There’s plenty of songs that didn’t chart nationally that are worth listening to. Especially when the charting music in the contemporary era is so lacking.
There were times that competition was fierce for “number one”. Some real good “#2 or #3” chart hits (and again, some that never made the charts).
Plenty of crud went up the charts as well.
I don’t know if there’s a whole album (legit release or grey market compilation) yet of Dio’s pre-metal recordings but there are a number of them on the youtube.
I am often mystified as to how the charts work. In 1963, the song that sat at number one for the longest time was Jimmy Gilmer's "Sugar Shack," which to me is just an unexciting ditty. On the other hand, Baby Washington's masterful performance of
Leave Me Alone only made it to #62. And in what is perhaps the oddest development in the history of the charts, Soeur Sourire's
Dominique, a French-language ballad of a medieval Spanish crusader stayed parked at number one for four weeks toward the end of the year.