The Heart of Rock and Soul Poll: the 1001 Greatest Singles Part 39: 26-50

Thanx Pres for getting these last few done so quickly.

This is a much more boring chunk than last time. The overexposure element really makes it impossible to hear "That'll Be The Day" or "Stay" or whatever and I'm sure it'll be even worse with the last/first chunk of 25.

And the veritable orgy of 1980s entries is a joke made even more sour when viewed this way (get the 1980s shit out of the way before the REAL classic stuff comes!). I could never hear "Live to Tell" because it's always been the rockist go-to Madonna song. Isn't "Little Red Corvette" Prince's least funky hit? (I danced to it with my very unfunky mom at a bowling alley party at the time.*) And Van Halen's "Jump" is more disco than either. Hmmm.

Somewhat embarrassingly, then, I'm going with The Beatles' very clever "She Loves You" over "One Fine Day" (the magic flags slightly by the end but that first harmony on the title phrase is a blast of summer air...good summer air, not the horrible, hide in your house TX summer air) and "Lonely Teardrops" (slower than I remembered it, unfortunately).

I just don't get: Four Tops Bernadette

* Don't get creeped out. It's pop music. We had no clue what the song was about. See Steely Dan for further elucidation.

I could never hear "Live to Tell" because it's always been the rockist go-to Madonna song

oh COME ON.

35-48 is an unfuckwithable sequence.

I'm going with the Drifters, and the highwire intensity of "There Goes My Baby". I guess an easy thing to say would be that it's proto-Spector, sounding like it was recorded in a cathedral. But more specifically: the drums sound ten miles away, like an approaching war machine; and King's vocal more ragged than smooth, at the tipping point of breakdown, barely in control. But the strings disorient: is this a celebration too? "I wonder why she left me", King sings, but he can't be wondering very sincerely since he's already admitted that "I broke her heart and made her cry". Still, he's rationalizing his behavior:

"I wanna know if she loved me
Did she really love me?
Was she just playing me for a fool?"

Don't sleep on the bass either, which nearly moans it's so resonant.

Isn't "Little Red Corvette" Prince's least funky hit?

No, that would be "My Name is Prince."

"Heatwave" or "Uptight" for me.

Had to go with "A Change Is Gonna Come". One of my favorite performances ever - still gives me goosebumps even after hundreds of listens.

This is nearly impossible. There are about a dozen songs here that are as good as music ever gets: Who'll Stop The Rain, Jump, Ticket To Ride, A Change..., I've Been Loving You (best is Monterrey version) She Loves You, I Can See For Miles, Wha'd I Say, Lonely Teardrop, Little Red Corvette, Tracks Of My Tears and Blueberry Hill.

Voting "Jump," over "Ticket To Ride" and the Drifters and, uh, other things.

Might have gone with "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" if it was the Bill Cosby proto-rap version, "Little Old Man."

Have always pretty much hated "Who'll Stop The Rain." One of Creedence's lamest singles, no contest. Never had much use at all for "Oh Pretty Woman" (Orbison or Van Halen versions) either.

Even more songs I'm tired of on this list than any previous ones, maybe.

Prince has plenty of songs less funky than "Little Red Corvette" (including, I assume, most of what he's done for the 20 years, not that I'm going to go back now to doublcheck and make sure. Also not gonna check which of them might qualify as "hits." But "Corvette" is fine.)

Actually, even "Raspberry Beret" is less funky than "Corvette," isn't it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPP8w0wMRgQ

tell your momma
tell your paw
I'm gonna send you back to arkan-saw

I could never hear "Live to Tell" because it's always been the rockist go-to Madonna song
oh COME ON.

Yeah, I don't get that complaint either, and not only because I question rockism's existence and don't know what it has to do with the song itself and wonder why proggier stuff like "Like A Prayer" isnt equally go-to for, uh, whoever. But Gerard Cosloy did compare "Live To Tell" to Salem 66 once, so maybe that's what Kevin means.

this makes two of these in a row that have been strangely easy for me. "ticket to ride."

this also makes two of these ni a row that have pretty much ignored music after 1970, which is making me sad. i thought i remembered the book having more range than this.

shout-out to salem 66!

re: "Live to Tell" I agree it's a shitty attitude. But I'm not going to lie about it.

I question rockism's existence

oh COME ON

and don't know what it has to do with the song itself

oh COME ON

and wonder why proggier stuff like "Like A Prayer" isnt equally go-to for, uh, whoever

Well, who? (It matters.) Also "Like A Prayer" discos so it doesn't even count here. I wonder if Marsh's fave Madonna album is the well-titled Something To Remember.

Re: Prince, of course he has less funky songs but "hits" IS the operative word.

Seems to me the sorts of critics generally accused of being rockists (pop-loving Dave Marsh, for instance) hated lots of genres more than disco -- adult contemporary schlock and hair-metal power ballads and, in many cases, even prog itself, for instance. So I'm not sure why whether a song is disco or not should matter all that much, if you're gonna throw that silly word around.

(Or okay, frequently pop-loving Dave Marsh. Obviously, like any other interesting critic ever, there are some styles and eras of pop he likes more than other kinds. I wish the book had way more '80s singles, especially near the top, too! I'm the one who said above that I'm sick of lots of these songs. But it's not necessarily the ones that record stores or radio stations would classify as "rock" than I'm sick of.)

And c'mon, "Like A Prayer" isn't all that disco, anyway.

I'm not sure why whether a song is disco or not should matter all that much

It matters VERY much with Madonna!

A Change is Gonna Come

never associated Madonna with disco really - I mean she draws on it in some ways as its the archetypal proto-gay-dancefloor-filler style but I can't say anything of hers REALLY gets to disco-ey, at least not until much later in her career anyway

I can't even remember a single thing about Live to Tell anyway

thing #1: it's a great song
thing #2: it's got a beautiful bridge

Several songs I like here, but Sam Cooke is maybe the most unfuckwithable singer ever.

KJB thinks joy division are disco iirc

anything of hers REALLY gets to disco-ey

"Borderline" and "Into The Groove" (are those in the book btw? they should be, and yeah, they're way better than "Live To Tell") are pretty darn disco, I'd say. Her whole first (and best) album, actually. But yeah, not so much for later stuff, inasmuch as I've paid attention to it. (Though wait, hasn't she had fair to middling/not horrible but hardly great don't make me laugh Eurodancey hits in the past few years? So I guess it's something she came back to, eventually. But yeah, hardly her main thing, starting with album #2 at least.)

hasn't she had fair to middling/not horrible but hardly great don't make me laugh Eurodancey hits in the past few years? So I guess it's something she came back to,

yeah this is what I was thinking of as her most disco-ey material.

KJB thinks joy division are disco iirc

They absolutely are (amongst other things). But tbf, I first got the idea from the Afterthoughts section of xhuxk's Stairway to Hell...

Ha, oh yeah -- guess I mentioned "She's Lost Control" in there? But I think I took that idea from Michael Freedberg, who knows and has written more about disco than anybody on this board. (Plus, the connection of Laura Branigan's "Self Control" is just too blatant to ignore.)

Little Willie John "Need your love so bad" is as good as any painfully gorgeous song ever was.
jus' sayin'

drifterzzzzz

32 1965 Sam Cooke A change is gonna come

Beautiful vocals and it's pretty rocking for an orchestral track after the introduction. And obviously still relevant for any of us working in politics or social justice.

voted prince, he has so much more to offer than just being funky

"Tracks of My Tears"

another vote for ticket to ride

"A Change is Gonna Come" is proof positive of the existence of something like God's grace in the world as anything ever produced by humanity, an expression of pain, a call for justice, a celebration of beauty, a gentle lament for all that ever has and ever will be lost, coming in a voice that wraps you up inside and makes you feel like the ten million different kinds of pain you turn a blind eye to on a daily basis have been seen, have been accounted for, and have been remembered in their full intensity. It's one of the half dozen or so pop moments that gives meaning and form to the Kantian notion of "Beauty" because it's a work whose perfection seems so just, so evocative of a blinding radiance of intelligence and grace that has achieved a complete expression for 3 1/2 transcendent minutes.

And then there's "What'd I Say", which wins because it's fucking "What I'd Say".

http://i39.tinypic.com/21eqcud.jpg

The usual ubiquity problem, but there's a few on here that still sweep that aside: 1. "Ticket to Ride," 2. "Uptight," 3. "I Can See for Miles," 4. "Who'll Stop the Rain" (love it--it's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" I could do without), 5. "Since I Don't Have You." Personal blind spot from a Beatles worshipper: I've never much cared for "She Loves You."

Boring choice, but 'She Loves You'

If more of Madonna's songs sounded like "Live to Tell," I'd be her #1 fan.

re: Bernadette – do you know how hard it is to explain that song to people who haven't heard it? I mean, if you try and sing it to someone, it just sounds like you're saying the name "Bernadette!" in an exceptionally intense way. The strings carry the whole thing. If you're not Levi Stubbs it's foolish to even try. I know this because my mom's name is Bernadette and I could never adequately explain this song to her.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

yes

Mumbles for president.

OK pretty please get to the last chunk quickly, Pres.

Forgot to vote again, but it woulda been either "Uptight" or "Tracks of My Tears"

surprised that "Live To Tell" did so well compared to some other songs, I can barely hum it

Missed this but would have given a vote to "My Girl," come on.