Black Type’s excellent Kylie review made me think of the songs that I hear about from her that are not widely known but are fan favourites. BT mentions Padam Padam and I am also aware of one by hers called Your Disco Needs You! I’m sold by the title already.
In my sphere of popular music, I know that OMD have performed The Romance of the Telescope and flop single Telegraph due to fan demand. Also. Depeche Mode tend to close their shows with Never Let Me Down Again, which was not a big hit single for them – but it has become something that they must play every time. Its inclusion in The Last of Us series 1 gave it a boost too.
Pet Shop Boys concerts must feature Being Boring even though, by their standards at the time the single flopped.
It helps that these are all wonderful songs but I’m interested to learn of other under-the-radar flop singles and album tracks that the fans love but might have escaped wider attention.
I was surprised at the Pulp gig in Finsbury Park when the song Like a Friend made it into the set. It was the B-side of A Little Soul and would have been unfamiliar to most casual observers in a set that was otherwise stacked with hits. But it’s one of those songs that has picked up traction in the streaming era, its 9m plays on Spotify making it, somehow, Pulp’s 13th most popular song. It was featured on the animated series Venture Bros and originates from the Great Expectations soundtrack, both of which may have anided its longevity. But I’m convinced it’s one like Harness Your Hopes by Pavement that has become a streaming hit by being added to lots of playlists, and now become too disproportionately big for the band to ignore it. Is it a cult fans’ favourite? I guess it must be, even if its fans are likely to be of a different generation to most of Pulp’s audience.
I only heard Like a Friend for the first time by chance last year and it’s easily one of their best songs. What on earth were they thinking putting that on a b-side? It’s a banger. Must be great live.
Squeeze always seem to play Goodbye Girl at gigs which when released as a single didn’t get in the top 50 but is a big favourite amongst most fans .
It also is a song in 2 versions, the normal fast one and a delectable slow one. I prefer the latter, but they err towards playing the fast one these days, I gather. (Not seen em since about 2018 or so, whenever it was they played Bearded Theory.)
I’ve seen number 51 smasheroonie Black Coffee in Bed held back for a big closing number at Squueze and Glenn Tilbrook solo gigs too.
That and Electric Trains are my favourite Squeeze songs. I have seen them 4 times I think and they have played Goodbye Girl each time but not Electric Trains.
Also they have not played another favourite Slaughtered, Gutted and Heartbroken although Glen Tilbrook played it in a solo set.
That’s a surprise – I’d have had it down as one of their most successful ones.
I think fans like it when the artist either gets reflective or lets their guard down a little. Under the Ivy by Kate Bush or Sometimes it Snows in April by Prince are both fan-favourite deep cuts, although the latter is quite well known I suppose.
“All that” by Sparks. Quite a recent song by Sparks but seems now to be accepted as their set closer. I’m seeing them next Saturday so I’ll let you know if that’s still the case. It’s ace by the way
Everything Flows has been Teenage Fanclub’s perennial set closer for decades but I’m sure it’s pretty much unknown outside of their faithful. Wish I’d been there for this version.
Norman usually announces it as “and still our very first single” or such like.
Everything Flows is absolutely the belter song on the very splendid Teenage Fanclub Have Lost It e.p.. I reckon that has something to do with it.
It’s pretty much the only song of theirs I could identify. It’s ace.
Everything Flows failed to chart when originally released in 1990, as did the A Catholic Education LP, and the Have Lost It EP hit the giddy heights of number 53. Civilians, eh?
Apparently my copy of the LP is quite rare. I saw them during the daytime at the 1991 Reading Festival where they played songs mainly from Bandwagonesque but, of course, closed with Everything Flows.
A gig full of hits and bangers can be joyful and great: “The Cure” and “Madness” do great gigs because of it. I still relish a Prefab Sprout show I saw in 2000. But sometimes the same old set and encore just makes it tired. There are some acts I will no longer see because of it. What am I perceiving here?
I would say The Bewlay Brothers. One of the greatest of all Bowie songs yet a bit ‘far out’ for those who know the hits. If I had been at a Bowie gig I would have been over the moon to have heard this.
Manics: Sleepflower. I think they’ve been playing it on their recent tour. It is a bit of a banger.
Australia reached 150 in Australia.
That’s all.
Draculas Daughter by the Decemberists even Colin thinks it’s shit.
When The Bible reformed in 1993, they played a handful of dates, including a near-legendary set at the Clapham Grand which saw grown men weep (yes, me included).
One of the biggest cheers of the night went to Bubblehead, their tribute to Marilyn Monroe, previously hidden away on the b-side of the 12″ single of (number 82 hit) Crystal Palace.
Although the biggest cheer went to The Will To Love, the only original song on the limited-edition 4-track bonus EP with the (number 67) 1989 compilation album. There were only 1,000 copies of the bonus EP pressed.
Maybe all 1,000 purchasers were in Clapham that night. There was certainly a lot of love in the room.
Neither song is on Youtube, by the way.
Boris the Spider and Magic Bus. Hardly the Who’s biggest hits (Boris wasn’t even a single), but live staples nonetheless.
The Boss has sometimes made a thing of including a showstopper that hasn’t even been released properly yet. Thinking of Light of Day on the “other band” tour, Land of Hope and Dreams on the “reunion tour”. Up until he went into the stratosphere in the 80s his most famous live track was Rosalita which I think was never released as a single and was on one of his albums that didn’t really sell very well at the time. Also on the Darkness tour Prove it All Night went from a fairly slight pop song (that was a minor US hit) to a huge thing with a 7 or 8 minute piano/guitar introduction with Bruce shredding. For me the highlight of that tour and one of the live highlights of his career