmony vocals of the classic Badfinger line-up but he really doesn't have the vocal chops that make a song sound great on the radio. (Compare him to Pete Ham, for example). (By the way, in passing, it's not stricly accurate to call Badfinger a Welsh band, notwithstanding that Wales looms large in their history. However, both Tommy Evans and Joey Molland were born and bred in England so it's more accurate to call them Welsh-English or simply British.)
This should definitely have been an A-side in its own right. I'm certain it would have been a contender for #1 as the follow-up to "My Sweet Lord" if it hadn't been wasted as a B-side. Having said that, what a bargain single that was - both sides were tremendous. I'm not sure just when George composed this but if it's one of those that he wrote while still in the Beatles, I'd go as far as to say that it should already have been a Beatles single.
It's a pleasant enough album track but it lacks the distinctive quirkiness of the classic 10 c.c. hit singles that preceded it. The same goes for the album. It's nice, it's pleasant, it's professional but it wasn't very inspired. It sounded like very competent craftsmen and producers turning out a product to order. I daresay that's what it actually was.
At this time, Genesis had no "girl appeal" so the odds of having a hit single were pretty low, no matter how brilliant the track was. TLLD is a truly great track but very few prog fans were interested in singles; albums were where it was at. So who was going to buy this in sufficient quantities to get it into the charts? It wasn't really until "Follow You, Follow Me" - a straightforward, standard love song - that Genesis ever seriously troubled the singles charts, essentially because it appealed to girls. Suddenly, you started to see girls at Genesis concerts and the run of hit singles was underway.
Flaming Pie was a very welcome return to top form for McCartney. The album is full of great tracks and this is certainly one of them. If my memory serves me well, the excellent "Young Boy" was the lead single from the album and it just scraped into the top 20 by the skin of its teeth so I don't know if "Somedays" would have done any better. But it deserved to be a hit single.
Lovely track. It could well have been a hit with the right promotion. I agree with you about Paul Carrack's vocal brilliance. I've seen him in concert a couple of times and he was superb. I often wondered if he was seriously considered for the Genesis vocal gig after Phil Collins quit. He certainly should have been!
Sadly, by 1981, Badfinger no longer had their finger on the commercial pulse. This is a decent enough track but I can't imagine that it would have got anywhere near the UK top 20 in 1981. It would have had a great chance in the early seventies (in Slade's heyday) but it wasn't likely to compete for chart space with the likes of the New Romantics, the various synth-based acts, the New Wave types or the established legacy acts such as Elton, Bowie, McCartney and so on.
Definitely could and should have been a hit, given that it would have been released at a time in the seventies when the British record buying public was already enjoying pop music with more sophisticated and ambitious structures (such as Band On The Run by Wings, I'm Mandy Fly Me by 10c.c., Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, and Music by John Miles) and sending them up towards the top of the singles charts. Badfinger were very unfortunate that their career ran aground as a result of horrible lawsuits and contractual problems just as this great album was released. Had it been promoted properly (or even freely available for people to purchase) it could well have been a huge breakthrough for them.
The TV ad version was released on a limited edition 3" mini CD by McEwans. It includes the extended TV mix with the changed lyrics and the instrumental section. They changed the lyrics to "You've Got The Power to get out of here. Out of the Tower.. Out of the Tower"
Radio Records did not have the money to promote this album properly !!!
Great to have tracked down this mix, which is closest to the advert version and easily my favourite. Tempted to buy it on vinyl too, what a brilliant cover image.
Yes, this song should have been released as a single!!
Great song !!!!
Nice version. Barry is hard to beat.
Best track on the album.
@rbaruah8790 I agree, he had such an amazing voice in his own right. I loved Mo's rich silky smooth voice. He had quite a big range too.