Most bizarre first single off an album

[Jockice]

I've already expressed my dislike of We Are The Pigs by Suede and my disbelief that it was chosen as the first single off the otherwise excellent Dog Man Star.

But how about this one? Cellophane by That Petrol Emotion. At a time when clubbing music was becoming bigger and they had themselves done some quite dance-orientated stuff, they put out an accordion-driven bleak ballad with a chorus about a 'murder machine' to introduce us to their third album, End Of The Millennium Psychosis Blues. It's a lovely song (and as far as I'm concerned John/Sean O'Neill is one of the all-time greats) but it's certainly no Big Decision. Did they really think it was going to be their breakthrough big hit, or even get any airplay? Especially with a video showing unrest in Northern Ireland. It stalled at number 98 anyway. Weird one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PiD3tovz8E

And also from the same year, I thought Wrote For Luck by Happy Mondays was crap and one of the lesser tracks on Bummed and should have never been a single. I can accept my judgement may be called into question there but I still don't think much of it.

[The Culture Bunker]

'Show Biz Kids' from Steely Dan's second album seems an odd choice.

[DrGreggles]

Never happened in the end, but Super Furry Animals wanted Wherever I Lay My Phone (That's My Home) to be the first single off Guerrilla.
Unfortunately Creation felt that it wouldn't be a hit, so went with Northern Lites instead.

[badaids]

Never happened in the end, but Super Furry Animals wanted Wherever I Lay My Phone (That's My Home) to be the first single off Guerrilla.
Unfortunately Creation felt that it wouldn't be a hit, so went with Northern Lites instead.

It's a bizarre choice isn't it? Northern Lites is an incredible single though.

As for Dog Man Star it's one of my top five ever favorite records but there's nothing on there which is exactly single material. And You couldn't have a truncated 3 minute version of the wild ones to lead off.

Paranoid Android is a brilliant record but aggressive choice of first single. I remember buying it in St Albans on blue vinyl and rushing home to play it and being utterly confused by it. Which was probably their purpose, and it's an incredible record, but you know.

[riotinlagos]

Releasing the worst song off Thriller as the first single is definitely up there.

Spoiler alert

The Girl Is Mine obviously

[close]

[famethrowa]

Paranoid Android is a brilliant record but aggressive choice of first single. I remember buying it in St Albans on blue vinyl and rushing home to play it and being utterly confused by it. Which was probably their purpose, and it's an incredible record, but you know.

It's a song that has no business being a pop single, and the fact that this weird experimental mess made it into the charts and all over the radio is quite inspiring.

[famethrowa]

I'm voting for The Butcher's Tale by the Zombies. From album full of brilliant sunshine pop sung by one of the 60's best voices, the US record company chose this? A wheezing, moribund anti-war dirge, sung by the bass player with no drums and barely anything but an Ivor Cutler harmonium. No wonder the band folded soon after.

[Better Midlands]

It's a song that has no business being a pop single, and the fact that this weird experimental mess made it into the charts and all over the radio is quite inspiring.

I totally agree with this, but I think that's what made it a great pop single (in the same way as something like O Superman) - to my ears it's full of hooks. I remember thinking Creep was ok (kinda like Pixies/Nirvana) and I really liked Street Spirit, but PA blew me away.

[The Culture Bunker]

'Paranoid Android' (appropriately enough, given the title) reminds me a bit of 'Are "Friends" Electric?' in being a very unusual single in terms of structure, though Numan the Human obviously did better by hitting the top.

[Chicory]

'Finetime' by New Order.  Not that it isn't good, just a really bizarre choice.

[DrGreggles]

'Finetime' by New Order.  Not that it isn't good, just a really bizarre choice.

My first New Order purchase.

[purlieu]

'The Love of Richard Nixon' from Lifeblood. Yes, the album is mostly more polished than your usual Manics affair, and generally has synths on most tracks, but deciding on the one actual synthpop track, with James doing a vocal performance that sounds nothing like him, for an album that's already going to be a difficult sell to older fans... utter madness.

The Boo Radleys - Free Huey. I understand the band's desire to move beyond straight-forward guitar music, but I'm not sure doing an album of guitar music with one pretty naff dance-inspired track on it and using that as the lead single was the best way to go about that.

[holyzombiejesus]

Mellow Doubt seems like a strange choice of first single from an album filled with so many songs that scream SINGLE (AKA Gerry songs).

[DrGreggles]

Discolite would've been a good choice, but there are probably 10 good choices on that album.

[Johnboy]

There used to to be a marketing thing in record companies called the loss leader - the first single gets the attention, then you whack them with the next single

The Cure's High, followed by Friday I'm in Love would be an example.

Drive then man on the moon

The Girl is Mine as well (as mentioned above).

[The Mollusk]

Never happened in the end, but Super Furry Animals wanted Wherever I Lay My Phone (That's My Home) to be the first single off Guerrilla.
Unfortunately Creation felt that it wouldn't be a hit, so went with Northern Lites instead.

I didn't know this, and it's interesting considering "Guerilla" was SFA's own spin on creating a bunch of radio-friendly pop hits after the relative flop of "Mwng" in all its pastoral Welsh introspective loveliness. "Wherever I Lay My Phone" is undoubtedly one of the less conventionally pop songs to send out of the gate to represent the album. But I guess that sort of thing is SFA through and through innit?

[Hat FM]

I didn't know this, and it's interesting considering "Guerilla" was SFA's own spin on creating a bunch of radio-friendly pop hits after the relative flop of "Mwng" in all its pastoral Welsh introspective loveliness. "Wherever I Lay My Phone" is undoubtedly one of the less conventionally pop songs to send out of the gate to represent the album. But I guess that sort of thing is SFA through and through innit?

i wouldn't call mwng a relative flop. it got to number 11 in the charts. although more impportantly in this context it came out a year after guerilla. i think the plan was to release 'wherever i lay my phone' remixed as the third single but that never happened. The weird curling based video for 'northern lites' only emerged because the director they had originally booked decided last minute that he would prefer to go and make a red stripe ad in jamaica and took his concept with him!

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Colin Newman's solo records are full of accessible psychedelic pop but here's what a Colin Newman single was like. This was the single for an album that has incredibly infectious tracks like "Lorries" and "Safe".

Miles rightly chose to release "Black Satin" as a single from On The Corner, but unfortunately he retitled it "Molester".

[peanutbutter]

This Ain't A Scene, It's an Arms Race as the first single off Fall Out Boy's third album was pretty bizarre. You make the effort to bring in some proper seasoned pop music songwriters for a few of the songs and then are like "There may be other songs on the record that would be bigger radio hits, but this one had the right message", you'd have to think their egos got in the way of making a full on push for pop appeal at the last minute.



What is a first single supposed to be? I assume to some extent it's not meant to overwhelm the album? Like, Frankie Sinatra is nowhere near the best song on Sunflower by the Avalanches but I can't help but feel like it would've ruined the album a bit for Because I'm Me not to be an entirely fresh song on your first listen of the album? And if you remove the 16 years of anticipation Because I'm Me is an absolute belter whereas arguably no song could've stood up to that big of a wait.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Haines thinking the ugly and stupid "Uptown Girl" rewrite "Chinese Bakery" was a Modern Lovers style masterpiece is baffling to me. Do people like it? Next to "Lenny Valentino" and "New French Girlfriend" it sounds like a complete piece of shit. Read him griping it wasn't an Oasis sized hit. Come on Lad. MGTOW "Common People"? no thanks!

[The Mollusk]

although more impportantly in this context it came out a year after guerilla

Ah bugger, you're right, I got the history mixed up. "Mwng" was a retaliatory album of sorts, the band doing precisely their own thing because their bash at creating a pop album with "Guerilla" didn't garner the mainstream success they'd hoped. "Mwng" is one of their best albums though I think, and critics have remarked that it's where the band fully clicked with their own sound which I wouldn't totally disagree with myself.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Mwng is superb. I like how their initimate record is also the one with the best hooks. Nice to hear them stretch out and go a bit Bark Psychosis at the end.

'member people saying the insert panel was either a giant acid tab or a shrinky dink, and either eating it or setting fire to it in the grill.

[non capisco]

There are fairly obvious sonic reasons why 'Thru These Walls' would have been chosen as the first single from Phil Collins' second solo album - it sounds like an overegged retread of the big song off the last album, 'In The Air Tonight'. Either Virgin Records or Phil himself clearly thought "Give 'em more of what they want. Everyone loved that gated drum break, stick two of the fuckers in every chorus." Someone should probably have remembered it's sung in character as a paedophile though. And in retrospect the video that featured Phil staring out of a window at some kids in a playground might have been a little ill advised.

In with a bullet at number 56. I'm sure Sidney Cooke and Catweazle were having a bop to it but the rest of the UK....ah, not so much. Have you got any covers of old Supremes hits instead, Phil? Maybe not 'Love Child'.

[Chicory]

'Rings Around The World' seemed like SFA's last big push at the mainstream, with all that new Sony money behind them.  It's a good album but I find it's far patchier than its predecessors when it comes to tracks that would actually make good singles, including 'Mwng'.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

"Juxtapozed with U" wasn't a great choice for a first single with all the pressure behind it. "Rings around the World" being the second was even worse. I loved the album at the time and even then it didn't take much of hearing "Rings" out and about to make it grating.

"Happiness Is A Worn Pun" being a bside or dvd extra was a bit silly. Terrible title aside, its one of their better glamrock tracks. IIRC one of the other bonus tracks on the DVD was fantastic and better than most of the album tracks.

[SullySullivan85]

Prove It All Night was a strange choice for lead single from Darkness on the Edge of Town, given that album begins with two of Springsteen's all time greats.

Still better than many bands' entire discographies though, especially when it appeared on Blinded by the Light (film.)

[purlieu]

There used to to be a marketing thing in record companies called the loss leader - the first single gets the attention, then you whack them with the next single

The last example I can think of is 'National Express' by The Divine Comedy, which managed to be the only top ten single Neil Hannon managed, despite being the third single from Fin De Siecle. 'Why Does it Always Rain on Me?' was the third single from The Man Who, although I think a lot of that came from increasing interest in the band rather than a marketing campaign. A similar thing happened with the debut Stereophonics album a couple of years before.

[Brundle-Fly]

The shoegazey She's So High from Leisure by Blur.   Why wasn't it obvious to Food Records that the album banger was clearly There's No Other Way?

[holyzombiejesus]

The shoegazey She's So High from Leisure by Blur.   Why wasn't it obvious to Food Records that the album banger was clearly There's No Other Way?

I'm not sure if Leisure was all recorded when SSH came out. There's nearly a year's gap between their releases.

[Seedsy]

Good thread. I always thought it mental supergrass releasing about 5 singles before Alright from I should coco.