One band, one great song
Posted by CarlP on 24 January 2008 - 8:43pm.
I'm listening to Bob Harris Country and he's just played Poco's Rose Of Cimarron. Poco aren't (weren't) a bad band at all. I've got a couple of albums, but this one song towers above everything else they've ever done. It is truly a GREAT song, which Bob confirmed when he spoke about the number of requests he constantly gets for it.
So what other bands have one superlative song that humbles the rest of their catalogue? I'm not talking about One Hit Wonders here, but bands who have an otherwise respectable catalogue with that one song that many people might consider as a Desert Island Disc.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
- More from CarlP.
- Login or register to post comments
One or two that have already cropped up on other threads...
Teenage Kicks
Another Girl, Another Planet
Live Forever
All The Young Dudes
There She Goes
Motorcycle Emptiness
Echo Beach
Common People
Dry Your Eyes
Teenage Kicks?
The Undertones first album is stacked with great songs, Get over You, Jimmy Jimmy, Here Comes the Summer and then you have My Perfect Cousin! The Only Ones only great moment was Another Planet as was the wonderful There She Goes by the La's.
I'm still trying to find a great moment by Radiohead and Coldplay, wish me luck with it because i'll be buggerred if i can find any!!
Sorry, you seem to have missed the premise
The Undertones did a lot more than Teenage Kicks, which may be their best song but doesn't tower over the rest of the catalogue.
The Only Ones - One hit wonders
Live Forever. Not a great song.
All The Young Dudes - All The Way From Memphis & Saturday Gigs were both a lot better
The La's - One hit wonders
Martha & The Muffins - one hit wonders
Common People - Pulp have a great catalogue.
I don't know the songs Dry Your Eyes or Motorcycle Emptiness, so you could be right with those.
The Only Ones
Have to disagree with your assessment of The Only Ones. They only released 3 "proper" albums but between them they contained about a dozen superb songs, all of which were overshadowed by the mighty "Another Girl Another Planet". The opening track of their debut album "The Whole of the Law" is just beautiful but gets completely overlooked when the famous "Another Girl..." intro kicks in immediately after. So a highly respectable (if disappointingly brief) catalogue, which was overshadowed by one world-class track - I sometimes wonder if it eventually became something of an albatross round the band's neck.
OK, I'm convinced on the Only Ones
The Only Ones had a hinterland bigger than I thought. The La's back catalogue is far too slim though. I overstated the case calling them one hit wonders - it's one very well known song, that probably gives Lee Mavers a small but regular income stream.
Six figure income....
I read somewhere (probably The Word, so sorry if this info is common knowledge) that Mavers earns a six figure amount of cash annually for that one song. Helped him send his four kids through school and a season ticket for Everton apparently.
Ok, let me try to explain/argue the toss...
Teenage Kicks - disagree - the rest of their catalogue is ace, but it still towers over the rest (in fact it towers over virtually everything ever done by anyone)
Another Girl....others have already pointed out that the Only Ones are by no stretch of the imagination one hit wonders.
Live Forever - disagree, an absolute corker - don't let the rest of their catalogue dilute their one true moment of greatness. This is not an uncommon view, by the way.
All The Young Dudes - personal taste, I guess. Head and shoulders above the rest of their stuff for me.
The La's - their recorded output may be 'compact' but TSG still stands out.
Echo Beach - I'll give you that one.
Dry Your Eyes (by The Streets) - a sublime moment of beauty that p!sses on the rest of his stuff
Motorcycle Emptiness - another personal taste thing I guess.
Ahem!
The La's - one hit wonders? Surely they're more than that? One immense and immensely influential album and a critically acclaimed BBC sessions album is not exactly a huge output, admittedly, but quality is surely more important than quantity.
Motorcycle Emptiness - The Manic Street Preachers first significant single. Many things they've done since then are far better: La Tristessa Druera, A Design for Life, If You Tolerate This..., most of The Holy Bible, even their freebie Christmas track given away last year, Ghost of Christmas.
Can I offer:
French Disko by Stereolab
Are "Friends" Electric by Gary Numan & Tubeway Army
Walk This Way by Run DMC
and to return to an old favourite in a new situation:
Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses
Ping
I always thought 'Ping Pong' was their most well known...
Disagree about the
Disagree about the Waitresses - I Know What Boys Like is a classic, as is Slide (although this is possibly only marginally the same group).
My offering: More Than A Feeling by Boston. Loved by people (including myself) who'd probably never bother listening to anything else by them.
Smells Like More Than A Feeling
I heard "More Than A Feeling" by Boston on the radio a couple of days ago, and was struck by it's similarity to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. Kurt Cobain must have been a fan.
Your criteria are pretty strict, but.....
Dark End of The Street by James Carr? The La's can hardly be called one-hit wonders when There She Goes hardly set the charts on fire, even when it was re-released.
The Amazing Rhythm Aces
...Third Rate Romance. First rate song. Fine band with some nice records that stand the test of time but no song that comes close.
Revisioning the Past.
Driver's Seat, by Sniff 'n the tears, has to be the archetype for me. Bought the single and then could never find anything else anywhere. Until one ominous day, in the "cheap" section of His Masters Voice I came across their "greatest hits". Even at £5 it was overpriced, as all else was/is, you guessed it, unlistenable claptrap.
Actually, I'm a sucker for these "greatest hits" £5 jobbys: always the 80's, always few if any "hits", but essential to get hold of that one elusive track. Hence Dead or alive for "You spin me round" leaps to mind, along with the aforementioned Martha and the Muffins/Echo Beach. But, and I want this minuted, I have resisted the Flock of Seagulls. Nobody needs "Postcard of you" that much..........
(Provocation demands I raise "Peaches en Regalia" by Frank Zappa. Everyone knows that without his mustache and the bit he missed underneath he would be nothing!)
Airport
The Motors
How dare you....
They had 2, maybe 3, LPs chock(s away) full of fab hits.
Actually, that was what I always thought, until I digitalised my copy of the LP with Airport on recently. I think 3 tracks made the cut. Add in the unmemorably titled (and tune) of the single from the 1st LP and one I heard on the radio in 19whatever from the 3rd and that a total of 5 songs of worth and value.
And as for the Bram Tscaikovsky (spelling?) band........
The Sutherland Brothers
Sailing
Joy Division
With that dreadfully tuneless Love Will Tear Us Apart.
Like it!
The comment, that is. Yes, curious how overvalued that version is, never quite understood why it initiated all those covers. I think I have about 10-15 versions, up there with Hey Joe , Watchtower and Hallelujah as songs most covered.
(Always preferred the Paul Young original best)
Joy Division
I'm not the biggest LWTUA fan, but it's hardly the only good track that Joy Division made: Dead Souls, She's Lost Control, Decades, New Dawn Fades, Heart and Soul... All GREAT tracks.
(Don't Fear) The Reaper?
From what I've heard, Blue Oyster Cult, weren't the absolute worst band in the world, but I haven't heard anything else by them nearly as good as this.
From the same era (and genre), "More Than a Feeling" is surely the only thing Boston did that has some magic dust sprinkled on it.
Thunderclap Newman
'Something In The Air'.
Wreckless Eric 'Whole Wide World'.
The Vapors 'Turning Japanese'.
The Selecter 'On My Radio'
Psychic TV 'Godstar'
Hollywood Dream
I think HD was Thunderclap's only album so they don't have enough material to qualify. Unless you know of a bigger back catalogue.
On the other hand Godstar absolutely qualifies for what I'm talking about.
Was......
"Whole Wide World" a hit, even? Much as I like his oevre, I felt they had all slid down the face of popular acclaim. I like him, but prefer "Reconnez Cherie"
White Rabbit
by Jefferson Airplane. Not really anything they did that compares to this is there?
Yes there is
Somebody To Love, from the same album. Here they are together:
Yes
You are right I concede - I admit I'd forgotten how good that song really is.
Mott the Hoople. A Crash Course.
'All the Way From Memphis'
'Golden Age Of Rock And Roll'
'Roll Away The Stone'
'Sweet Angeline'
'Saturday Gigs'
'Honaloochie Boogie'
'Marionette'
'Waterlow'
'Sea Diver'
'Rose'
'Walking With A Mountain'
'Sucker'.
I mean...I could go on.....
No Thunderbuck Ram?
I was with Mott from the early days as well, right through to the Ronson days, and bow to no-one in my appreciation of their 'oeuvre', but I would still maintain that '...Dudes' is the one song that commercially, critically and in terms of its importance to the group itself, is head and shoulders above the rest. Perhaps a bit outside the remit of the original thread, but without this one song, mott's career would have been half as long and half as varied!
and on and on.....
Mott The Hoople were undoubtedly one of the most under rated bands of the 70's and if that nitwit Hunter hadn't of left to pursue an average solo career then superstardom was theirs for the taking.
That deluxe 2cd edition live' album is classic 70's rock at it's best. All the Young Dudes is a good song but they have better ones.
Weekender - Flowered Up
An almighty song from an otherwise forgettable band
Story of the Blues - The Mighty Wah!
Oh, and not forgetting this, from the mighty mouth himself, P Wylie.
Great Song...
...but not a patch on 'Heart as big as Liverpool' which is Wylie's true masterpiece.
pete loaf
disagree with 'heart as...' it's been turned into a professional scouse singalong by those loveable reds on the kop. wouldnt be surprised to see ringo singing it soon. bad backing vocals on it too.
'come back' was a better anthem for the city.
Not close
The first two Wah! Heat singles Better Scream / Hey Disco Joe and Seven Minutes To Midnight / Don't Step On The Cracks were brilliant and much better than Story Of The Blues. Somesay and Remember weren't bad either.
Lorraine Ellison
"Stay With Me Baby".
Once you've made that record you don't need to make another one.
Andy Pratt: "Avenging Annie."
I disagree, Paul - good song
I disagree, Paul - good song though it is (if a little over-romanticising), how many people (with the exception of Scousers!)would have that as a Desert Island Disc? And I think 'Sing All The Saddest Songs' is a better song, from the same album as 'Heart As Big As Liverpool'.
Got me bang to rights there...
I guess my hometown kind of sways my judgment a bit as far as that song's concerned!
Can I offer.....
Tinseltown In The Rain by Blue Nile?
Sorry,no
Not while The Downtown Lights exists.
Reg's Finest Moment
Surely the ultimate song to satisfy the criteria for this tag would be 'Wild Thing' by The Troggs?
Excellent pick
Thanks. Exactly the sort of thing I was referring to.
That can't be allowed
Although the most famous song to be released under the Troggs name, I would've thought Reg Presley is more famous for another song he wrote which gives him an annual tidy sum, was performed by nobody's favourite Scottish pop group and stayed at number 1 for approximately half the 90s
One great song
Is Love is All Around as great as Wild Thing? It's not about the song's fame. I think this is as good an example as any - not easy to think of one but this qualifies I think.
Not a contender
It may be a big earner, but it doesn't tower above the Troggs work in the way that Wild Thing does. If you went to a Troggs gig which of those two songs would you be disappointed about them leaving out of the set?
Whit Whit Whit?
I would also argue that the song itself (Love is All Around, that is) was little known before being covered by WWW (I had only heard it covered by REM up to that point and still haven't heard the original) and nobody would have considered it a classic at all up to that point (even if they do now, which I don't think many people would, frankly). Wild Thing, though, is an undisputed classic - immediately recognisable, much loved and once heard, never forgotten.
Wonderful life - Black
fantastic song - done bugger else either before or after.
Paul McCartney
Went a bit downhill after Maybe I'm Amazed.
The distaff James Carr?
Lorraine Ellison's "Stay With Me Baby" -- arguably the best soul single ever made, yet she didn't exactly enjoy Aretha's career, did she?
Nirvana?
Smells Like Teen Spirit is undeniably great. The rest sounds like so much dyspeptic yowling.
Dyspeptic yowling!
Even better than stentorian hooting! And so true. And his missus isn't exactly Dame Kiri.
Which reminds me, Cleo Laine. If it wasn't all so hysterically funny she would surely be the worst. I preferred her when she and johnny did those cookery programmes in black and white.
How about 5705
from City Boy....
or even Substitute
by Clout
or Funky Town
by Lipps Inc
All one hit wonders
The premise is there has to be a substantial body of work, which may or may not be good, but there is one song that towers above the rest.
Procol Harum
might fit the premise, although I can't comment on how good the rest of their work is, since I have only heard the one song of theirs that everyone knows. Anyone heard their other stuff? And is it any good?
Procul Harum
Yes.
(Tho' probably only up to Exotic Birds and Fruit, which has a cracking side 1 and poor side 2)
Good pick
I've got a Procol Harum best of (2 vinyl discs) and the only other song I really like is Homburg.
Alphaville
Alphaville - Forever Young
Fairly cheesy German tunesmiths didn't do much but I do still like Forever Young (don't mention Big in Japan)