Ever thought to yourself, "Why isn't this song more popular?" or "Everyone should hear this, it's fantastic!" Well, that's what the OOSRG is for. That one song you just want the whole world to listen to.

I think we have around 10-15 active posters here, with 10-15 additional posters that come around every now and then. So I'm suggesting each of us can only nominate 1 song per month, and there's a maximum of 1 song per day overall. This to keep the amount of songs low, so you really have to think about your choices. The only condition is that the song cannot be in the top 3000 and that we need a youtube (or similar) link so we can all hear the song.

You can comment on the songs for the entire month, and after the month has passed I'll make another topic for a new batch of songs. The idea is to hopefully find some songs you never heard before and to fall in love with them.

I thought of this late at night, and it sounded like a neat idea. This morning while posting it, it sounds a little less neat. Let me know if this is a totally bad idea.

I'm gonna start off with nominating one of my personal favorite songs which is bubbling under the top 3000 (undeservingly, of course ). It's a beautiful ballad by Marianne Faithfull about a woman who finds out, as most of us do, that her childhood dreams will probably never come true. I can just listen to this song all day, but judge for yourself:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0KV-PTK0UZ4

great idea !!

With the amount of music "out there" (so to speak), I'm a firm believer in the theory that it's likely that a person's favorite song is one that they've yet to hear. The amount of music that each of us consume is such a tiny fraction of the total, it's unreasonable to think that our favorite song(s) can't be topped or equalled by other songs that we haven't heard before.

With that said, this is an interesting idea Pomtidom. If the response is positive, it'll be neat to see how it plays out.

Something to consider though:

Due to the obscure nature of the thing, not all of our suggestions will be available for quick and easy consumption (eg. youTube). Downloads may be necessary, and I'm not sure that many of us will take the time to consider another's pick if it necessitates taking time (or money) to download it.

I've got my first pick in mind, and it's not necessarily obsure, it's just an album track by a (semi) popular artist that was never released as a single, and a quick search yields no match YouTube.

How can we get around this?

I'm not against downloads, but I know it's against the law in certain countries, which is why I figured it would be best to have a youtube link. I'm not sure about Henrik's stance on this, but if it's up to me.. you can upload it somewhere for us to download or give us a link to download it.

Concerning your comment on the favorite song, this doesn't necessarily have to be your favorite song or even in your top 10, just a song that's overlooked in your opinion.

I too am hoping this takes off to something nice and I look forward to people's choices.

I really like this idea and can think of about 100 songs I'd like to nominate but for now I'll pick a song I've been listening a lot lately called Various Kitchen Utensils by Skybox which can be heard here -

http://www.myspace.com/skybox

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, and I don't have a link, but I think The Fountain of Wayne's Troubled Times off Utopia Parkway should have been the biggest hit of 1999. And I don't just say that because I really like it, it's just that radio friendly. Maybe it's been used on TV shows or movie soundtracks and isn't obscure, but if you've never heard it, it's worth checking out.

The site www.projectplaylist.com - you can hear most songs instantly if you have broadband

Great idea!

My contribution is a Eurythmics song- "Julia"

From the completely unheralded but brilliant soundtrack 1984: For the Love of Big Brother, this song chronicles the chilled horror of George Orwell's classic like no other. The album version clocks in at over 6 minutes and stands as one of my favorite ever songs.

Forgot the link!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ytq7jeMNGQQ

Pomtidom

Has it got to be a single or can it be an album track ?

Anything goes Nicolas, for all I care it was never released as either.

Weird song Moonbeam, pretty though. I like it.

Great idea, Pomtidom!

Fair warning: almost all the obscure songs I know are from the 1980s.

Some folks have probably heard of this, but it ain't on Henrik's list, so I figure it's fair game: "Ways to Be Wicked," by Lone Justice.

It's the best song Tom Petty ever wrote (which I grant is not saying a lot)...it's basically honky tonk dressed up as college rock. I love me some retro country, but this is a lot poppier than the Uncle Tupelo/No Depression stuff that came later...it was wildly out of kilter with the tastes of 1985, and didn't do particularly well.

Here's the link...yes, it's a particularly horrible sort of 1980s video in some places, but it made me fall in love with Maria McKee when I was a teenager.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AOCT5RDnJIY

For your consideration: "Erica's Word", by the 1980s San Francisco power-pop band Game Theory. GT were led by Scott Miller, a brainy singer-songwriter self-deprecating enough to credit himself with "guitar, miserable whine" on the band's best album, 1985's THE BIG SHOT CHRONICLES, which was produced by none other than Mitch Easter (best known as the leader of Let's Active and as the co-producer of R.E.M.'s first two albums).

"Erica's Word" was the single. The video has been posted on YouTube by Robert Toren, the band's photographer/videographer (and ex-husband of brilliant keyboardist Shelley LaFreniere), who has also posted lots of concert footage of the group. As the video's soundtrack is, of course, the studio version of the song, it's the best introduction to the band, whose CDs are unfortunately all out of print.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-XSmLXRUdk

Well I was gonna post one now but one per day so maybe tomorrow or soon.

OK here's one: I call it obscure since it wasn't a pop chart hit - it's not in the AM 3000 - it's called 'Primitive Painters' by Felt from the mid 80s featuring Elizabeth Fraser on guest vocals. I really like it. I don't know if people here would have heard it - I don't know if I want to underestimate you guys' music knowledge...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgrSiVpS6gs

I'm a firm believer in the theory that it's likely that a person's favorite song is one that they've yet to hear.

I think I'd have to disagree with you on that one. Unless, of course, you're talking strictly about the very young and/or those who make little effort to expose themselves to as much quality music as possible.

I remember I was 17 when I discovered Pink Floyd, for instance - and I couldn't believe that a catalogue so amazing had eluded me for so long. I specifically remember thinking optimistically about the years to come, and who I might discover that would equal that bounty.

In retrospect, I can say that no discovery came particularly close, in the six years since then. The Smiths probably come the closest.

I don't know if there's quite as much amazing music in the world as some people seem to think. I mean, there's more than enough - I myself have some 2,300 albums, and believe you me, there's not enough time in life to listen to them all! But at the end of the day, the freaking Spice Girls are one of the 1000 most acclaimed artists of all time (965th, to be precise) thanks to one single, and one album. This being the case, how much great stuff is really out there?

It's obviously true that, when you consider how many songs have been written over the years, we're only going to end up hearing a relatively meagre slice of the pie. But I put forward that if you're making the effort, you're probably going to get just about the best slice going.

If you're not convinced, I recommend walking to your nearest music store, picking up an album by someone you've never heard of, and without any recommendation, and taking your purchase home to give it a spin. I predict a 90% rate of disappointment, with said method...

PS. I recommend David Bowie's three-track song-suite from the LP Diamond Dogs, it consists of the cuts "Sweet Thing", "Candidate" and "Sweet Thing (Reprise)" (though it really is just one song, by any sane measure). Youtube doesn't boast a cut I'm happy to share, but I'd thoroughly recommend investigating to anyone who loves cinematic, poetic, resonant and experimental music.

You make some good points Twister, and I can definitely see where you’re coming from.

Consider this though, if you will….

As music lovers, we are on a neverending search for good music that we’ve never heard before. And as most of us probably do, we have a tendency to go after those albums that are acclaimed, or just generally well-received. And why shouldn’t we? If the critics like them, there must be some merit to them, right? But maybe this is the problem. What about those albums that get a crappy one-star rating, or the ones that slide under the radar unnoticed? Those types of records represent quite a slice of the proverbial “pie” that you spoke of.

And maybe, just maybe, those albums – the one’s that aren’t critically acclaimed, or the ones that nobody notices – have a song, tucked away as track 11 or 12, that is utterly amazing. Maybe some critic hated the song, or maybe they only got to track 6 before deciding to write their one-star review. Perhaps though, if you or I heard this song, it could speak to us in a way that one of our current favorite songs does.

Is this not possible? There’s a LOT of acclaimed music that I love, but there’s also plenty of music (songs and albums) that I enjoy that are your garden-variety 3-star albums.

With that said, I don’t think my comment was too far off. Maybe I should’ve substituted “likely” for “possible”.

Hi everybody

"I don't know if there's quite as much amazing music in the world as some people seem to think."

I really have to disagree with you on that one.
I'm 37 now, and I still discover hidden beauties very often.
I think Acclaimed Music is an educational site, for everybody, young or less young, ignorante or scholar.
I built my record collection and music knowledge with those kinds of "best of" lists and it didn't stop me from discovering more and more things.
I relly mean : the more you learn, the less that you know, because you realize how big the musical world can be. I've been listening to rock/pop from 12 to 27 yeras old, and then I added world music, electro, blues, country, on a growing scale for the past 10 years.
Discovering this site just show me how little I know of rock : doing bracketology, reading the forums, I discovered the Smiths (at least for the moment only one song), a group I had totally eluded (they were not so popular in France)
i think the list of your favorite songs (I think first that you have several favorite songs)keeps growing and growing
You just have to open your ears : listening to what other people like, and that's why I think this OOSRG game is such a great idea
I also discovered there are 2 kinds of music lovers : the first group considers that good music suffers no boundaries and generally those people have a very eclectic collection (even if they may prefer one genre to another)
there are also the specialists, who build their expertise by chosing one special kind of music and keep digging and digging
Useless to say, I belong to the first category. But making a Top 100 best albums for me would take a very long time
I'm working on it

And maybe, just maybe, those albums – the one’s that aren’t critically acclaimed, or the ones that nobody notices – have a song, tucked away as track 11 or 12, that is utterly amazing. Maybe some critic hated the song, or maybe they only got to track 6 before deciding to write their one-star review. Perhaps though, if you or I heard this song, it could speak to us in a way that one of our current favorite songs does.

I just think the cream tends to rise. That sooner or later, a critic, DJ or celebrity will discover the brilliance of said track, and champion it. And if its truly special, it will go on to spark a chain reaction of being championed. I don't think true brilliance tends to go unrecognised.

Two of my all-time favourite albums, for instance, are Jeff Buckley's Grace and Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. For the longest time, I thought they were the worlds' best kept secrets. I had discovered both through word-of-mouth, and suddenly I was the one spreading the word, as very few people I spoke to had heard of either!

Fast-forward some years, I discover this site, only to find that something similar must have happened in the world of music critics, because these albums that never quite made public conciousness were #95 and #548 accordingly!

I'm with you in terms of enjoying things that aren't particularly acclaimed, though. The Seahorses are a band who you won't find anywhere on this site (they only ever recorded one album, as it happens), but I rate them - and "Blinded By The Sun" is one of my all-time favourite songs.

But I wouldn't expect anyone else to have the same reaction. As much as anything else, you need a reason to listen to something 50+ times before it stands a chance of entering the all-time favourite list, and the chances of that happening decrease the older one gets (less spare time, larger collection for songs to get buried in). I'm sure if I had discovered my album collection in the exact opposite order, I'm sure I would have an almost completely different set of very favourite songs.

Or something.

I certainly think that by the time everyone here is 80-years-old, it's unlikely each of our very favourite songs will be something that we'll have discovered after the age of 40.

(But anyway, I'm just blathering on.

By all means, keep blathering - this is an interesting discussion. Although, I feel that it’s sort of strayed from the original topic.

My argument, again:

Premise #1: There are so many songs out there that you and I have never heard before.
Premise #2: Of those thousands or millions of songs, a select few of them – statistically - have the possibility of being our favorite songs.
Premise #3: They’re out there, waiting to be found. It’s just a matter of discovering them.

Please indulge me this example from my past….

Back in 1999, as a 17 year-old, I had a good friend turn me on to a screamo band from the U.S. We’d listen to the album in his car, and at first the band didn’t really appeal to me; I wasn’t into metal, let alone screamo. But after a few listens, I started to enjoy the songs. I never asked him how he discovered the band; it wasn’t important to me. And this was a band that had no singles, no MTV airplay, little promotion (none that I ever saw) or anything. Their debut album had an average rating of 2-3 stars, nothing special. Just one of those bands that come out, gain a small following (enough to keep them in the industry), but never garner any sort of acclaim, positive or negative. They just exist.

Fast forward a few years. I discover the album buried deep in box of discs and I decide to pop it in the player. As would be expected, listening to the songs brought back memories of those times with my friend. But then something happened….

A song started playing that I’d never heard before - a haunting, piano and vocal piece, about 3 minutes long. It was gorgeous! And it was absolutely nothing like the 11 or so raucous, loud, angry songs on the album! I’m thinking, what the hell? How did I miss this song? As it turned out, the song was a hidden track, buried deep behind the last song on the disc, and I’d never heard it before because my friend had always just started the disc over again once track 11 was over. What a serendipitous discovery!

Here’s a song that was put in such an obscure place – the hidden track on a debut album from a band that wasn’t special, nor dull. They just were. Period. But the song is one of my favorites. It wasn’t a single, and it hasn’t been championed by any celebrity, critic or DJ. How could it? It’s not even listed in the liner notes, and it has no official title. Though, I suppose anything’s possible.

Anyways, it just goes to show that songs can come from strange places, and it’s reasonable to assume that more of these types of songs exist out there. But searching an acclaimed list won’t help you find them, and the most thorough investigation probably won’t either.

It’s actually a pretty sad thought: that right now, somewhere in the world, there’s a song that could be one of your favorites. The only reason it’s not is because you haven’t heard it yet, and chances are, you probably never will.

My vote would be for "All That Stuff" by "The Windbreakers." This is pretty obscure, but still in print. I couldn't find a streaming version on the web. Check out the 30 second clip on i-Tunes, etc. It's a jangly 80's power pop tune. It probably won't blow you away (like "Thirteen" by "Big Star," A.M. #2267), but it all comes together perfectly. A great unknown song.

For sure,Anthony
Music is endless - I think my favourite song changes all the time as I discover new songs...

Cool story, Anthony.

And good point, well made.

Furthermore, it occurs to me that when I said previously no-one has blown me away like Pink Floyd since I was seventeen, I'm no longer 100% sure that this is the case. My memory isn't the greatest, and having thought about it some more I kind of think I maybe didn't really discover Bob Dylan until the next year, of all people!

Though, being as you invite me to keep blathering, I really feel we're breaking into a whole bunch of worm-cans with this discussion. Psychologically speaking, where does "taste" come from, and all of that. Is a song more likely to become a favourite had you heard it younger, for instance?

Then there's also the need to have things. When you're unaware of something's existence, you really are no worse off - it's only when you become aware of something that you need to have it. I could hear a song on the radio tomorrow that's one of the ten best songs I've ever heard. I will need to buy it - probably the album its on, too.

But I'm no worse off for having not been listening to the radio when it was on, really. There's still ten songs in my top ten, and fifty in my top fifty.

But back to the main point, sort of. At this point, I'm pretty much familiar with all of the top 100 acclaimed artists on this site (only The Temptations elude my collection), and so accordingly it doesn't seem that likely to me that some song tucked away at the end of some three-star album is going to blow Dylan, Bowie and Morrissey (and many more, naturally) out of the water.

The Seahorses song I mentioned earlier was, again, one I discovered as a teenager. Whether I would have taken it to heart discovering it for the first time now - as a 23-year-old well-immersed in the works of Leonard Cohen - is really hard to speculate about.

"When you're unaware of something's existence, you really are no worse off."

I disagree.

If you enjoy the music that you know, you are better off for knowing it.

For me, the whole point of the endeavor of being a music fan is the endless quest to discover new music that moves me.

Everyone's making some great points here.

Loophole: I agree - a person should enjoy the music they know, and not feel sad or defeated at the thought of the good, yet undiscovered, music out there. And I suppose that all of us that contribute to this forum are on that very quest. Which leads to....

twister: I also agree with your point about the need to have things. If I hear a song that instantly strikes a chord, then I absolutely have to get it.

Oh, "Grace" and "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" are two of my favorites also. I discovered Jeff Buckley while working at a record store (age 19). It's a strange album in the way that people who know it love it. And the rest haven't heard of it. lol

As for Neutral Milk Hotel, I just discovered them earlier this year. Great album.

For me, the whole point of the endeavor of being a music fan is the endless quest to discover new music that moves me.

Well, that sounds a lot like a drug addiction.

Maybe I need an intervention...?

Just how much money do you spend on your music habit a month, loophole? *concerned face*

Do you ever listen to music to escape your problems? *very concerned face*

Have you ever committed a crime to fund this never-ending music addiction, loophole? *deeply, deeply concerned face*

Hahah. :D

-Do you find yourself often listening to music alone?

-Do you find it difficult to stop listening to music once you start?

-Do you tell yourself, "I usually listen to music socially"?

-Do you tell yourself, "I could stop listening to music if I wanted to"?

Funny.

But I do spend a awful lot of time on this site (and other music-related endeavors like downloading songs) when I should be working... And it really could be interfering with my ability to be productive.... Hmmm, maybe I do have a problem?!

I recommend Morente & Lagartija Nick's "Omega". In youtube there's not a video of the song (there were not videos from this team) but you can find a TV appearance and two photo assembly of different songs from Morente & Lagartija Nick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FII9fYwcxs&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2B3d-uQgec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiGLqhatgoo&mode=related&search=

Shamely it seems that no one recorded in video the awesome live association team of Morente and Sonic Youth playing an only song in a show in Valencia back in 2005.

It seems that the album can be downloaded at http://larbredeles1000musiques.blogspot.com/2006/12/morente-lagartija-nick-omega.html (I think it could be downloaded clicking “omega.mp3” and then scrolling down and clicking “free”).