MetaChat - favourite 'forgotten hit'? (another music thread!)

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

07 March 2007

favourite 'forgotten hit'? (another music thread!) →[More:]

yesterday when i was in the bagel shop, i happened to hear The Romantics' "Talking In Your Sleep". for whatever reason i'd not heard it in years and years. i was instantaneously teleported right back to my freshman year in high school ('82-83), when I wore baggy white painter bibs and an izod sweater, wore a chick-mullet, and stored all my class notes in a Trapper Keeper binder.

What recent lost gems / one hit wonders / deep cuts and/or arcane musical treasures of your youth have YOU recently stumbled upon?

bonus points for recreating what you were doing at the time.

post by: lonefrontranger at: 15:47 | 30 comments

As part of my as yet unpaid vocation as a music writer, I make it a point not to forget hits, but some still fade off the radar. My local Key Food keeps an unending stream of 70's top 40 going as background music going as a scheme to make people like me think of their childhood, and thus be lulled into a relaxed state and buy more stuff. I recently heard Electric Light Orchestra's "Sweet Talkin' Woman" while I was in the beer aisle and I instantly became 8 years old again, only I was allowed to drink now.

Recently, I also heard the Georgia Satellites "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" someplace. God what a breath of fresh air that gritty Stonesy song was back in the age of synthpop and hairspray faux-metal. That made me think of my denim jacketed bemulleted high school self (class of '89) singing along with the car radio while smoking weed in my friend Moose's old Chevy Nova. Good times.

posted by jonmc 07 March | 15:57

I heard George Harrison's Got My Mind Set on You recently. I LOVED this song. I was 16 and it reminds me of one winter with my friend Greg. He would pick me up in his light blue Camaro. We would drive around and talk. We had crushes on one another, but never admitted it. I found out last year that he was killed in a motorcycle accident on Christmas Eve in Athens, GA while on leave from his Coast Guard job. :(

Mary's Prayer by Danny Wilson transports me back to a time with my best friend. We both loved this song. We were going to the beach everyday and partying every night.

Angel Eyes by The Jeff Healey band reminds me of an ex-boyfriend. I think I was 16 or 17, he was 20. I remember wearing a lot of short demin shorts that summer, BONGO was all the rage. I thought the older boyfriend was the bee's knees. He wasn't.

posted by LoriFLA 07 March | 16:09

"So Afraid of the Russians" by Made for T.V. Anybody else remember this weird little spoken word cold war paranoia oddity? Hell, anybody have a copy of it?It was in heavy rotation for awhile on a Top 40 station that my sister and I listned to at the time so it must have been a hit at some point. Haven't heard it in ~~years~~ decades, and it's not coming up on any compilations on Amazon.

posted by Lentrohamsanin 07 March | 16:18

I saw a Kink's documentary a couple of weeks ago and was reminded of "Father Christmas". Actually, I never forgot it, but I was riding in a car with my Mom and it came on the radio. I still love that song, even in the middle of June.

"Double Dutch Bus" by Frankie Smith pops up on the iPod (does that count?). Every time I hear it I go back to that summer day in a cold Baskin Robbins where I was eating a bubblegum flavored ice cream cone. That song came on and I'd never heard anything like it. It was just so crazy for my little rock/pop-radio oriented head.

posted by Hellbient 07 March | 16:25

I'm listening to Dire Straits "Walk of Life" right now.

And I'd been thinking about posting a music thread as well.

Also, Todd Rundgren's "I Don't Wanna Work" just started up, I love this song!

posted by fenriq 07 March | 16:34

Also, I was in the supermarket a couple of weeks ago and "Lost in the Supermarket" started playing. This was not funny.

posted by Lentrohamsanin 07 March | 16:35

Abracadabra by the Steve Miller Band and Tommy Tutone's Jenny/8675309 reminds me of the summer spent at "recreation". Recreation was day camp. We played a lot of ping-pong, went on field trips, etc. I wasn't aloud to go to Wet N Wild, my dad was afraid that my sister and I would drown. WTF!

OK, I'll stop. I could go on all day.

posted by LoriFLA 07 March | 16:36

I'm so glad you asked! Ah, Leah! by Donnie Iris.

posted by Hugh Janus 07 March | 16:41

New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody talk about...Pop Music

posted by plinth 07 March | 16:44

Oh yeah, and jonmc: we were talking about Matthew Sweet last week and I recommended the live version of "Someone to Pull the Trigger" off Son of Altered Beast; I was wrong about which Television guitarist plays the unearthly beautiful solo. It isn't Tom Verlaine. It's Richard Lloyd. And it's in my top five favorite solos ever.

Unfortunately I can't find a smoked copy of it from my work computer. Maybe you'll have better luck.

posted by Hugh Janus 07 March | 16:51

Someone To Pull The Trigger from Son Of Altered Beast

posted by TheDonF 07 March | 17:10

Oh, hell yeah! Thanks, TheDonF.

While we're at it, how about A Man Called E's "Hello Cruel World?" Or this one, which you might not know, Chara's "Yasashii Kimochi." And Smokie and Suzi Quatro, "Stumblin' In." Or John Stewart and Stevie Nicks, "Gold." Fuckin' YEAH!

posted by Hugh Janus 07 March | 17:11

That's really funny, Lori. Abracadabra reminds me of Travelling Camp and going to Dorney Park.

My favorite forgotten song is "Something Going On" by Frida.

posted by jrossi4r 07 March | 17:14

aw man, so far hellbient's winning! I luuuuurve Double Dutch Bus!!!! so veryverymuch!

and i had utterly and completely forgotten it up til now.

even if this thread dies right now, my day is made :)

posted by lonefrontranger 07 March | 17:21

oh man, I didn't even know it was a contest...Woo!
I say...Shhhhhoooga.

posted by Hellbient 07 March | 17:30

LoriFla, those are both really good.

and i didn't mean to kill the thread by pre-emptively crowning hellbient, i just love finding these gems. more! more!

first one to challenge hellbient wins a, um... hm.

*rifles thru desk*

aha!

how about some week old jellybeans and an expired Boulder phone book?

posted by lonefrontranger 07 March | 18:50

ah, and... just to give things a kick in the pants - it doesn't have to be 80's-centric either. lessee, what was i doing the first time i heard this gem?

i know! i was at a (mostly) gay/goth danceclub with an old boyfriend of mine. we were pimped out in the height of 1995 postpunk goth regalia (leather, studs, spikes, chains) and i had hair that looked JUST like this.

posted by lonefrontranger 07 March | 18:58

Hot Child in the City was a favorite. Come to find out the song is about child prostitution. My young ears! I don't know what that video is, but the song is there. It's not forgotten, but I loved Jesse's Girl by Rick Springfield.

Remember the song "Cry" by Godley and Creme?

Feed the Tree by Belly brings back many fond memories.

posted by LoriFLA 07 March | 19:38

Wrong link, here is Cry.

posted by LoriFLA 07 March | 19:40

I shall start off with "Wordy Rappinghood" by Tom Tom Club. I only bought it because Adrian Belew plays on it. Of course there is "Blister in the Sun" (though this is the Grosse Point Blank version. I dunno why, but I liked the movie)

Let me peruse my brain if I can find some more.

posted by eekacat 07 March | 19:47

Sublime's "What I Got" takes me back to the mid-90's like nothing else. There was this shithole bar I used to drink at after work. The drunken miscreant denizens loved this song.

posted by jonmc 07 March | 19:55

Fly Me Courageous. Just posted that, too (in a sort of response to the Cap'n America stuff).

posted by Eideteker 07 March | 20:20

Captain America is posing in his spandex.
He keeps me safe and warm by dosing me with Xanax...

posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 07 March | 20:44

ooh i just remembered another one from the early 90's!!!

check this out, an old bf and i used to listen to this album EVERY SINGLE TIME we went skiing up at Mad River Mountain in Bellefountaine, OH... i think we went to Midnight Madness (10PM-4AM weekend ski) every weekend that winter. talk about your one-hit-wonders, this song IS 'skiing' to me:

(warning, this is a deadly earworm y'all...)

Two Princes, by the Spin Doctors (YSI)

posted by lonefrontranger 07 March | 21:08

and LoriFLA... oh my god i LOVED 'Cry' by Godley and Creme... another Live Aid era gem that i'd completely overlooked.

i gotta save this thread in my bookmarks.

posted by lonefrontranger 07 March | 21:10

thanks jonmc, i love that song too, along with the Georgia Satellites one upthread.

posted by lonefrontranger 07 March | 21:12

What recent lost gems / one hit wonders / deep cuts and/or arcane musical treasures of your youth have YOU recently stumbled upon?

Well I just found some early nineties CDs that I had more or less forgotten about and there were a few songs I heard a LOT then but had not thought of in years.

Belly - Feed my Tree
Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas, Pitch the Baby
Lemonheads - Into my Arms
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Kiss Them For Me

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 07 March | 21:45

I hate to admit this, but Under The Bridge Downtown by the Red Hot Chili Peppers came on in a shop the other day, and it made me happy (by transporting me back to singing it over and over with my mates, smoking gear, sat in a pedalo, under a bridge over a lake, somewhere in France, when I was about thirteen).

And today I had to stop and sit down when Lord I Just Can't Keep From Crying (MP3) by Blind Willie Johnson came on the iPod, because I used to listen to it with my Mom when I was little.

Two Princes, by the Spin Doctors

Aaaargh! My Dad was really into that song, mostly to annoy me and my little sis, I suspect. Seriously catchy.

posted by jack_mo 08 March | 16:49

Yay, someone else who likes "Mary's Prayer." I LOVED that song.

Another favorite from back in the day is "Jukebox (Don't Put Another Dime" by the Flirts. Now it's a buck to play a song in the jukebox, if a place even HAS one.

Of a little more recent vintage is "Do Anything" by Natural Selection. Didn't we all think this was Prince when the song came out? I was a freshman in college when this was popular.

posted by sisterhavana 08 March | 19:19

Summer Breeze by Seals and Crofts always bring back a childhood memory. It was back in the '70's. My parents, little brother, and I are driving back from Asbury Park, New Jersey, when it was still a cool place to go. We were in our old Volkswagon Bus, and I was in the very back, lying on top of the motor. (You didn't have to buckle your kids back then) I was maybe eight or nine years old. I was looking at the stars through the rear windshield, and this song was playing on the radio. It was a great memory.

This was before the van got repossesed, and my dad left for California with his girlfriend. Sounds like a country song.

posted by redvixen 08 March | 20:22

← Can there really be too many bunnies? || Captain America killed on courthouse steps! →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN