The Band The Beatles Could Have Been™ with Silly Love Songs.

the answer seems to be The Dame. Tony Visconti playing bass, and taking advantage of his producer's hat to turn his playing way up in the mix. The first time I played this on a decent HiFi, I was amazed at how much the bass speakers were moving! It really does require to be played V.Loud to get the full effect

John Paul Jones on The Lemon Song, and the master, McCartney on Rain, Paperback Writer to name but 2.

JJ Burnel on the Stranglers early stuff at least

Luc van Acker on RevCo's excellent (and never bettered) debut LP Big Sexyland.

He's a master of the bass but I especially like his fluid bass lines for Public Image. The single, Public Image, is a great example of his powerful playing.

under pressure ?

Blue monday?

Walk on the wild side ?

Surely these count, or am I just being predictable?

one of many great performances on this album

Macca for me is one of the most democratic and imaginative bass players. By that I mean he really knows how to be sensitive to the needs of the song by the way he arranges and plays his bass lines, being neither showy nor imposing. Nowhere is this more true than when he interprets the needs of other songwriters. For me the great examples are the first two tracks of Abbey Road, Lennon's Come Together and Harrison's Something, two vastly differing songs but both swimming in melody and subtle changes in tone thanks largely to Macca's bass. His playing on Something, especially the verses and bridge, is particularly mellifluous and laid-back with a delightful rippling effect in the fills he lays down. The way he supports the guitar solos (in the bridge and at the end)is exemplary.

The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored

without the guv'nor Jack Bruce. Here he is playing live with Cream:

This one I remember from my callow youth. Its not big or clever but I still love it.

The second is both big and clever.

I was thinking about this yesterday when Blur's "Entertain Me" came on my ipod

Now, he doesn't profess to be a master craftsman on the 4 string but I always thought Mr Cheese Farmer brought some fantastic stuff to the table at times and this was a fave.
All time though I would have to go for:
Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick

Here's the original Four Tops track:

And here it is mixed to show the arrangement and James Jamerson's bassline:

Have this...

...yet effective

Sheer genius to have two double-basses going at the same time - sometimes bowed, sometimes plucked - and of course great performances by the two gentlemen concerned, Art Davis and Reggie Workman. There's a bit about 11-12 minutes into the track when things get just ... supernatural.

... in saying Norman Watt Roy was on the original recording of Nick Lowe's I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass

and he is certainly responsible for spanking the bass plank in the wonderful Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick

..this should go on the TV themes thread but the stand-up bass line from Randall and Hopkirk (deceased) is a long-time favourite of mine.

but

For Whom the Bell Tolls

The Trooper

The Lemmster

for the great Mr Herbie Flowers. Playing both electric and upright bass on this track.

have to agree on Tony Visconti's contribution to TMWSTW - it would have been Bowie's second folk album without his bass and production skills.

Jah Wobble - a true innovator.

Herbie Flowers - more than a sesh musician.

John Deacon - too many great bass lines to mention, but Another One Bites The Dust has to be somewhere near the top.

Here's something a bit more recent from Jah Wobble

....and having ripped and rated my faves to fit a playlist on to phone memory (rather than lug a high capacity iPod), I noticed a long while back that pretty much all my fave tracks are defined by a great bass melody. Often the bass is the lead and everyone else noodles round it.... heaps of Del Amitri, AC/DC, The The, John Butler Trio, Sugar, Grant Lee Buffalo (and on and on it goes).

Here's one from Nick Cave and friends

Layjennelmen,
This is my first try at posting a clip, please give this a lash, I think the bass is superb.

if this is succesful, I will try it with a bit less gubbins in the link.

but the bass on Dion's Abraham, Martin and John is fab:

In the words of Young Mister Grace "You've all done very well." That lot will make quite a playlist! The James Jamerson choice was inspired, Inky. I played the stripped out version to the GLW - she always maintains that she can't pick out the bass in a song. Then I played the full version (just about her favourite Motown track) and it made her day, being able to pick out Jamo's nimble playing. Brilliant! I have posted before that I think Andy Fraser was the most wonderful player and that his bass solo in the Free Live version of Mr. Big is one of my musical highlights, ever. Macca was always going to feature, Rain or Paperback Writer are my faves, and John Wetton was in my favourite line-up of King Crimson - with Bill Bruford and the mad Jamie Muir. Anyway, thank you all...I shall now go and investigate all the tracks I don't know. BTW the rellies were on good form, thanks. 78 years young and just about to set out on their annual 3,500 miles drive round France. I asked when they were due back and it was wonderful to watch my MinL start her finger on the wall planner at the 22nd Aug, move right through September and settle on 4th Oct. Thats my new ambition - to have a holiday that covers 3 different months on the calendar!

Paul Hester is one of my favourite bass players. This is a massively underrated single (one of the 'new' tracks from their greatest hits), with the best bassline Paul McCartney never played...

today:

Bernard Edwards - Chic - Good Times

Martin McAloon - Prefab Sprout - Enchanted

Talking Heads 'Take Me To The River':

See also 'Houses In Motion'.

Rolling Stones 'Live With Me':

John Gustafson , in the job that possibly defines the term "contract work" (Roxy Music bassist).

Unfussy but not basic, totally at the core of the song. Mr Gustafson, in the grand tradition of the bassist, remains very firmly in the background (visually). Thinking about it, may even not be in the clip, as did the 3 Roxy albums he played on as a session player.

The start-shot rather spoils it, when I look again, but I wondered why it took so long for the camera to pan in to Bryan Ferry until I spotted the eyepatch (seemingly not a fashion accessory).

but Robbie Shakespeare puts the bass in the musical foreground right from the word go for Grace Jones

Bruce Foxton
Town Called Malice

Start

Bruce Foxton (Jam), JJ Burnel (Stranglers) & Ali McMordie (SLF) - Top 3 Bass Players of late 70s/early 80s

The bass line to Rock The Casbah is magnificent, especially on the chorus. Fabulous groove; I seem to remember reading somewhere that Topper Headon wrote the song and played most of the instruments. Whether it was him or Paul Simonon playing this bass line, it's a doozy. Extraordinary video too!

Sting. Bit of a knob? Seems so. Increasingly portentous and decreasingly entertaining singer and songwriter? I think so. Leader of a fabulous pop group in the late 70s and early 80s? Yep. Bloody good bass player? I think this song answers that question. Spirits In The Material World.

They're not complex, but they are damn catchy!

You shouldn't really notice him being there - but you'd sure notice if he wasn't. Or fucked things up.

Quiet, almost anonymous competence should be the bassman's watchword.

Perhaps playing bass to an acoustic track is in some ways the hardest thing to do - and as if to make the point further about the bassman's eternal anonymity - I'm not actually sure who is playing the perfect spare and tender counterpoint here

Carole King "So Far Away"

One of Entwhistle's finest moments. Less ox, just - cat-like.

Brian Ritchie, looking like the sinister brother of ex-Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan

I personally always thought that the main thing that put this band in a completely different class to any of their contemporaries, in their fist couple of years was the bass.

And whatever happened to them after their initial spurt of inspiration, is anyones bloody guess.

And perhaps a different world, this one never grows old…

Much-maligned for being a coke-addled LA tw*t, but on his day he could pulse a dance-floor. Not sure that he's doing that much musically - perhaps some flashery and look-at-me type tricks - but his basslines from Duran Duran's first couple of albums sound great to me.

but this one in particular...

Can't see most of this thread due to work web nazis, but if Blur's Girls and Boys and Let's Dance by Bowie aren't here already I will be most miffed!

Oh, and Can You Dig It by the Mock Turtles too! (Mobile phone ads notwithstanding)

they've all played so many great lines, I can't single out one

and this from the 60s (not sure who)

and of course the awesome Love is Here (Carole Kaye?):-

The Old Man's Back Again: Scott Walker

memorably sampled in

but I love the build on this track, from about 5 minutes in it just takes off and you can't stop doing a head-nod.

By the MVPS, a lovely full of energy Northern Soul classic. I can't do the Youtube thing cos of work's firewall, but I know it's on there. Go search it out. I think there might even be a video of someobody playing the bassline. It's the business.

Also Justice VS Simian 'We Are Your Friends'. Brilliant bassline. Who said a bassline has to be played on the four stringed wood thingy?

Am I being blind? I cant seem to see Mr Andy Rourke anywhere on this list!

I give you this charming man;

Having played bass in a few bands I always keep an ear out for the bass playing. Here are todays favourite bass-lines;

...proper no-nonsense stuff:

Love is the drug - just makes we want to dance, even though I can't

Rio by Duran Duran (possibly already mentioned here, flash, yes but great all the same)

Anything by Chic. Come on, Bernie Edwards was the funkiest funkster alive but played so much for the song.

Hysteria - Muse

Guns of Brixton

Money (Pink Floyd)

And surely Mr Flea from the Chili Peppers has to get a mention. He's a flash so-and-so but makes the foundation of most of their songs really steady. Infact, his work on Alanis Morissette's 'You oughta know' was some of his best work.

There, I said it.

And great that John Deacon gets a mention. Another one bites the dust is truly awesome, if not 'inspired' by Chic, but as a bassist, he was so solid but not in your face-y.

... and up-arrows added to so many of the tunes listes. But I've always had a soft spot for Thin Lizzy's Dancing In The Moonlight - my no.1 go-to noodling bass line.

Another fave is Geddy Lee's on Rush's Spirit Of Radio. Great bass line and great fills and runs!!

Finally, just been listening to "Tribes, Vibes and Scribes" by Incognito. An album chock full with incredibly cool bass playing by Randy Hope Taylor.

as per the OP's comment about wrapping itself around the drummer.

bass player, keyboard player, singer - Steve Winwood