The Greatest Obscure Rock-and-Roll Tunes (Just for Fun)

4/09/02 | Myself

[Chi-townChief]

Forgive me for a little diversion from the day's events.

How about these two numbers:
"I Want Candy" by The Strangeloves
and for a ballad:
"Smokey Places" by the Corsairs

Whaddya think?

[bleudevil]

I don't know the second one, and can't even place the band. The name sounds like a 1950s-60s group. Can you give me an idea of the song, or some other songs by them that I might know? The title sounds cool. :->

[slugbug]

Funny you should mention, "I Want Candy". My youngest daughter is on a dance team and we just spent last weekend at a competition. I saw several dance routines to that number. It's amazing how some of those old songs keep reappearing!

[mv1]

Sheb Wooley's PURPLE PEOPLE EATER

[Chi-townChief]

Turn your speakers on and click here >>> Smokey Places - The Corsairs

[balrog666]

"I Want Candy" by The Strangeloves

The Strangeloves? I'll take Bow-Wow-Wow.

[wafflehouse]

hey.. how about 'corporal clegg' by pink floyd?

[SoDak]

Could you be the one?--by Husker Du

Tommy gets his tonsils out--by The Replacements

All I Want--The Pursuit Of Happiness (sort of balladish)

[BluesDuke]

hey.. how about 'corporal clegg' by pink floyd?

Obscure only to non-Pink Floyd fans, and probably to the few still who haven't heard anything of their pre-Dark Side of the Moon music (there probably are a few). "Corporal Clegg" should be remembered for Roger Waters' second and last attempt to write a song more in the style of Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd style ("Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk," from The Piper At The Gates of Dawn, was his first; his other songs on A Saucerful of Secrets, "Let There Be More Light" and "Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun," were departures from the Barrett style). It's a nutty song but you've got to love the kazoo solos...

Now...some delectable obscurities...well, they were chart hits mostly but people barely remember them now...

"I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" - The Electric Prunes
"Feathers From Your Tree" - Blue Cheer
"Moulty" - The Barbarians
"Liar, Liar" - The Castaways
"Hey, Joe" - The Leaves
"My Little Red Book" - Love
"Can't Seem To Make You Mine" - The Seeds
"I Ain't No Miracle Worker" - The Chocolate Watch Band
"Apples and Oranges" - Pink Floyd
"My World Fell Down" - Sagittarius
"Itchycoo Park" - The Small Faces
"Tobacco Road" - The Blues Magoos
"Pictures of Matchstick Men" - The Status Quo
"Try It" - The Standells
"Psychotic Reaction" - Count Five
"Over Under Sideways Down" - The Yardbirds (people seem to love not mentioning this when they mention the Yardbirds, but I think it's one of their best singles - not to mention, the last of their few top 20 hits)
"Some Kind of Wonderful" - Soul Brothers Six
"Sittin' In The Park" - GQ (a cover of Billy Stewart's 1960s soul hit and it beats the living brains out of the original)
"Devil With A Blue Dress" - Shorty Long (this was a year before Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels slammed it into that you-still-can't-resist medley with "Good Golly, Miss Molly")
"Ride Your Pony" - Lee Dorsey (covered in 1980 in an exquisitely rocking version by the Fleshtones. For that matter...)
"Roman Gods" - The Fleshtones (the title single from their first and best album)
"No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)" - The T-Bones (ok, they were an L.A. studio band, and it began with an Alka-Seltzer TV spot of 1965-66, but this ended up being almost the last classic surf-style rock instrumental to bust the top 20 - and I'd bet you almost no one knows it by name today)
"I'll Call You Mine" - The Zombies (the best of their unfortunately too-many non-hit singles)

...just for openers...not to mention...

"Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" - Led Zeppelin (the flip of "Immigrant Song" and never issued on one of their regulation albums, though the original label credited it as being from Led Zeppelin III)

[Dan from Michigan]

One somewhat obscure but gets a lot of airplay.

John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band - "On the Dark Side", off of the Eddie and the Crusiers Soundtrack

It's often mistaken for a Bruce Springsteen song.

[mn12]

• Anything by Gentle Giant.
• Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding by Elton John (only obscure in comparison to his really popular stuff, but excellent and somewhat forgotten nonetheless)
• Super's Ready, Firth of Fifth, et al., by Genesis before Phil Collins made them suck.
• Either of Donald Fagen's (of Steely Dan fame) solo albums: The Nightfly, and Kamakiriad

I also have an album called After Eight, by Taco. It is basically a remake of various 1930s tunes done with cheesy 80s-era synthesizers. I wouldn't call it great, but it's very obscure except for "Puttin' on the Ritz".

[bleudevil]

I liked it!

[austingirl]

A Question of Temperature by Balloon Farm

[Chi-townChief]

The Strangeloves did "I Want Candy" about '65 or '66. It was Killer, beginning with a Bo Diddley beat on the bass drum alone, followed by the percussion, and then the guitar hook that you still hear in BowWowWow's take (which is also pretty cool in a minimalist way.) But what really made it was that great one-note R&B-style sax break in the middle.
Tremendous!

[eddie willers]

"Hot Smoke and Sassafras" by Bubble Puppy

[gcruse]

One of my alltime favorites. Thank you for the URL. Duly snagged.

[Mad Dawgg]

Brownsville Station - "Martian Boogie"

Wierd!

"Get you one of them grease bombs all peppered up lay you up in the hospital for a couple a weeks"

[Chi-townChief]

I gotta say I can't recall that one. I do remember "The Martian Hop" by the Rondells back in the late 50s. I think us kids liked it because it was so annoying to our parents.

[SamAdams76]

What about 96 Tears by a group called Question Mark & The Mysterians. Many people thought the lead vocalist was Mick Jagger. Sounded just like him, too.

[Chi-townChief]

FOUND IT!!!!! You have to hand it to the internet for this kind of stuff. I have it on CD but I'm not sure how to copy and link the song but here's a website >>> I Want Candy - The Strangeloves
Crank up your speakers and DIG IT!!!