Bad choices for lead-off singles

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by R79, Sep 16, 2020.

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  1. CliffL

    CliffL Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sacramento CA USA
    Dunno...is that something that is rumored about it? I don't recall anything like that...must be some rock n' roll lore that I'm completely unaware of...
     
  2. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Their biggest ever UK hit at that time (no. 4), only The Great Beyond subsequently beat it, got 1 place highter.
     
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  3. classicrockguy

    classicrockguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Livingston NJ
    I didn't know that, it's a really great song that sounds like a natural follow up to the Rumours album :shrug:
     
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  4. classicrockguy

    classicrockguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Livingston NJ
    Well the one on the album does, so I'd assume it's edited out or something?
     
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  5. BrentB

    BrentB Urban Angler

    Location:
    Midwestern US
    Styx "Music Time" that leads off Caught In The Act live 2lp. I with they would have picked another live song to lead off the set and maybe just kept this one a single release only.
     
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  6. carlwm

    carlwm Forum Resident

    Location:
    wales
    It's a curious one, promoting a live album with a studio track.

    Like the song though.
     
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  7. geo50000

    geo50000 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canon City, CO.
    It's edited out:
     
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  8. CliffL

    CliffL Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sacramento CA USA
    I didn't buy the LP myself so don't know about this...my interest is sure piqued, though, so I'm gonna investigate. I'm no Steely Dan expert, obviously, but it would've been kind of cool if they had gotten away with it!
     
  9. CliffL

    CliffL Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sacramento CA USA

    Thank you.
     
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  10. Mal

    Mal Phorum Physicist

    Fantastic album but after over 3 years on hiatus, the 'comeback single' could have done with being more arresting, perhaps.

    Maybe they should have made "Das Model ('00)" the 'A-side'!



    The Cardigans - For What It's Worth [Discogs]
     
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2020
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  11. Chuckee

    Chuckee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate, NY, USA
    Number 2 on Top 100, but still very good. Would have seemed weak after Billie jean and Beat It, I agree with you there. Did hit #1 on R&B and AC charts.
     
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  12. Eric_Generic

    Eric_Generic Enigma

    Location:
    Berkshire
    That was intended as a deliberate taster for the US market, to show the band were still "rocking", and to generate a positive buzz in Metal circles (or something, so the band said). A bit like an 80s version of the buzz-single.

    It was never released in Britain, and Animal is to all intents and purposes the lead single off Hysteria.

    EG.
     
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  13. Aphoristical

    Aphoristical Aphoristic Album Reviews

    Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' 'You Got Lucky' is a weird lead single. The synth-heavy sound makes it sound like Petty's gone in an entirely new, synth-heavy, direction on 1982's Long After Dark, but the rest of the record is typical Petty. Feels like 'Change of Heart' is the obvious single.
     
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  14. Eric_Generic

    Eric_Generic Enigma

    Location:
    Berkshire
    I haven't read all the posts yet, but something that's springing to mind here is that single campaign strategies weren't always the same in the UK/US, or even from act to act. Sometimes, the label wanted to play the long game, build up momentum..so they'd not necessarily blow their best shot straight away. Quite often the second single might be the strongest track, or most obvious hit...and in the US, it often felt like the first singles off new albums by some acts were deliberately low key, just to get the albums off and running before radio pushed the stronger singles and thus kept the albums on the chart for longer.

    EG.
     
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  15. Joseph.McClure

    Joseph.McClure Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    I remember when Body Language came out - no more Queen for me. It was just cringeworthy bad.
     
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  16. morgan1098

    morgan1098 Forum Resident

    A couple that come to mind from the "new age pop" genre:
    Only Time (Remix) by Enya and "The Mummer's Dance (Remix)" by Loreena McKennitt.

    In both cases, these ethereal midtempo songs were remixed by happening producers of the day for the single release. They probably charted higher as singles as a result, but neither track is representative of what you hear on the album. If people went out and bought the albums based on what they were hearing on the radio, they'd be disappointed because the radio versions are radically different.
     
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  17. Rufus rag

    Rufus rag Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Def Leppard's 'Woman' ! Hysteria only began to take off into the stratosphere after the second single 'Animal' was released. Releasing the weakest track on the album as the first single was very strange indeed. Who made that decision ?
     
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2020
  18. markreed

    markreed Forum Resident

    Location:
    Imber
    Most lead off singles for Depeche Mode for a decade or so were unrepresentative, bad choices that traded on the goodwill and existing interest in the band : "I Feel You", "Barrel Of A Gun", "Dream On", were all obviously not the best or most commercial songs on their respective albums by a long way, but the band knew they would sell in healthy amounts no matter what they put out. It didn't do them any favours.

    Suede's "Positivity" is pretty much a vastly unrepresentative song written with the aim of being a non-Suede style hit, and it misfired. It didn't sound like them at the time they really needed to release a single that sounded like them.
     
  19. Stone Turntable

    Stone Turntable Independent Head

    Location:
    New Mexico USA
    Contrarian take: the fearless rock ****-you of “Chocolate Cake” had more value and demonstrated more Kiwi integrity in the long run than any more safe and cautious unit-shifting choice from the band’s brilliant and beautiful Woodface.
     
  20. Eric_Generic

    Eric_Generic Enigma

    Location:
    Berkshire
    I kind of liked the fact that REM chose Drive and E-Bow to lead their respective albums. But there's a fine line between imperial phases and hubris.

    EG.
     
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  21. Eric_Generic

    Eric_Generic Enigma

    Location:
    Berkshire
    I liked it, but it struck a bum note commercially both in the UK and US. But everything worked out okay, they took about 6 singles off Woodface over the next 18 months or so.

    EG.
     
  22. janschfan

    janschfan Senior Member

    Location:
    Nashville, Tn. USA
    Wrapping Paper probably didn't make much sense to a lot of Mayall/Graham Bond fans, who couldn't wait to hear Cream....By the time Fresh Cream was released, the shock had probably worn off...Here in the States, we had no idea
     
  23. Exitmusic

    Exitmusic Forum Resident

    Location:
    Leicester U.K
    True but it quickly fell of the chart too.
    I stated in another thread that even though I love Ebow The Letter it was a bad choice as a first single especially coming after Monster which already had the reputation as a used bin staple.
    It would have been a far wiser choice to go for The Wake Up Bomb as the first single as it acts as a good bridge between Monster and NAIHF.
     
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  24. aravel

    aravel starchitect...then, father!

    Location:
    GDL - MEX
    ::: I agree, but at 20 y.o. you're just listening to good music, not trying to find american pop-culture criticism from NZ band... 30 years later you got the message along the way, but back then, the song didn't fit what I wanted --that year I remember getting Simple Minds' Real Life (another example of bad 1st single), R.E.M. Out Of time, GNRs Illusion 2 and always was carrying that bunch -with Woodface too- everywhere I went.
     
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  25. William Abely

    William Abely Forum Resident

    Beach Boys 15 Big Ones - “Rock ‘n Roll Music” instead of “It’s OK”. They did not release a song about the start of summer until August while “Rock ‘n Roll Music” was released in May. “It’s OK” is an original and perhaps the most Beach Boy sounding song on the album.
     
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