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The most famous song you've never heard

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    The most famous song you've never heard

    I don't recall ever hearing The Ballad Of John And Yoko, not even a snippet.

    Surely someone can top that?

    #2
    Top that?

    Christ, you know it ain't easy.

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      #3
      Fool's Gold?

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        #4
        For me it will be something from the 90s, when I barely heard anything. Looking at this list of the biggest sellers from that decade the highest placed one that I definitely have never heard (nor indeed heard of) is Celine Dion's Think Twice

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          #5
          There are probably dozens of major hits since 2000 that I wouldn't recognise if they stood up and offered me a lozenge. But I guess that's not really in the spirit of the thread.

          In terms of random well-known older tunes, I don't recall ever having heard Distant Drums by Jim Reeves or The Stones' Dandelion - and I'd certainly not heard Faron Young's Four in the Morning until about a decade ago.

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            #6
            I hadn't heard Christmas classic (apparently) Baby, It's Cold Outside until prompted to do so by reading an article about it just now, but I'm not sure that I had ever heard of it either, calling into question its qualification for the thread.

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              #7
              Was going to suggest something by Taylor Swift, but having had a quick listen to Shake It Off and Look What You Made Me Do, turns out I do know them.

              I don't have a huge problem with Taylor Swift, but Christ, her records are produced to within an inch of their lives.
              Last edited by Stumpy Pepys; 05-12-2018, 12:41.

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                #8
                Gangnam style, which is so famous the auto suggest on my phone gave me gangnam after I typed gang and style straight after that.

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                  #9
                  MacArthur Park is my go-to answer here, though I've just looked it up so have heard it now. In all probability I've heard it before but evidently didn't make much of a dent in my musical memory.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Walt Flanagans Dog View Post
                    In all probability I've heard it before but evidently didn't make much of a dent in my musical memory.
                    Well, this. I have no clue what the answer to this would be, because if I don't recognise a song, or find it catchy enough to make a mental note of, I won't remember it. So there is a very good chance that I will have heard some of whatever properly famous song I look at the title of and think "nope, don't know that at all" and then hear a fragment of and think "I've never heard this before".

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                      #11
                      In about 2000 Mojo Magazine published a list of what they claimed were the 100 best songs ever written.

                      At number 8 was something called "I can't make you love me" originally recorded by Bonnie Raitt.

                      I hadn't heard it then & I still haven't heard it.


                      Not knowingly anyway. As some above have pointed out , I may have heard it without it making any impression on me.
                      I've made no attempt to seek it out because I suspect there was more than a bit of wilful obscurantism and rock journo wankery about the list.
                      Last edited by wittoner; 05-12-2018, 14:20.

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                        #12
                        I hadn't heard The Beatles' "Flying" until a few weeks ago when it popped up randomly on The Beatles' Sirius FM channel in the US.

                        Of the 1967-1969 No. 1s, the ones I can't recall hearing are "Let The Heartaches Begin" by Long John Baldry and "Cinderella Rockefeller" by Esther and Obi Ofarim. But do they qualify as famous?

                        Rolling Stones - "Emotional Rescue" (#9 UK hit 1980) is a blank

                        The year when most #1s become a blank for me is 2000. I don't recall at least 60% of these:

                        http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/n...=2000&chart=uk

                        This was also the era when tracks crashed in at #1 then disappeared so left no cultural imprint that I recall (whereas today a track can hang around for 4-8 months due to streams that I never hear).
                        Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 05-12-2018, 14:21.

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                          #13
                          That year 2000 list is interesting - it's a mix of some proper pop blockbusters (Groovejet, Spinning Around, Independent Women, Rock DJ, Real Slim Shady) and stuff I couldn't hum in the unlikely event I was forced to at gunpoint (Bound 4 Da Reload (Casualty), anyone?), but I reckon I could do more than 50%.

                          Emotional Rescue is probably one of my most-heard Stones tracks, sister and brother played it to death in our house at the time. That and Angie, which probably doesn't feature in their set lists much these days.

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                            #14
                            I've never properly heard AC/DC's "Back In Black". Although I know the riff, I couldn't guess a single word from the lyrics. I can't hum a single song by Creedence Clearwater Revival, but I do not feel I've missed out.

                            I've never heard "Emotional Rescue", but like "Ballad Of John & Yoko", although it's a much-loved song, you'd be very hard pressed to put it in the top ten of songs by that artist, perhaps even a top twenty, so it hardly seems significant. There's a few classic rock 'n' roll songs I've never heard like Chuck Berry's "Maybellene" or Elvis Presley's "Mystery Train", but as I've heard plenty of other music by both, it's no big deal.

                            "Bound 4 Da Reload (Casualty)" is fantastic – a UK garage version of the theme from the TV show Casualty.

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                              #15
                              I know The Beatles pretty well, but I'd not know "Flying" if it kicked me in the ass.

                              Anyway, here's the Rolling Stone Top 100. Of the Top 250 I've never knowingly heard one:

                              "Loser" by Beck
                              "Maybe" by The Chantels
                              "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa

                              and

                              "Please" by Please. But it tuns out that it's "Please, Please, Please" by James Brown...

                              I will have heard Bob Dylan's "Tangled Up In Blue", but I'd not know it if I heard it.

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                                #16
                                I suspect you've heard all of those but may not know it.

                                The guy who lived across the hall from me junior year in college played Loser by Beck about 20 times a day for a week. Not that you were there. Just a useless anecdote.

                                I've probably not heard most of what's in the top 40 over the last five years. I know this because I've never heard of most of the acts that appear on SNL or The Tonight Show and I only know what's on there because I see it as I scroll past it on youtube, so I don't even hear it then whereas in the old days I probably would have sat through whatever performance was on.

                                The only places I go that have background "musak" - the grocery store, the dentist's office, etc. play some satellite station that mostly plays 80s songs. They know their audience.
                                Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 05-12-2018, 15:44.

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                                  #17
                                  Anything by Justin Bieber. Not that I can remember anyway. Don't feel that I am missing much.

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                                    #18
                                    I've not got a lot of Beatles knowledge, so it will be something by them, but not "Something" by them which I heard for the first time quite recently.
                                    As Kevin suggests there are a lot of songs you have heard several times but don't know it. I would have said I've never heard The Ballad of John and Yoko, however I am familiar with the "you know it ain't easy/they're gonna crucify me" song.

                                    Probably Blackbird, which I don't recognise from the lyrics.
                                    Ditto the Bungalow Bill one, Why Don't We Do it in the Road, and Everbody's Got Something to Hide (except me and my monkey). Whichever one of those is a stone cold classic.

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                                      #19
                                      G-Man, you need to rectify not hearing "Planet Rock" right now.

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                                        #20
                                        Number two on ad hoc's 90's list. Robson and Jerome - 'Unchained Melody'.

                                        I know The Righteous Brothers version, but before looking at the list I hadn't heard of Robson or Jerome.

                                        Chances are I will have forgotten their names within the hour.

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                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by diggedy derek View Post
                                          G-Man, you need to rectify not hearing "Planet Rock" right now.
                                          This man speaks the truth.

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                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by G-Man View Post
                                            Anyway, here's the Rolling Stone Top 100. Of the Top 250 I've never knowingly heard one:

                                            "Loser" by Beck
                                            In 'weird confluences', I saw Beck play Loser when he opened for The Rolling Stones.

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                                              #23
                                              10cc had a big song....now what was it called....

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                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by jwdd27 View Post
                                                I've not got a lot of Beatles knowledge, so it will be something by them, but not "Something" by them which I heard for the first time quite recently.
                                                As Kevin suggests there are a lot of songs you have heard several times but don't know it. I would have said I've never heard The Ballad of John and Yoko, however I am familiar with the "you know it ain't easy/they're gonna crucify me" song.

                                                Probably Blackbird, which I don't recognise from the lyrics.
                                                Ditto the Bungalow Bill one, Why Don't We Do it in the Road, and Everbody's Got Something to Hide (except me and my monkey). Whichever one of those is a stone cold classic.
                                                Blackbird is just lovely. You could skip the rest without missing anything massive or life changing.

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                                                  #25
                                                  I love Flying but mostly from the tripping memories it gives me (like Honey Pie on the White Album) Objectively it’s prob a bit gash.

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