Immensely popular bands/artist great songs you would never hear on the radio

[Scout]

For whatever reason…
Great song but never cracked the top-40 or got air play.

 

[Batman]

Anything by Metallica before the Black Album.
Even now, you'll hear their 90s stuff (Black Album, Load/Reload) on classic rock stations or those JACK type stations that play everything, but you don't hear much else from their catalogue.

 

[Scout]

 

[Slacker]

Strange song, sorta, but I like it anyway. And this live version is the best.

You can't play a video on the radio, of course, but I could watch Florence dance all night ...



And, finally, I never even woulda known about this video if it weren't for SJ.com. So we got that goin' for us, which is nice.

 

[garrow]

The Fever by Bruce Springsteen.

 

[misterbc]

Sexy Sadie.
Always thought it was one of the best songs on the White Album.

 

[Songbird]

Strange song, sorta, but I like it anyway. And this live version is the best.

You can't play a video on the radio, of course, but I could watch Florence dance all night ...



And, finally, I never even woulda known about this video if it weren't for SJ.com. So we got that goin' for us, which is nice.

This version is one of the best songs of all time and the 10 seconds where she goes off on her single drum and crazies her hips is why boys have chased girls since the dawn of time.

 

[Songbird]

For some odd reason this was never on the radio or MTV but it's one Boingo's top 3 or 4 songs.

 

[User 149557]

The simultaneous gulf between Spotify/Tik Tok popularity versus current radio popularity versus historical critical consensus is wild.

 

[MisterCreosote]

I don’t listen to “the radio” anymore, but one of my favorite songs is Queen’s “Spread Your Wings,” and I can’t recall ever hearing that played.

@Batman is right about Metallica. It’s like everything other than the Black Album has been memory-holed, which is crazy because their best stuff came before that. Has “Fade to Black” ever gotten airplay?

Side note: Discussions like this are why I’m so glad I never have to listen to the radio again. Being able to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want is worth whatever I’m paying Amazon Music per month.

 

[Slacker]

Being able to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want
is worth whatever I’m paying Amazon Music per month.

Apple Music did that for me, and really expanded my musical world.
Here's just one of the great tunes I came across simply by random luck ...

 

[MisterCreosote]

Apple Music did that for me, and really expanded my musical world.
Here's just one of the great tunes I came across simply by random luck ...

“Bands you never would’ve heard of if it wasn’t for on-demand streaming” is a great thread in itself.

That’s where I discovered the Night Sweats, Rustic Overtones, Eli Paperboy Reed, Son Little, and so many others.

Oh He Dead, a local soul outfit, is probably my current favorite:

 

[TigerVols]

Pretty much the entire Paul Weller catalog minus Town Called Malice.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Anything by Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. Never hear them on the radio, either Sirius or otherwise.

 

[Batman]

I don’t listen to “the radio” anymore, but one of my favorite songs is Queen’s “Spread Your Wings,” and I can’t recall ever hearing that played.

@Batman is right about Metallica. It’s like everything other than the Black Album has been memory-holed, which is crazy because their best stuff came before that. Has “Fade to Black” ever gotten airplay?

Side note: Discussions like this are why I’m so glad I never have to listen to the radio again. Being able to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want is worth whatever I’m paying Amazon Music per month.

Come to think of it, Springsteen is the same way, isn't he? You hear a bunch of his 80s stuff on different radio formats, and "Born to Run" gets some classic rock play, but other than one or two songs I don't know that you ever hear (or even really heard) anything that he recorded before or after the "Born in the USA" album. If "Thunder Road" came on the radio I — not a Springsteen fan — wouldn't recognize it.

 

[Chef2]

Springsteen’s Human Touch is a great song on a great album and got very little radio play.

 

[justgladtobehere]

There are a bands whose early stuff doesn't get played. Pre-1964 Beatles doesn't have a place on radio as it more golden oldies than classic rock. The Grateful Dead's only radio hit was 'Touch of Grey. ' Occasionally I hear something from American Beauty or Workingman's Dead, but rarely and in no measure commensurate with the band's popularity.

 

[Slacker]

 

[Songbird]

Trey Anastasio's best solo song.

 

[Neutral Corner]

Pretty much the entire Los Lobos catalogue outside of "La Bamba".