Artist: Division Of Laura Lee
Album: Black City, 2002
What happened: In 2001, U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans signed a trade pact with Sweden, promising a six-month working visa for any musicians that wanted to travel into the country, so long as they sounded somewhat like the Hives (in exchange, we sent them the dog from the Air Bud movies). Division Of Laura Lee was one such band, and yes, they did sound a bit like the Hives, but somewhat darker.
Why it should have been a hit: While DOLL could knock out raging numbers such as "We've Been Planning This For Years," Black City also got slow and spooky at times, which helped the group stand out a bit among the Swedish garage-rockers of the time; plus, they always looked kinda frowny-faced, which made their live shows all the more enjoyable.

Division of Laura Lee - Need To Get Some [MP3, link expired]
Division of Laura Lee - We've Been Planning This For Years [MP3, link expired]
Division of Laura Lee - Trapped In [MP3, link expired]
Division Of Laura Lee [MySpace]

Artist: Dressy Bessy
Song: "Baby Six String," 2003
What happened: Dressy Bessy was the fourth album from Denver's Dressy Bessy, just one of 214 bands that are associated with the ever-so-poppy Elephant 6 collective. And, like most E6 recordings, it was received with a huge amount of excitement by a very small group of nerds.
Why it should have been a hit: "Baby" is endlessly charming, with up-and-down guitar lines and Tammy Ealom's icy-cold "hoorah hoorah" chorus. It probably wouldn't have been a hit hit, but surely, someone could have used this for a slightly trippy laundry-detergent commercial:

Dressy Bessy - Baby Six String [MP3, link expired]
Dressy Bessy [MySpace]

Artist: Tommy Stinson
Song: "Not A Moment Too Soon"
What happened: Stinson is best know for being the bassist in a famously self-destructive band with an inscrutable lead singer; he also plays with Guns N' Roses. In 2004, he released Village Gorilla Head, a solo album with a terrible name and at least one great tune.
Why it should have been a hit: With its crisp opening guitar line and "I love you, baby, but it's tough" theme, "Soon" could have been a later-era Replacements tune. So, actually, it never really had a chance of being a hit either way. But it's still better than anything from that Westerberg album with all the cartoon bears or whatever:

Tommy Stinson - Not A Moment Too Soon [MP3, link expired]

Artist: Jenny Toomey
Album: Antidote, 2001
What happened: Most people know singer Jenny Toomey for her extra-curricular activities: She co-founded the D.C.-based punk label Simple Machines, and eventually went on to establish the Future of Music Coalition, a musicians' rights advocacy group. Stumping for the FMC on college campuses across the country might not have allowed her to promote Antidote as much as she could have, and the album—subtle and beautiful as it—fell through the cracks.
Why it should have been a hit: Jazz, pop, country-tinged—there's a lot that Toomey does on this double-disc effort, and she does it all well, from sad torch songs ("Useless Excuses") to droney laments ("Fall on Me," which features Andrew Bird's strings) to joyous covers (like her take on Curtis Mayfield's "Fool For You)." We pull this one out every few months:

Jenny Toomey - Useless Excuses [MP3, link expired]
Jenny Toomey - Fall On Me [MP3, link expired]
Jenny Toomey - Fool For You [MP3, link expired]
Jenny Toomey [Official Site]

Artist: Tom Petty
Song: "Zombie Zoo," 1989
What happened: Even though Petty wrung a remarkable seven* singles out of Full Moon Fever, the album-closing "Zombie Zoo" wasn't one of them. Maybe the label figured that the market was already too Feverish, or that the tongue-in-cheek song was too lightweight to make it on radio. Or maybe, as Petty himself has often vented in interviews, the powers-that-be feared blowback from the then-powerful zombie lobbies.
Why it should have been a hit: "Zoo" condenses everything great about Petty's late-'80s output—the power-pop choruses, the just-shy-of-slick production, and the jaundiced story-telling—in just under three minutes:

* UPDATE: Well, maybe not quite. See comments below.
Tom Petty - Zombie Zoo [MP3, link expired]

Artist: The A.M.
Song: "If I Was The Sheriff," 2003
What happened: Heck if we know! We made a spur-of-the-moment purchase of the A.M.'s self-titled 2003 debut based on a record-store clerk's suggestion—and that was pretty much the last we heard of them. Even Google requests turn up just a handful of biographical detail, though we did discover that two of the band members used to play with Jeff Buckley. Or maybe it was William F. Buckley. The search results were a little spotty.
Why it should have been a hit: "If I Was The Sheriff" is overwrought glam greatness— the sound of a bunch of Americans (we think) impersonating Brits who were impersonating Americans in the first place. And every time the vocals threaten to get too campy, the guitars and synths rush in, hijack ing the entire song.

The A.M. - If I Was The Sheriff [MP3, link expired]

Artist: Starflyer 59
Song: "Loved Ones," 2003
What happened: Even though Old was the seventh album released by this Riverside, Ca. group—essentially a revolving-door outfit led by songwriter Jason Martin—it was the first to land on at least one of your Idolators' radar (probably because the band is on Tooth & Nail Records, a label that, whether fairly or not, we often align with bad pop-punk bands).
Why it should have been a hit: The chugging "Loved Ones" came out in a season when everyone was trying to ape Kevin Shields' hazy guitar sound, but this is one of the few songs that found an actual melody underneath all the fuzz; the rest of the album is almost as good, and will send you, starry-eyed, to the band's back catalog.

Starflyer 59 - Loved Ones [MP3, link expired]
Starflyer 59 [MySpace]

Artist: The Glands
Album: The Glands, 2000
What happened: The second album from this Athens, Ga. group was doomed from the start: Not only was it released on the ever-so-iffy Velocette Records, but it's full of the sort of shambling, casually crafted guitar-pop that radio directors and magazine editors didn't know what to do with at the time. If it were to have come out this year, The Glands would have topped the Hype Machine in about three weeks.
Why it should have been a hit: Fourteen songs, with nary a miss among them: "When I Laugh" is pure chugging bubblegum, while "Soul InspIration" sounds like a cough-medicine come-down:

The Glands - When I Laugh [MP3, link removed]
The Glands - Lovetown [MP3, link removed]
The Glands - Soul Inspiration [MP3, link removed]

Artist: Caesars
Album: Paper Tigers, 2005
What happened: When Caesars' spastic "Jerk It Out" was earmarked for a nationwide iPod ad campaign, the Swedish group seem poised for a breakthrough here in the States. But while the Astralwerks-issued Paper Tigers got some favorable notices, Caesars couldn't capitalize on their "Jerk" jump-start, and the album languishes around the $1 range on Amazon.
Why it should have been a hit: Granted, there's no shortage of pop-savvy Swedes out there, but Paper Tigers was full of fuzzed-out charm, and tracks like "It's Not The Fall That Hurts" and "Out There" sound as though they were recorded in the bottom of some Scandinavian music-lab bunker 50,000 feet underground:

Caesars - It's Not The Fall That Hurts [MP3]
Caesars - Out There [MP3]
Caesars [MySpace]

Artist: Semisonic
Album: All About Chemistry, 2001
What happened: If you thought the bespectacled dude standing next to the Dixie Chicks at the Grammys looked familiar, you were right: That was Dan Wilson, a well-known songwriter-for-hire who used to front the Minneapolis pop-rockers Semisonic. And while his group is best remembered for the mid-'90s sing-along "Closing Time," its best album remains the career-capping, audience-ignored All About Chemistry.
Why it should have been a hit: The opening single, "Chemistry," is a soft-pop classic; as Entertainment Weekly noted, it predated the Hall & Oates revival a by a good few years. And many of the album's highlights—including the darkly devotional "She's Got My Number"—could have been deep-cut FM staples, had anyone at radio (or at the band's label) paid them any attention.

Semisonic - Chemistry [MP3, link expired]
Semisonic - She's Got My Number [MP3, link expired]

Artist: Living Colour
Album: Time's Up, 1990
What happened: Long before the New York Times discovered that black people like rock and roll, New York's Living Colour had a left-field hit with 1988's Vivid, a thrash-funk-metal hybrid that yielded three hit singles. Two years later, though, the overstuffed, overly experimental Time's Up failed to reach its predecessor's chart success, despite eventually winning a Grammy. And so, like so many other C-S-W entries, it can now be found for 1/100th of a dollar on Amazon.
Why it should have been a hit: There's no doubting that Time's Up is messy, with far too many cameos (Little Richard, Queen Latifah) and a few tracks that could have been cut down by a minute or three. But its sprawl is part of the appeal: How many other albums include the phrase "abstract expressionism" in its lead single, or close with a Zeppelin-heavy feel-good anthem that's actually kind of a downer?

Living Colour - Type [MP3, link removed]
Living Colour - Solace Of You [MP3, link removed]
Living Colour - This Is The Life [MP3, link removed]

Time for another installment of the Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda Files, where we search through our record collection in search of a lost gem.

Artist: Beulah
Song: "Gene Autry," 2001
What happened: Few albums were as doomed-from-the-start as Beulah's lovely The Coast Is Never Clear: Not only did songwriter Miles Kurosky undergo treatment for bipolar disorder while the record was being recorded, but the band's label, Capricorn, was falling apart, forcing the group to shuffle over to the newly formed Velocette Records. And then, just after everything was settled, they were stuck with an ominous Sept. 11, 2001, release date.
Why it should have been a hit: "Autry" has gently tumbling piano lines, a short-but-sweet trumpet solo, and even a great video; how this missed out on indie-domination is anyone's guess, but this song, along with the rest of the Coast album, made our 2001 slightly less traumatic.

Beulah - Gene Autry [MP3, link expired]
Beulah - Gene Autry [YouTube]

Artist: The Monkees
Album: "You And I," 1969
What happened: The Monkees' TV show was canceled and Peter Tork left before they released 1969's Instant Replay, which contained newer songs and a couple of fan-friendlier tracks from the Monkees' vaults. The Davy Jones track "You And I," one of the album's newer songs, was recorded in 1968, and the lead-guitar duties were handled by none other than Neil Young.
Why it should have been a hit: The combination of Young's guitar and Jones playing the world-weary frontman is too good to resist, and thanks in large part to Young's signature tone, "You And I" still sounds pretty modern after almost 40 years. Unfortunately, the single from Replay wound up being the "Last Train To Clarksville" retread "Tear Drop City," which peaked at No. 56 on the Billboard charts.

The Monkees - You And I [MP3, link expired]
The Monkees Home Page [monkees.net]

Artist: Rival Schools
Album: United By Fate, 2001
What happened: Led by Walter Schreifels—the co-founder of such hardcore titans as the Gorilla Biscuits and Quicksand—the Schools released only one album before breaking up in 2003, and even scored a minor hit with "Used For Glue."
Why it should have been a hit: Released just before "emo" became a catch-all term for diary-entry pop-punk, United By Fate was first-rate "emotional rock," with buzzing guitars and barely contained desperation; it's work-out music for Fugazi-forelorn thirtysomethings, and listening to it now makes us wonder what ever happened to that long-rumored but never released follow-up album (if you happen to have any info, drop us a line at tips@idolator.com).

Rival Schools - Travel By Telephone [MP3, link expired]
Rival Schools - My Echo [MP3, link expired]
Rival Schools - So Down On [MP3, link expired]

Artist: Miles
Album: Structure vs. Happiness, 2002
What happened: Hailing from Germany, this guitar-pop outfit finally got a shot at a U.S. audience with the release of Structure, which rounded up some of Miles' best import-only singles. But the group's Pixies-gone-pop sound couldn't find a following, and now—like so many other Coulda-Shouldas—you can get it for less than a Euro on Amazon.
Why it should have been a hit Tracks like "Pretty Day" and "We Need More Close-Ups" (below) may be straight-ahead power-chord paeans, but they have just enough oddball curves to keep things interesting. And the fact that lead singer Tobias Kuhn seems to be struggling with his English pronunciation at times just adds to the charm.

Miles - Pretty Day [MP3, link expired]
Miles - We Need More Close-Ups [MP3, link expired]
Miles - Sonic 3000 [MP3, link expired]

Artist: The Smashing Pumpkins
Album: "Pennies," 1996
What happened: During the sessions for 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Corgan and Co. banked oodles—and yes, "oodles" is a technical term—of better-than-average non-album numbers. "Pennies" was one of nearly 30 such tracks collected in the 5-disc 1998 box set, Billy Will Fire Us All If We Don't Release This.
Why it should have been a hit: "Pennies" isn't just the Pumpkin's finest b-side—it may be one of the group's best songs, period: Corgan had long spoken of his Lindsey Buckingham fixation, but here he finally put its on display, writing a heartfelt send-off that's at once beautiful and bilious.

The Smashing Pumpkins - Pennies [MP3, link expired]

Artist: Sugar
Album: Beaster, 1993
What happened: Normally, we try to keep the Coulda-Shouldas to a standout track or single, but Beaster is an EP, so we may as well bend the rules a bit (besides, thanks to the holidays, we have about six readers today, which is one-half our average). Recorded during the same sessions that yielded 1992's stone-cold perfect Copper Blue, this 30-minute song-suite angrily weds religion and romance, and it features some of Bob Mould's most spleen-busting howls; by the end, you almost expect to hear him collapse on the floor.
Why it should have been a hit: With lyrics like "Here's your Jesus Christ/I'm your Jesus Christ" Beaster wasn't going to experience the same breakthrough Mould experienced with Copper Blue; it's just too damn dark. But even at his most bleak, Mould is still a wiz at the big-guitar hooks, and "JC Auto" and "Judas Cradle" stand up with some of his finest Hüsker moments (and, like so many C-S-W entries, it can be had for a dirt-cheap price on Amazon).

Sugar - JC Auto [MP3, link expired]
Sugar - Judas Cradle [MP3, link expired]

Artist: Cut Copy
Song: "Time Stands Still," 2004
What happened: When Melbourne's Cut Copy released Bright Like Neon Love, its 2004 debut album, the indie scene was already flooded with post-Postal Service electro-pop outfits; it was as if every new act was required to have three "bloops," two "bleeps," and one "blip" per song. So Bright Like got lost among the din, though the band did land an opening-act slot with Franz Ferdinand last year.
Why it should have been a hit: "Time Stands Still" is about as minimal as you can get: The drum machine and bassline are awfully quiet, and you could transcribe the lyrics using fewer than 20 words. But in this case, less is more, and "Time" remains one of the more hypnotizing dance tracks we've heard in the last few years.

Cut Copy - Time Stands Still [MP3, link expired]
Cut Copy [MySpace]

Artist: Blinker The Star
Song: August Everywhere, 1999
What happened: Long before the Canadian indie-rock scene took off, Montreal act Blinker the Star was considered a great white hope for the Great White North, thanks to frontman Jordon Zadorozny's songwriting smarts (he received a lone songwriting credit on Celebrity Skin, meaning that he probably actually wrote half the album). August Everywhere was the group's DreamWorks debut, and it went straight to the used bins; you can now get it for as low as a penny on Amazon.
Why it should have been a hit: August takes some of '90s alt-rock's most familiar styles—wall-of-guitar shoegaze, Pixies-esque clamor—and refurbishes them with crisp production and melody; there's not a bad song on the set, and that's probably due to Zadorozny's dedication to finding a perfect pop hook in every moment. Trust us, this will be the best penny you'll spend all year.

Blinker the Star - Below The Sliding Doors [MP3, link expired]
Blinker the Star - Pretty Pictures [MP3, link expired]
Blinker the Star - I Am A Fraction [MP3, link expired]
Blinker the Star [Official Site]

Artist: The Toms
Song: "Sun," 19??
What happened: The Toms is actually Tommy Marolda, a Las Vegas-based songwriter and producer (he was nominated for a Grammy for his work on Stayin' Alive). In 1979, he released his one-man-band debut album, The Toms, a power-pop classic that was out of print for years until Not Lame finally reissued it last year. But we hadn't heard of them until the chipper "Sun" popped up on the Yellow Pills: Prefil comp put out by the Numero Group (the liner notes don't give the exact year of release).
Why it should have been a hit: The fluttering guitar line, the snapping snare drums, that vague-but-relatable chorus..."Sun" is just about perfect. We really don't have much to add, except to say that this song could be 15 minutes long and still never get tiresome:

The Toms - Sun [MP3, link expired]
The Toms [MySpace]

Time for another installment of the Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda Files, where we blow the dust off of a forgotten favorite and give its lack of chart success a once-over.

Artist: Starz
Song: "Cherry Baby," 1977
What happened: With their bizarre pedigree (two members used to be in the soft-rock outfit Looking Glass), big-name industry support (Kiss maestro Bill Aucoin served as their manager), and metal-power-pop sound, it's amazing that most people never got a chance to hear New Jersey's Starz. From 1976 to 1978, the group released four gloriously riffy albums (all of which were re-mastered and re-released last year), only to watch Cheap Trick and Kiss get all the attention.
Why it should have been a hit: Actually, "Cherry Baby" was a hit—or at least a brief blip in the Top 40. But considering its stellar opening guitar line and shot-through-the-heart chorus, it's amazing it didn't become a sing-along standard.

Starz - Cherry Baby [MP3, link expired]

Time for another installment of the Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda Files, where we blow the dust off of a forgotten favorite and give its lack of chart success a once-over.

Artist: Pink
Song: "Catch Me While I'm Sleeping," 2003
What happened: At the height of her demo-skewing bad-girl infamy, Pink teamed up with Rancid's Tim Armstrong, Peaches and Linda Perry for an album called Try This. And no one did.
Why it should have been a hit: Whispered asides, big keyboard swells, and even a Melotron—you don't have to live in Paisley Park to know that Pink was trying to re-create Purple Rain-levels of over-the-top pop-soul balladry on this track. And while it runs a bit long, "Sleeping" has always been our favorite moment on an album that was pretty much eviscerated upon its release (her new album, though, was rightly treated as a turd sanctuary).

Pink - Catch Me While I'm Sleeping [MP3, link expired]

Artist: Grand National
Song: "Talk Amongst Yourselves," 2004
What happened: To be honest, until we did some quick checking on Amazon, we didn't even know that this London duo's 2004 debut Kicking The National Habit—which we'd always assumed was available only as a pricey import—had been released here in the U.S. (apparently, it was put out in March by Recall Records). Way to get the word out, guys!
Why it should have been a hit: While Grand National often gets written up as an electronic homage to the Police, the brooding, buoyant "Talk Amongst Yourselves" is one of the darkest moments on the record—pop enough for the dancefloors, yet dark enough for a Michael Mann movie.

Grand National - Talk Amongst Yourselves [MP3, link expired]
Grand National [MySpace]

Artist: The Mr. T Experience
Song: "Tapin' Up My Heart," 1994
What happened: For a while there in the '90s, Lookout! Records was releasing a new Mr. T Experience album seemingly every forty-five minutes, each one packed with a dozen or so solid pop-punk heartbreak anthems. Led by nerdsmith singer-lyricist Dr. Frank—who's now a big deal in the publishing biz—the band perfected head-in-the-locker angst.
Why it should have been a hit: "Tapin' Up" is the opening track from the group's ...And The Women Who Loved Them EP, and it's the perfect MTX track, full of barely checked frustration, self-deprecating asides, and expert use of a fuzz pedal. If only soundtrack supervisors back in 1994 were listening to this kind of stuff instead of Coolio.

UPDATE: In a strange bit of timing that indicates a massive worldwide PR effort—or, more realistically, indicates that the entire media consists of nerdy thirtysomething guys writing about nerdy fortysomething guys—there's a story about Portman in Time today.

The Mr. T Experience - Tapin' Up My Heart [MP3, link expired]

Artist: Komeda
Song: "Blossom (Got To Get It Out)," 2003
What happened: A long-running Swedish group with a treasure-trove of potential hit singles, Komeda's H&M-meets-ABBA sound combined soapy, spastic arrangements and Lena Karlsson's retro-fitted vocals. Alas, the band had more luck getting its songs on TV commercials than the radio, and its 2003 comeback effort Kokomemedada kokame and went in a flash.
Why it should have been a hit: Just try to shake off that opening bassline: Doo do do do, doo do do do. We can't even stop writing it down!

Komeda - Blossom (Got To Get It Out) [MP3, link expired]

Time to comb through our archives for another installment of the Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda files, where we give an unfairly neglected artist, song, or cassingle its due.

Artist: Simple Minds
Song: "Life In A Day," 1982 1979
What happened: A few years before their career as a credible rock band was stuffed into a locker by John Hughes, Simple Minds were a Glasgow synth-pop band trying awfully hard to capture the brooding song-from-under-the-floorboards sound of Magazine. Then they managed it on Life On A Day, and then went new-wave, pop, and nowhere—in that order.
Why it should have been a hit: Produced by British mastermind John Leckie (Radiohead, XTC, Stone Roses), "Life In A Day" is go-for-broke pop of the highest order, with a percolating intro and a rasping synthesizer line. We've always secretly believed that U2—who were often lumped in with the Minds in their early days—re-discovered this record in the early '90s, when they were in their keyboards-from-space phase.

Simple Minds - Life In A Day [MP3, link expired]
SPECIAL WHY-NOT BONUS: Simple Minds - Someone [MP3, link expired]

Time to another installment of the Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda Files, in which we acknowledge the near-hits that never relegated to the remainder bin of history:

Artist: Abba
Song: "Watch Out," 1974
What happened: Shortly before they began their still-ongoing campaign of world domination, ABBA released a 45 featuring "Waterloo" on the A-side and "Watch Out" on the B-side. Not surprisingly, most people chose to play "Waterloo" over and over again without flipping the disc—really, who could blame them?—and "Watch Out" never got the following it deserved.
Why it should have been a hit: With its jagged opening guitar riff and propulsive drumbeat, "Watch Out" has a grit you won't find on, say, "Mama Mia" or "S.O.S." And the lyrics border on the obsessively creepy; if it weren't for the "Ooh la la la" backing vocals, you'd have no clue this was a Benny & Björn production.

Abba - Watch Out [MP3, link expired]

Artist: Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
Song: "Coma Girl," 2003
What happened: When Strummer died in December 2002 (yeesh, have we really lived in a Strummer-deprived world for neatly four years?), he was working on the follow-up to Global-A-Go-Go; less than year later, many of those songs wound up on Streetcore. "Coma Girl" was actually released as a single, but not surprisingly, it was hard for it get traction on radio.
Why it should have been a hit: Posthumous plaudits should always be taken with a grain of salt, but the anthemic garage ditty "Coma Girl" is our favorite song of Strummer's solo career (followed only by "Johnny Appleseed," which we've also included).

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros -Coma Girl [MP3, link expired]
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Johnny Appleseed [MP3, link expired]

Welcome to another edition of the Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda Files, in which we try to win your hearts and minds with a forgotten song that deserved a better life.

Artist: Faith No More
Song: "Everything's Ruined," 1992
What happened: After the early-'90s success of "Epic" and "Fall To Pieces," people mistook FNM as another "wacky" punk-funk band, not realizing that their heavy-metal roots. So when the super-schizo Angel Dust was released, the label had no idea where to release the chugging, brooding numbers ("Midlife Crisis") or the poppier slap-bass tunes ("A Small Victory"). So they just sort of released them all, which means the excellent "Everything's Ruined" never quite cut through the clutter.
Why it should have been a hit: It's a weird mix of quick-and-dirty thrash and over-reaching pop theatrics, like Meatloaf on SST. Plus, we were 15 when this song came out, and it still sounds amazing.

Faith No More - Everything's Ruined [MP3, link expired]

Artist: The Rubinoos
Song: "I Never Thought It Would Happen," 1977
What happened: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the late-'70s, there were approximately 2,745 power-pop bands residing in the United States. Which means that even though Berkeley, California's Rubinoos had plenty of ace singles, the band's place in skinny-tie history will always beovershadowed by the likes of Cheap Trick and the Raspberries.
Why it should have been a hit: A soft-rock puppy-love anthem with a near-disco groove, "Happen" was made for one of those overjoyous "Let's show the young couple frollicking right before the break-up" movie montages. We're still waiting for that to happen.

The Rubinoos - I Never Thought It Would Happen [MP3, link expired]

Artist: Jimmy Cliff
Song: "We All Are One"
Album: The Power And The Glory, 1983
What happened: Ten years after the The Harder They Come soundtrack established him as an underground hero to reggae-loving U.S. fans, the Jamaican-born Cliff teamed up with Kool & The Gang for the surprisingly giddy Power. Heavy on overemphatic keyboards and DeBarge-style basslines, Power has not aged well: The pop-reggae cross-over sound that was being tested out here later became the back-drop for a thousand different beer commercials—all of them terrible—and the attempted anthem "Reggae Night" sounds like Deniece Williams's "Let's Hear It For The Boy," only less edgy.
Why it should have been a hit: Even though we're tired of the overdone "Yacht Rock" descriptor, this really, reallly sounds as though it was played on a yach, with the jagged little synth line and smoothed-out chorus. Is "The One" a great song, a long-lost gem that deserves to be held up as an example of ingenious genre splicing? Not really. But considering how consumer-friendly it must have sounded in the early '80s—you almost expect it to segue right into Michael McDonald's "I Keep Forgettin'"—it's surprising that "One" got so little radio traction.

Jimmy Cliff - We All Are One [MP3, link expired]

And, to be fair, the conventional wisdom on this one is pretty much spot-on. But there are at least a few good songs to pick from here: "Vicki Waiting" bumps along nicely (until you get to the "All is well in Gotham City" line), and "Trust" has the feel of a Sign O' The Times B-side. Again, this isn't exactly wow-the-world stuff, but it might make you reconsider tossing out your old "Batdance" cassingle.

Prince - Vicki Waiting [MP3, link expired]
Prince - Trust [MP3, link expired]

Artist: Public Enemy
Song: "Burn Hollywood Burn"
Album: Fear Of A Black Planet, 1990
What happened: While no one's going to say that Planet was critically overlooked—it's a fixture on just about every "Best Albums Of All Time" list ever made—PE's breakthrough album was only mined for a handful of singles (including the semi-novelty hit "911 Is A Joke"). But even if Columbia had tried to squeeze out a few more radio tracks, it's doubtful they would have selected "Burn," a hostile eff-you to the movie industry that takes its title very, very seriously. As it stands now, its greatest infamy is that it provided the name for a really terrible Joe Eszterhas movie.
Why it should have been a hit: Short and sharp, "Burn" features a relentless Bomb Squad-produced track, cameos from Big Daddy Kane and Ice Cube, and a rallying call for African-American filmmakers that pre-dated the arrivals of John Singleton and Ernest Dickerson. Plus, it ends with one of the strangest rap-sketch punchlines of all time, in which Flavor Flav goes to the movies, only to find out he's accidentally bought a ticket for Driving Miss Daisy. Are we to believe that a guy who wears a giant clock around his neck doesn't check showtimes?

Public Enemy - Burn Hollywood Burn [MP3, link expired]

Artist: Sugababes
Song: "Overload"
Album: One Touch, 2001
What happened: These three UK teens were riding a high on their way across the pond—"Overload" was top 10 in Britain, and they had garnered Brit Award nominations and laurels from critics. But the wheels began to come off before One Touch's fanfare-free Stateside release in June 2001; one member left the group and the 'Babes were dropped by their label, London, shortly after that because of disappointing album sales. They bounced back in the UK, but the US reception to them didn't really improve, despite a string of killer singles.
Why it should have been a hit: Sultry and danceable, "Overload" reaches great pop heights because of its thundering bass and sing-song chorus. But what's most ear-grabbing about it is the lead vocal take; it's shocking in its un-ProTooledness, the way that the singers' voices quiver as they describe their lonesomeness. It's hard to not think that, had this song hit after Christina Aguilera's first-take "Beautiful," American radio might have been ready for a pop song that cut so close to the bone.

Sugababes - Overload [MP3, link expired]
Sugababes - Overload [YouTube]

Artist: Def Leppard
Song: "Promises"
Album: Euphoria, 1999
What happened: According to the liner notes of the band's greatest-hits set Rock Of Ages, "Promises" supposedly "did really well for [them] in the States"—and in fact, it hit the top of Billboard's Mainstream Rock charts. But even though we were around in 1999, we don't remember hearing any song on the radio that didn't include the words "Livin'," "La," or "Loca."' The truth is, a great Leppard tune probably didn't have much of a chance in the pre-Darkness, anti-pomp late '90s, when the band was still struggling with the hair-metal has-beens tag. Thankfully, the last few years have found them (accurately) being rechristened as hard-rock bubblegum merchants.
Why it should have been a hit: Co-written by Robert "Mutt" Lange—the man responsible for every great '80s-rock album ever made—"Promises" sounds like vintage DL (in fact, it sounds a whole lot like "Photograph," a charge the band doesn't deny).

Def Leppard - Promises [MP3, link expired]