I'll start:

Steve Hackett (co-written with Peter Gabriel) - Deja Vu

From the album "Watcher of the Skies - Genesis Revisited" [1996 Guardian Records] vocal by Paul Carrack. The song was originally written during the "Selling England by the Pound" sessions, and completed by Hackett in 1996.

http://www.stevehackett.com/albums/revisited.html

Steve's new website (since his divorce): http://www.hackettsongs.com/index.html

First things that pop into my head are ALL from Bob Dylan's Biograph collection- Percy's Song, Caribbean Wind, and Up To Me. If I was an aspiring singer/songwriter and heard these 3 songs, knowing they never made the cut to get on an album when they were initially recorded, I would have immediately changed careers.

Warren Zevon's 2nd version of Werewolves of London found in the attic after his death.His kids found it as well as others...........................

"Slave" by the Rolling Stones. This extended jam made the cut on "Tattoo You, but was written for "Black and Blue" and really fits better with the between-guitarist jam and ealry disco ("Hot Stuff") loaded B&B.

Bob Dylan made many superb unreleased tracks which saw their first public hearing on "Biograph". I love "Lay Down Your Weary Tune", "I'll Keep It With Mine" and the demo of "Forever Young" on that set especially well.

Stevie Ray Vaughan's posthumous "The Sky Is Crying" had "Life By The Drop", a song so moving that upon hearing it, I had to buy that album that very day.

I really like this Dylan song called She's Your Lover Now, we used to call it Now Your Mouth Cries Wolf untill the official version came out on The Bootleg Series Box set in the 90's.

You're going to think this is funny, but here goes.

On the Linda Ronstadt 4 CD collection titled Boxset, disc 4 is titled "rarities". One of the tracks is All I have to do is dream. It is a duet with Kermit the Frog. Kermit (Steve Whitmire) doesn't really sing very much, but this is a very nice song from Ms. Ronstadt.

The entire "Silver Bell" album by Patty Griffin.

First things that pop into my head are ALL from Bob Dylan's Biograph collection- Percy's Song, Caribbean Wind, and Up To Me. If I was an aspiring singer/songwriter and heard these 3 songs, knowing they never made the cut to get on an album when they were initially recorded, I would have immediately changed careers.

I love Dylan.

I question many of his choices of what "makes" the album, though. I don't think that is the best standard in his case. The most famous being "Blind Willie McTell" from the Infidels sessions. I like that album, but BWM is easily better than most of the tunes on there.

On the other hand, just the sheer volume of Dylan's unreleased work added to his released stuff is pretty overwhelming to a songwriter - which I used to be.

Bob Dylan made many superb unreleased tracks which saw their first public hearing on "Biograph". I love "Lay Down Your Weary Tune", "I'll Keep It With Mine" and the demo of "Forever Young" on that set especially well.

Stevie Ray Vaughan's posthumous "The Sky Is Crying" had "Life By The Drop", a song so moving that upon hearing it, I had to buy that album that very day.

Ditto the Bob Dylan. He wrote a number of songs during the 1960's that he not only never recorded, he simply threw them away. A few years ago I was listening to PBS late at night and was positively transfixed by these folk songs I was hearing, they were brilliant, positively genius. Why had I never heard them before? After about 5 or 6 songs, the announcer finally came on and explained they were playing a bunch of Dylan throw-away songs which had finally been recorded by other folk artists, some well known, some not so well known, but all performed with absolute musicianship. It was then that I truly understood something I had suspected all along, Bob Dylan was to songwriters what Michael Jordan was to basketball players: simply the best there ever was, an songwriter without a peer.

First thing that comes to mind here is "Lime Juice and Despair" by the Gourds.