Songs That Should Have Been Number 1 Hits.......

[enigmatic]

.....in a just world:

"Driveway To Driveway"- Superchunk


"The Bridge"- Cactus World News


"Radiation Vibe"- Fountains Of Wayne


"She Was The One"- Peter Hosapple/Chris Stamey


"Hyacinth Girl"- Winter Hours


Others?

[stellanoir]

1. everything that Jeff Buckley

ever sang

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. Amen, sister!

Especially "Last Goodbye."

Also....

"Myrrh"- The Church



"Sweetheart" - Lloyd Cole



FSC

[CO Liberal]

2. "Proud Mary" By Creedence Clearwater Revival

CCR had a string of songs that reached Number 2.

[last_texas_dem]

4. Yeah

"Proud Mary", "Green River", "Bad Moon Rising", "Who'll Stop the Rain"/"Travelin' Band", and "Lookin' Out My Back Door" all didn't make it past #2. At one point I saw a list of the singles that kept CCR's from reaching the top, and it was interesting. They weren't that bad or anything, but none of them have had the staying power of CCR's.

[HughBeaumont]

5. The most infamous one of all -

"Louie, Louie" by the Kingsmen . . . kept OUT of the top spot by the fucking Singing Nun's "Dominique".

[Squeech]

6. Phil Ochs: The Power and the Glory

Or, actually, "Small Circle of Friends," which was beginning to get airplay in 1969.

Then, the new Nixon appointees at the FCC suggested that stations that played songs that encouraged illegal drug use might find their licenses in jeopardy at renewal time. A whole bunch of promising pop songs suddenly fell off the charts, like Brewer and Shipley's "One Toke Over the Line"-- which if you think about it actually discouraged the use of weed, saying it went too far, but the mere mention was too much for our risk-averse media.

"Small Circle of Friends" was inspired by the Kitty Genovese case: a young woman was raped and murdered in full view of dozens of New York apartment dwellers, none of whom thought it was their business to call the police. Ochs contemplates the mindset of these people: "Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain / But Monopoly is so much fun, I'd hate to blow the game..." Then he goes on to discuss other social issues where people who might make a difference decide they'd rather not make a fuss. One such was marijuana laws. Because of that reference, radio killed the song.

[drumwolf]

7. Would be pop hits in my alternate universe:

Velocity Girl, "My Forgotten Favorite" and "Crazy Town"
Fugazi, "Waiting Room"
The Go-Betweens, "The Clock"
Hellacopters, "You Are Nothing"
G.B.H., "Malice in Wonderland"
Big Dipper, "Faith Healer"