Hit singles that sound like they're album/filler tracks

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by ricebear, Jan 26, 2015.

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  1. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    A whole bunch for me. The title track from Sign O' The Times is one. And I'm not saying it's filler, just not a good choice for a single.
     
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2015
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  2. Yannick

    Yannick Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cologne, Germany
    "Streets Of Love" by Rolling Stones sounds like a demo in its studio version but they worked on it during their tour and fleshed it out a bit more. Too bad they didn't do that before releasing the album. Now, the unfinished version will remain.
     
  3. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    The whole point of the session was to cut Suspicious Minds. Elvis couldn't get a slice of the publishing so it almost never got released.
     
  4. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    There are several songs on Revolver I would have picked for singles before "Yellow Submarine."
     
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  5. jeatleboe

    jeatleboe Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY
    "Never" could be my very favorite Heart song!
     
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  6. jeatleboe

    jeatleboe Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY
    Interesting that "Got To Get You Into My Life" wasn't thought of for a single until 1976.
    But it turns out it went right with "Yellow Submarine" being issued as a single, as it did hit #1 .
     
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  7. Remy

    Remy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn NY
    Young Boy from McCartney, which technically didn't become a hit, but it would have been hidden gem as an album cut, but a kind of fail as a single.
     
  8. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    I know. I just don't like it all that much. :)
     
  9. JohnnyQuest

    JohnnyQuest Forum Resident

    Location:
    Paradise
    Yes it's an animated image of one of her shots from the Confessions on the Dancefloor photoshoot. :)
     
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  10. drmaynard

    drmaynard Well-Known Member

    "Let 'Em In"
     
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  11. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    I haven't mentioned her for 2 minutes, so here goes.

    The title track of Olivia's 1985 Soul Kiss LP was also the lead single. Obviously not considered filler then... Still, after a 4 year album break, she could have hardly picked a more nondescript track to return with. It rose to #20, and did well to achieve that. The SK album isn't packed with smashes, I'll grant you, but there are at least 3 songs that would have made better singles...
     
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  12. Slokes

    Slokes Cruel But Fair

    Location:
    Greenwich, CT USA
    I picked songs I actually like but don't quite understand being picked to be hits as they sound more like album tracks (on albums with more commercial material):

    "Love Is Here And Now You're Gone" - The Supremes

    "Black Water" - The Doobie Brothers

    "Coconut" - Harry Nilsson

    "Doing It All For My Baby - Huey Lewis & The News

    "Got My Mind Set On You" - George Harrison
     
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  13. Alan1074

    Alan1074 Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    On the subject of The Supremes, I always felt they were VERY lucky to get a #1 with Back In My Arms Again. I would never have pegged that as a single. Many b-sides were better.
     
  14. Johnny the Fox

    Johnny the Fox hot to hustle

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    "Black Water" was originally a B-side. In those days B-sides were often a place to stick filler songs from an album. "Black Water" got its chance after the first two singles from the album... underperformed. But, yes, not a blatant single.

    In the '80s there were some albums that sold so much, and stayed on the charts so long, they just kept releasing singles until they'd wrung every available song out of the album. For instance, "I'm on Fire" is more album cut than obvious single off Born in the U.S.A.
     
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  15. ricebear

    ricebear Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Tulsa, OK
    It really wasn't meant to be (that hurts my feelings) :(

    I was reading in the "Billboard Book Of #1 Hits" about the Mr. Mister song. The band admitted that for their first album they desperately were trying to write "hits" based on what was popular at the time. With the 2nd album, they rejected what the label wanted- the label wanted an uptempo song. Mr. Mister just thought "Broken Wings" was the best song, but wasn't an obvious choice for a single, and probably hadn't ever been thought of to be a single until the album was done. "Broken Wings" initially bombed- I remember seeing the video well before it was popular. It took like 10 weeks just to chart.
     
  16. ARK

    ARK Forum Miscreant

    Location:
    Charlton, MA, USA
    Back when R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People came out, my roommate wanted to record my copy to cassette to tape for his girlfriend, but it wouldn't fit. He asked me which song to remove and I immediately came up with "Everybody Hurts" before remembering the instrumental. That's how little I thought/think of "Everybody Hurts" compred to the rest of the album.
     
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  17. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    When I heard the first single off R.E.M.'s Monster, "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" that was my first inkling all was not well with the band.
     
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  18. altaeria

    altaeria Forum Resident

    This could be an example of the complete opposite situation.
    The song may have been included on the album purposely because it had potential to be a single-- even though it didn't quite fit with all the other material.


    A perfect example of filler becoming a hit would be
    "Lucky Man" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
    I think they've even admitted that the song was tacked on to their first album last-minute to fill time.
     
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  19. GLENN

    GLENN Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kingsport,TN, USA
    "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" by Elton John. Lengthy for a single, lyrics that are hardly the traditional pop fare, takes forever to get to the chorus, etc. The fact that it was a hit just shows how big Elton was at the time. And frankly, there's little else on the Captain Fantastic album that does sound like a hit.
     
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  20. John54

    John54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Burlington, ON
    One Toronto band called Stitch in Tyme figured it out in 1967:

     
  21. I love Monster. :shrug:

    Anyways: The Monkees D.W. Washburn (U.S. #3). Seriously. WTF?!
     
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  22. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    I'll say this much: It's a better album than "Kenneth" is a single. :)

    (And I agree on "D.W. Washburn," btw.)
     
  23. Lucidae

    Lucidae AAD

    Location:
    Australia
    Funny, because that's one of their most recognizable/popular songs. Is it too mainstream for serious R.E.M. fans?
     
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  24. Everyone liked the music vid at the time too.
     
  25. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Central VA
    I love the song "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac, but it in no way sounds like a single. They only got away with it because it was the lead single from the album of the same name, and it was so eagerly anticipated that they could have put out anything from the LP as the lead single and it would have been a hit.

    "He's a Liar" by the Bee Gees.

    "Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston. In fact, it was the B-side of her first single, "You Give Good Love." It was later issued as the fifth single from her debut, and it became her third pop #1. I was quite familiar with George Benson's original from 1977, and to me, it sounds as if Whitney rushed through it because they needed another song for the album.
     
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