Bad choices for lead-off singles

I like Sad Sad Sad as an in-your-face rocker but I don't think it's in the same class as Mixed Emotions.

 

Well, I wouldn’t really consider “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” grunge...

I realize I’m working with the benefit of hindsight, but all four of these examples were successful singles, and they certainly did their job of promoting the albums. So in terms of this thread, I think it’s crazy to consider any of them bad leadoff singles. I can see what you mean about each of these being the “oddball” choice given these explanations, though. I do think you’re right that they may have not been chosen by the label for single release, but the labels would have been wrong!

I do still disagree with you on “Losing My Religion”. It’s the track from the album that sounds most obviously like a single to me, even in its production. I love “Near Wild Heaven” as an album track, but I still don’t really understand how that was a single at all.

 

Long Promised Road with a less wordy lyric could've been epic. Great song nonetheless but I agree, not a good 1st single in it's present state. But what would've been better off of Surf's Up?

 

The Cure, "High" from Wish. I really can't stand that song.

 

The noncommercial thing about "Kenneth" is that the F-word is there for all to hear, and I don't think it was edited out in any version. I can say for sure that it was sung on SNL because I watched the clip recently (on an old VHS, not Youtube).

 

Yeah, I guess the way he sings it kind of obscures it enough, or something? There’s no way the FCC just knowingly let it slide...

 

Absolutely true, and to add to that there's the fact that it didn't have a music video, so they in a way got to launch the album twice. With the first single - the hype of it being his first new song since Thriller, and again with Bad's second single (the title track - another song that wasn't one of the best on the album) they (sort-of) "re-lauched" the album with the hype of it being his first music video since 'Thriller'. The handful of actual good songs from the album came out as singles later.

 

Very first one that came to mind. Nothing could have stopped the success of that album, but in my opinion that song isn't single worthy at all.

 

I think a lot of the choices being discussed suggest that there was a line of thinking that another [insert name of track that just sounded like something off the last album] was not going to cut it no matter how good the track was. Most of these criticised singles were released well in advance of the actual album and had quite substantial airplay "anticipation/curiousity building or perception challenging" for the new album and subsequent singles. The MJ singles (and the REM singles) certainly had that role for the albums mentioned.

 

I think Pearl Jam quickly wanted to shed the frat boy metalhead fans. Starting with Vitalogy, lead single Spin the Black Circle got MY attention, but they never released Betterman as a single, let alone as a lead off single. Who You Are definitely wasn't a radio bop. Kept me from checking the album out til 2000 when the boots drew me in, and it fits as a killer album track but just not a mid 90s rock single. Nothing as it Seems was weird too, but I think by that point they just had their own thing going, crowds and multiplatinum LPs be damned. I would've gone with Insignificance myself.

 

It did send the message that Leppard was still a hard rock band though. A good move in a way, since the other singles (aside from Armageddon It) were softer and/or poppier.

 

Robert Palmer's double platinum album "Riptide" (1985) featured a Billboard #1 song with "Addicted To Love" and a Billboard #2 song in "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On". What was the album's lead-off single? "Discipline of Love" which only got to #82.

 

The benefit of completely mumbling your lyrics?

 

Your loss brah... High encompasses the cure’s mutation from dark monolithic tunes of disintegration to the psychedelic and breezy Wish. What would you have picked?

 

I think STP dropped the ball big time with Days of the Week. Record label probably thought they had a sour girl pt 2 but it was a vanilla track. This is of course during NuMetal’s reign so they would’ve been better served to come out swinging with Dumb Love

 

Eric Clapton - Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
From There's One in Every Crowd
Should've released one of his original songs instead, in my opinion.

 

Nonetheless, releasing a duet with Paul McCartney in 1982 says you’ve arrived and are reaching for the next level.

(And releasing a duet with Michael Jackson in 1983 says you’re still trying to remain relevant.)

 

Commercially, yes you are correct.

Fonzie also jumped the shark during one of Happy Days top rated seasons.

 

“Butcher’s Tale” was a freaking single?!

 

Good call! This still hit in the top ten in the USA but that was strictly on momentum from the previous releases.

 

Even at 13, I remember thinking this song is not a radio song. Yet it was a big hit, so it definitely wasn't a bad 1st single. That album had a long life, Man On The Moon became a big hit almost a year later.

 

Well, it was a better song than a lot of what was on the radio in 1992...

 

I loved this single they had to show they weren’t the cartoony peewees playhouse dorks bopping around to shiny happy people. Totally set the mature tone of this album.

 

Early 70's Loaded-with-Street-Cred Frampton:

1972 - Wind of Change - Billboard #177
1973 - Frampton's Camel - #110
1974 - Somethin's Happening - #125
1975 - Frampton - #32

Takes off his shirt, loses his street cred:

1976 - Frampton Comes Alive - #1 (8x platinum)
1977 - I'm In You - #2 (platinum)
1979- Where I Should Be - #19 (gold)

Puts his shirt back on:

1981 - Breaking All the Rules - #43
1982 - The Art of Control - #174

So he went from fringe-artist nobody to megastar then back
to fringe-artist nobody. I wonder which made him happier?

 

In the UK 'It Can't Happen Here' was the single released in advance of "Freak Out!" by the Mothers of Invention; although I suspect that the only reason it was a single was so it could be played on BBC TV's "Juke Box Jury" for a predictably baffled panel. But when "Freak Out!" was issued here a few months later it was cut down to a single LP and did not include 'It Can't Happen Here'

The Mothers Of Invention - It Can't Happen Here
The Mothers Of Invention* - Freak Out!