50 Red Hot Chili Peppers Songs Never Released As Singles That Every Fan Must Hear

40. True Men Don't Kill Coyotes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZdAI3pMcgU Album: The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984) Although being the first music video that the band ever released, True Men Don't Kill Coyotes was never released as an audio single. Oddly, the video for the song was released on the same day as the other single release from the album, Get Up And Jump, which was a radio-only single. True Men Don't Kill Coyotes perfectly sums up the Chilis' origins, as a funk-rock track with a strong underlying bass riff. Although the line-up at the time only featured two of the long-term members of the band (including drummer Cliff Martinez who went on to become a film composer, writing the scores for films such as Traffic, Drive and Spring Breakers), the song includes many themes in its musicality and lyrics that remain in the band's produce today.

39. Mercy Mercy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ivboK-ODQc Album: Tell Me Baby (2006, B-Side) Another B-side of Tell Me Baby, Mercy Mercy was also featured on Stadium Arcadium - Venus. The song harks back to the band's earlier funk riffs with Flea's bass, complemented by Frusciante's smooth guitar and Kiedis' impassioned singing (contrasting the mostly-rapping of their earlier records). Mercy Mercy is one of the most classic-Chilis sounding releases of recent years, as they have experimented with many genres (such as the country-esque Hometown Gypsy from the I'm With You Sessions), even including the trumpet sounds of songs such as Yertle The Turtle.

38. Funky Crime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEiS-1zcGJQ Album: The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987) Funky Crime is another great example of the band's funk-rock early years, from The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, the final album with so much funk inspiration, also being a pre-curser to later songs such as Midnight in its use of sound effects on top of the music. The lyrics are also very influenced by the funk, with the words "funk" or "funky" being heard over 25 times throughout the song.

37. Million Miles Of Water

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbv8N0GSQjA Album: Dani California (2006, B-Side) Again from Stadium Arcadium - Venus, Million Miles Of Water represents the experimental end of the Chilis' songwriting, featuring 6/4 bars in its verses before returning to more conventional 4/4 in the chorus. The song is archetypal of the final album featuring Frusciante on guitar, even if it didn't make the album's final cut, including a classic Frusciante solo and the recognisable mixture of easy-listening rock that fans of the band's recent albums have loved.

36. This Is The Place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BOtuqKo4ik Album: By The Way (2002) This Is The Place is recognisably a song from the era of By The Way, the band's eighth studio album, with the guitar tone and vocal harmonies matching those found in The Zephyr Song's B-side Rivers Of Avalon, which could have also taken this place on the list. The song demonstrates very well the band's progression from the heavier songs in One Hot Minute and Californication towards the style of recent songs such as Police Station. The lyrics concern Kiedis' drug use, and notably how this addiction caused him to miss the funeral of his friend and former band-mate, Hillel Slovak, who was the founding guitarist of the band and re-joined them for the albums Freaky Styley and The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, along with founding drummer Jack Irons.