Bad choices for lead-off singles

Elton John's first release from his eponymous album - Border Song - while now regarded in a better light, barely grazed the Hot 100 (#92) but his second single - Your Song (#6) - was the beginning of an extraordinary career.

Three years and 5 top 10 singles later, Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting anticipated the upcoming double album smash Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and shockingly, became the only EJ single from Rocket Man through Island Girl not to hit the top 10 (#12). Not exactly sure why a new Elton release would under-perform like this but I'm guessing the hard rocking nature of the tune must not have gone down well with his pop fans. The next two singles off the album would rectify that situation.

 

Yeah, that one pretty much coloured the public perception of that album (which I love, btw).
Having Under Pressure already added to it, the better choices to give the album a push would’ve been Back Chat, Las Palabras... or (indeed) CAG.
By the time Las Palabras... did appear as a single the damage was already done.

 

is there a connexion between excessive worship of Mick's and Macca's solo career on here?

 

Was commenting in the American Beauty thread that I think Till The Morning Comes would have done a lot better on the charts than Truckin did (it hit 64, 3 slots better than Uncle John's Band).

Lennon's New York City would have done a lot better than Woman Is The Don't Play Me On The Radio Of The World

 

Las Palabros was a moderate hit here and their Top of the Pops appearance is now the video for it. Back Chat scraped into the top 40, I think at number 40. The 12" extended version was excellent, something Queen 12"s usually weren't! The damage was done by the time those singles came out though. I like the album too and get the impression it's not as disliked as it was as the time. The production has aged well and Freddie's singing was at a peak. He's loving it even if the rest of the band aren't!

 

Wasn’t Lotus the lead single for Up?

 

I can't see one. People genuinely like Paul McCartney outside of this forum. I've never met a single person who likes Mick Jagger solo, not even slightly outside of Memo From Turner. Of course, I know a lot of people who love the Stones.

 

It was Daysleeper in the UK. It worked better as an album track. I've always liked Up.

 

Why do you think "Back Seat Of My Car" flopped? It's such a great song IMO. Was it the wrong timing? Or isn't it catchy enough?

 

"Step Into Christmas' also. Wikipedia says it didn't chart at all, which may be because Billboard wasn't keeping tabs on Christmas singles. But I don't remember it geting much airplay.

 

Well, in the 80s, especially within the rock scene or if a label wanted to slowly break a new act, they would hold off releasing the strongest/obvious potential hit and choose something that caught the attention or helped lay the groundwork at various radio stations, or within certain markets.

Take the Hysteria album by Def Leppard. The label intentionally put out Women, to help build support amongst the hardcore rock fraternity, in case the commercial success of the Pyromania singles had made them think the band had sold out (or whatever). It only made #80, but it was never intended to be a chart smash. It did the job it was supposed to do, and then each successive single was a bit more commercial, playing to a wider and wider audience until 5th choice Love Bites is the big #1 ballad.

Or, from around the same time, Terence Trent D'Arby. CBS could wow the soul and R&B crowds with the more retro stylings of If You Let Me Stay (which didn't have the sound to do well on the Hot 100), then gradually create a buzz through Wishing Well (a bit Prince-y, more electronic) before going big with Sign Your Name.

Sometimes there's a rhyme and reason to the sequence of singles, but sometimes the label/band just misjudge the mood of the times, or the market, or alienate radio with a choice that stinks the place out.

That's all.

EG.

 

People forget that the yacht rock era was still rolling, though gradually dwindling in popularity. So The Girl Is Mine might sound tragically lame now but that sound was huge at the time.

 

I liked it when i heard it, but yeah "Big Fat Funky Booty" would have got more attention. I like that album btw. I've never understood (of all that's out there) why the Spin Doctors are such whipping boys to music fans (along with their contemporaries Blues Traveler). Both bands have a backlash to this day that i don't get. (guess i should find a proper thread for this thought)

 

They only ever had two number one singles, and 'Beetlebum' was one of them (and 'Song 2' was not), so I think the band knew what they were doing there. 'M.O.R.', on the other hand, was their lowest charting of the thirteen singles they released between 'Country House' and 'Out of Time'.

 

a few on this thread heavily admire Mick's solo work, outside of his decadent rock-star movie roles i take a hard pass

 

I don’t know really. It’s a great album track but a bit rambling for a single?

 

The Black Crowes - "A Conspiracy" for amorica.

 

Agreed. If he tightened it up and polished it a bit, it likely would've had a better shot.

 

Beetlebum was a single? Maybe not here.

 

Bear in mind that I understood why the Stones picked it as the lead single from GHS, and it was a chart-topper for them, so clearly my tastes wouldn't have matched those of the single buying public in 1973. I still don't care much for the track, and while I understand that it was a bold choice as the lead single (I'd forgotten that the US generally got two singles per album and the UK got only one) and it paid off for them, it was for me surprising considering their previous two singles were Brown Sugar and Tumbling Dice. That's all.

 

I love E-bow but it's not really first single material. I personally would have gone for The Wake Up Bomb.

 

“Chinese Democracy” off that album.

Any other song, but especially “Better,” would have been better for Axl/GNR.

 

Good one. That single killed the album in many people’s eyes. Of course, if Axl had lifted one finger to promote it, “Better” would’ve probably been a hit anyway.

 

Certainly agreed, but the problem was that there really wasn't a "Brown Sugar" or a Tumbling Dice" on that album. Even the other US hit was a fairly uncharacteristic funk number. GHS has two great rockers on it, one was "Silver Train" which was probably too raucous to be a hit single. The other one wouldn't have been a single in a million years.

 

Fair call but totally disagree, a poll featuring tracks from both albums and maybe Talk Is Cheap (so covering 1987-89) could be most illuminating.