Weekend Listomania (Special Casey Kasem, We Hardly Knew Ye! Video Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental groinal consultant appointment secretary Fah Lo Suee and I are off to France, home of the Ignoble Frog, for the tenth annual "'Allo, Sailor!" festival. It's a reunion of the surviving crew of Jacques Cousteau's ship The Calypso, and as usual, we'll be touring the colorful waterfront bars and late night establishments of Marseilles.

As a result (and also because I'm thoroughly embarrassed at having recycled that joke yet again), posting by moi will necessarily be somewhat fitful for a few days.

But until then, as always, here's a fun project for us all to contemplate:

BEST POST-BEATLES SINGLE OR ALBUM CUT THAT SHOULD HAVE A HUGE FRICKING HIT BUT FOR WHATEVER REASON WASN'T!!!

Self-explanatory, I think. The original idea here was to list either records that actually charted, albeit not as highly as they should have, or else historic commercial flops along the lines of "River Deep, Mountain High" (which is practically its own category and way overfamiliar, which is why it's not included here). Non-chart records that just should have been hits but have otherwise been lost in the dim mists of rock history are, of course, also acceptable.

In any case, my top of my head Top Eleven is --

11. The Poor-- She's Got the Time (She's Got the Changes)



Future Eagle Randy Meisner on bass; song written by either Brewer or Shipley (of "One Toke Over the Line" fame); group managed and produced by the Greene-Stone team that also managed and produced the Buffalo Springfield. I know for a fact that this got a fair amount of airplay in the NYC area in 1966 because I used to hear it a lot on WMCA-AM and, in fact, was moved to go out and buy the damn thing at Sam Goody. Apparently not big in the rest of the country, however.

10. Stealers Wheel -- Star



The barely successful followup to "Stuck in the Middle of You," and like that much bigger hit, written by group member Gerry Rafferty. As a solo, Rafferty would have better luck a few years later with "Baker Street," but in any case, this is quite adorably Beatle-ish, I think.

9. The Detroit Cobras -- Cha Cha Twist



If there was a sexier rock record released in this decade I haven't heard it. Singer Rachel Nagy rules, obviously.

8. The Easybeats -- Heaven and Hell



The followup to "Friday on My Mind" and an even more epochal masterpiece, I think. Yet despite brilliant production by Glyn Johns and keyboard work by Nicky Hopkins, the record stiffed in the U.S. -- because, or so it has always been said, radio stations were offended by the line "Discovering someone else in your bed." Ah, the Sixties....

7. Shocking Blue -- Never Marry a Railroad Man



The followup to "Venus" was a major hit in Europe, but only barely Top 40 in the States. I think it's gorgeous, myself. You can find it, along with the even lovelier Serenade, which stiffed in 1973, on their wondeful third album, available at Amazon here. Both songs are also available on iTunes, for those who care.

6. The Raspberries -- Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)



A record about desperately wanting to go Top Ten which only barely cracked the Top 40, despite being pretty much the band's masterpiece. The ironies abound, obviously.

5. Lorraine Ellison -- Stay With Me Baby



One of the last great baroque flowerings of classic soul, but after its brief appearances on the nation's radios in early 1966, it was largely forgotten by all but a devoted cult. It's been often covered since, of course, but I think the original remains definitive.

4. The Left Banke -- Desiree



(No video on YouTube, alas. Although you can watch and listen to a fan-made Sims video version here.)

This was the eagerly awaited followup to "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina." It took six months -- and cost $35,000, an enormous amount of money at the time -- to produce, and its progress engendered reams of breathless speculation in the then nascent rock press (those liner notes on the rear sleeve of the single address them, as you can see). Unfortunately, when it was finally released in late '67, it barely scraped into the bottom reaches of the Hot 100. Was it too ambitious? Too complex? I didn't hear it that way at the time -- I thought it was a knockout, actually -- and on balance I still think it's their best record.

3. Del Amitri -- Not Where It's At



From the staggeringly gorgeous twelve-string sound to the ache in Justin Curry's voice to the definitively world weary lyric, this is my candidate for Great Lost Power Pop Single of the 90s.

2. Danny Wilde -- Isn't it Enough



This got a lot of play on MTV in 1986, but the album it's from -- The Boyfriend -- is all but forgotten and has never been on CD. Go figure. In any case, despite an occasionally ridiculous lyric (that crap about "your fire," for instance) and a certain Aroma de Big 80s, I think it's a genuinely poignant song with killer hooks and guitars. Wilde, of course, did much better years later as a member of the Rembrandts, of "Theme From Friends" fame.

And the number one coolest record that millions of people should have bought but didn't, it's not even a contest so why are we even arguing about it for crissakes, is obviously --

1. The Byrds -- Lady Friend



Their absolute creative peak, but it totally went over the larger pop audience's head in 1967, a fact which irked composer David Crosby no end, especially after Roger McGuinn declined to put it on their then current album The Notorious Byrd Brothers. At which point Crosby either quit the band or was fired; he was replaced on the album cover photo by a horse, which he also reportedly found irksome.

Awrighty then -- what would your choices be?

[Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel Cinema Listomania -- theme: Movies You Loved As a Kid That Turn Out Not to Be So Hot -- is now up over at Box Office. As always, if you could see your way to going over there and leaving a comment, it would help get me in good with management. I thank you!]