Picking singles isn’t easy, especially when they advance an album. An artist and their team are left to guess which songs will connect most with listeners. While there is rhyme and reason for what makes a song a hit, it’s not a foolproof formula. The three songs below are classic rock album cuts that weren’t released as singles. In hindsight, these songs could’ve been chosen as featured tracks.
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“The Chain” – Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours was chock full of hits. Cover to cover, this album didn’t have any skips. Any one of the songs on the tracklist for this classic rock staple could’ve been a successful single. But the one song we’re surprised didn’t get chosen as a standout is “The Chain.”
Rumours is infamous for being the most tumultuous time in Fleetwood Mac’s history. The band members wrote songs about one another that were cutting enough to make their fans wonder how they could even stand to be in the same room. However, they buried the hatchet for one song: “The Chain.” This track is the only song on Rumours to credit all five members of the band. It would’ve been tender to choose this song as a single, given it was the tenuous thread that held the group together. Despite not being released as a single, it earned the fame of one. So, in the end, it didn’t matter much how Fleetwood Mac classified this song.
“Moonlight Mile” – The Rolling Stones
Similar to Rumours, the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers has more than its fair share of hits. The singles from this album were all timeless hits, including “Brown Sugar” and “Wild Horses”. However, another strong contender for singledom is “Moonlight Mile.”
This meditative song about life on the road is pure existentialism. The band married the introspective lyrics with equally as thought-provoking musicality. This song is best heard while looking out of a car window, pondering on life. While the singles chosen from Sticky Fingers were apt choices, many fans would’ve liked to have seen “Moonlight Mile” earn more fame than it did as a non-single.
“Even the Losers” – Tom Petty
If any casual listeners know a Tom Petty album, it’s likely Damn the Torpedoes. More than the stark, iconic album cover, the tracklist is rife with Petty hits. This album had several singles, with the most famous being “Don’t Do Me Like That.” One song that could’ve been given more prominence is “Even the Losers.”
“Even the Losers” was chosen as a single in Australia, but was left as an album cut everywhere else. This song became a hit enough over there to earn single status. Petty’s home country didn’t give “Even the Losers” its due.
Featured Image: Richard E. Aaron/Redferns
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