Bad choices for lead-off singles

Let's Work off Primitive Cool
Mick Jagger 1987

A poor choice that didn't do him any favours and he still championed it in 2009 on his "Best Of" ahead of other album cuts!

 

From the 1968 Marvin Gaye LP "In the Groove" Motown first released 'You' (prior to the album's release; Billboard #34); then 'Chained' (BB #32); followed by 'I Heard It Though the Grapevine (BB #1). The album was then re-titled after the big hit.

 

"Sleepwalker" from Breach by The Wallflowers. Killed the momentum they had built up with the success of the Bringing Down The Horse album. "Letters From The Wasteland" should have been the first single, not the second.

Yeahhhh. I'm going to have to go ahead and, uh, disagree with you on that one? That's my favorite Bush song! I like the whole album, too.

Yeah, we had different lead singles in the US. "Missionary Man" for Revenge followed by "Thorn In My Side." "Don't Ask Me Why" for We Too Are One followed by "The King and Queen of America." For Savage there was MTV play for the "Beethoven" video but "I Need A Man" was the single, followed by "You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart" (one of my favorite songs by them).

I always thougt "When Tomorrow Comes" should have been a big hit here.

 

Or maybe "The Night Was So Young", what a gorgeous melody. Def. more top 40 sounding

 

The best song on Love You without question, just not sure how “pour some milk” would fly on radio. Haha

 

I didn’t like “Dance Tonight” as the single from Memory Almost Full. It gave no hint to how great the rest of the album was in my opinion.

 

The Moody Blues made this mistake more than once. I like "Never Comes the Day," but it's not really hit single material . . . especially on an album that has "Lovely to See You" on it.

And they must have thought that "Watching and Waiting" would capture the same slow ballad lightning in a bottle as "Nights in White Satin," but the single didn't chart. They liked "Gypsy" enough to make it their opening song on tour; they should have considered putting it on a single. (The album, To Our Children's Children's Children, doesn't have any other really obvious singles on it, and indeed no other singles were released from that LP.)

 

Good one. He released Ever Present Past at the same time but focused more promo on Dance Tonight, a slight ditty. It’s fine as an album track but people don’t listen very long, that 1st single is crucial for Macca.

 

"He's A Liar" from the Bee Gees 1981 Living Eyes album.

I get trying to break away from the disco backlash but to pick a song that is harsh,barely melodic with no hooks was bizarre.

 

I like it now, hated it then. Almost anything else from that album would have been a better choice. But as we’ve said in Gibb threads, it didn’t matter...nothing by them would have done well by 1981.

 

Raspberries- "Don't Want To Say Goodbye". I love the song, but it's slow, and also a long single for the era. "Go All The Way", the second single would have been an even better lead single off the LP. a quirky choice to have a ballad as a lead off single from an uptempo rock band.

 

Can't disagree with the examples you cite, but from Private Eyes forward, they hit the bullseye every time. And some of early albums had good picks - Along the Red Ledge (It's a Laugh), X-Static (Wait for Me). So I wouldn't call them "the Kings" of this by any means.

 

Geffen was great at messing up Elton John's career in the 80's.

"Nobody Wins" on The Fox - "Just Like Belgium" or the title track would have been better. "Chloe" (2nd single) would have been superior also.
"Heartache All Over the World" on Leather Jackets - "Slow Rivers" was a missed opportunity.

 

Fly down to Rio and tell people Break On Through is a samba. See what sort if reaction you get.

 

On the Stones front, the real clunker of a lead single is not Harlem Shuffle or Mixed Emotions, but that knight in shining armor, Emotional Rescue. Sixteen year old me definitely said WTF is this? I'm quite fond of it now, but to name the album after the track and release it as the first single was just strange.

 

They still weren't great at picking follow up singles by any stretch. Like why wasn't I'm In Pieces ever chosen for a single for Ooh Yeah? Or I Wasn't Born Yesterday for Daryl's 3 Hearts solo album?

 

I don't see why that is "strange"? It's the most obvious "single" on the album, IMO, especially for 1980.

 

A Rolling Stones song with a neo-Prince beat featuring synths and no guitar sung in a falsetto with camp lyrics and a spoken interlude? I stand by strange.

 

That doesn't make it a "bad choice". It reached #3 in the US. Different ears and all, I think it's perfect single for the time.

 

The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle

First single off the LP was 'Friends of Mine,' which flopped in the fall of 1967. The group broke up at the end of the year. 'Time of the Season' was issued in early 1969 in the US.

Just think of what might have been if 'Time of the Season' had been issued in the US in late 1967.

 

U2 with "Get on Your Boots" for No Line on the Horizon. The album features better material than a "Vertigo" clone.

 

"Love Is Strong" Voodoo Lounge

 

'Friends of Mine' was the lead-off single in the UK only. It might have been 'Butcher's Tale' in the US, but I'm not sure about that.

 

"Friends of Mine" seems more logical although it is maybe a bit too slight to be a top 40 hit I think