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Most bizarre first single off an album

Started by Jockice, April 19, 2021, 12:18:33 PM

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DrGreggles

Quote from: Seedsy on April 19, 2021, 10:32:04 PM
Good thread. I always thought it mental supergrass releasing about 5 singles before Alright from I should coco.

They didn't want it as a single at all, as it wasn't really what they did.
Eventually released as a double A side with Time, but Time got ignored (despite being miles better).

studpuppet

Band: Can we release THIS first?

Chrysalis: No, you don't want that slow, dirge shit. Release THIS one instead. See? A Top 30 smash! (Well, no.29 to be precise).

Band: Now can we release it? It's the title track!

Chrysalis: Nah, THIS one.

Band: How about now then? That last one only got to no. 57.

Chrysalis: Okay, now. Ha, you see? We were right! Couldn't even get higher than Joe Dolce...

Natnar

So you're just had the biggest selling rock album of all time..and then you release Tusk as the first single from your new album...

DrGreggles

Quote from: Natnar on April 19, 2021, 10:42:00 PM
So you're just had the biggest selling rock album of all time..and then you release Tusk as the first single from your new album...

Their best song.

Kings of the Wild Frontier's title track is deceptively strange and somewhat of a surprising choice for a first single considering Dog Eat Dog and Ant Music were on offer.

DrGreggles

Quote from: Bellalunaesme2 on April 19, 2021, 10:47:20 PM
Kings of the Wild Frontier's title track is deceptively strange and somewhat of a surprising choice for a first single considering Dog Eat Dog and Ant Music were on offer.

KOTWF is surely a banger!

Quote from: DrGreggles on April 19, 2021, 10:51:14 PM
KOTWF is surely a banger!

Oh it is, though when given the choice between KOTWF and Antmusic, it's weird that they selected the one that least resembled a traditional song to go out first. KOTWF only got to 48 when it was originally released and took the success of the other singles to get it to number 2.

famethrowa

Quote from: Johnboy on April 19, 2021, 03:44:50 PM
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).

I do remember thinking Drive was a bit of a rum choice, after we were all primed and ready from Losing My Religion and Shiny Happy People. It never really got going, but it did make an impression and showcase the vibe of the new album.

Video Game Fan 2000

"The Call Up" then "Hitsville UK" off Sandinista! before they got to "Magnificent Seven"
Guided by Voices shit the bed with "Bulldog Skin" from Mag Earwhig
"Barbarism Begins at Home" the first single off Meat Is Murder
Elvis Costello's label looks at his Imperial Bedroom, sees a handful of sweet chamber pop songs among the Sgt Pepper experiments, and then selects "You Little Fool" a midtempo song about neglectful parents unwittingly involved in the grooming of their daughter, as the first single. 

Not a bizarre first single but a follow up. I can respect the Zombies for daring to put out "Care of Cell 44" as first single, but after they then had a hit with the perennial "A Time of the Season" they followed it with the "they don't like it up 'em" PTSD classic despair banger "A Butcher's Tale"? Astonishing.

famethrowa

Quote from: Video Game Fan 2000 on April 20, 2021, 12:44:48 AM

Not a bizarre first single but a follow up. I can respect the Zombies for daring to put out "Care of Cell 44" as first single, but after they then had a hit with the perennial "A Time of the Season" they followed it with the "they don't like it up 'em" PTSD classic despair banger "A Butcher's Tale"? Astonishing.

I think Butcher's Tale was the first single for US release? To cash in on Vietnam sentiment. It died on its arse but Time Of The Season went ok afterwards.

Can't argue with success because they went to #1 and #2 on the UK charts, but Oasis putting out "Some Might Say" and "Roll With It" as the first two singles off their second album is an interesting choice considering some of the other songs on there. "Champagne Supernova" was not even released as a UK single.

Chriddof

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on April 19, 2021, 09:26:12 PM
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?

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on April 19, 2021, 10:09:04 PM
I'm not sure if Leisure was all recorded when SSH came out. There's nearly a year's gap between their releases.

Yeah, they didn't start recording Leisure until after their second single (There's No Other Way) was released. I don't think TNOW had been written at the time of SSH, and initially it was demoed as some kind of throwaway B-side that wasn't remotely "indie dance". It took producer Stephen Street to spot the song's potential and turn it into a hit. Also that only happened after the first sessions for what would have been their original choice of second single fell apart (they were going to put out "Bad Day"; they eventually got it down on tape for the album).

Spiteface

Quote from: Pearly-Dewdrops Drops on April 20, 2021, 01:51:21 AM
Can't argue with success because they went to #1 and #2 on the UK charts, but Oasis putting out "Some Might Say" and "Roll With It" as the first two singles off their second album is an interesting choice considering some of the other songs on there. "Champagne Supernova" was not even released as a UK single.

In a book many years ago, Noel alluded to Alan McGee wanting "Acquiesce" as the single over "Some Might Say" which I have a hard time arguing. It's a better song.

Some Might Say and Roll With It are like Wonderwall to me, where the actual single is the weakest track on the CD.

But that was mid-90s Noel Gallagher for you. Wasting good tracks as B-sides when he probably should have saved them for the third album.

purlieu

Quote from: Pearly-Dewdrops Drops on April 20, 2021, 01:51:21 AM
Can't argue with success because they went to #1 and #2 on the UK charts, but Oasis putting out "Some Might Say" and "Roll With It" as the first two singles off their second album is an interesting choice considering some of the other songs on there. "Champagne Supernova" was not even released as a UK single.
As with the Blur discussion above, Some Might Say predated the main album sessions by some time, hence it still having Tony McCarroll on drums. I suppose Roll With It is the most Definitely Maybe-esque swaggery Oasis song on the album, so there's some logic to putting it out next, but it is weird to think that probably their two biggest singles, Wonderwall and Don't Look Back in Anger, came last. Doesn't conventional marketing logic suggest you put the ballad out as the third single? I wonder how much their success drove the future of the band, with a definite towards mid-tempo plodders on later albums.

purlieu

Quote from: Spiteface on April 20, 2021, 09:44:01 AM
But that was mid-90s Noel Gallagher for you. Wasting good tracks as B-sides when he probably should have saved them for the third album.
On the other hand, then we would have ended up with plodding, seven minute long versions of The Masterplan, Underneath the Sky and Acquiesce layered with 85 tracks of electric guitars, so maybe it all worked out for the best in the end.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Chriddof on April 20, 2021, 09:26:19 AM
Yeah, they didn't start recording Leisure until after their second single (There's No Other Way) was released. I don't think TNOW had been written at the time of SSH, and initially it was demoed as some kind of throwaway B-side that wasn't remotely "indie dance". It took producer Stephen Street to spot the song's potential and turn it into a hit. Also that only happened after the first sessions for what would have been their original choice of second single fell apart (they were going to put out "Bad Day"; they eventually got it down on tape for the album).

Ah, that makes sense.


Auntie Beryl

Beethoven (I Love To Listen To) by Eurythmics was a deliberately obtuse first single from Savage. Shame, I Need A Man and You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart were more conventional, WunFM-friendly tracks but after Shame missed the top 40 quite a bit of lustre had been lost.

One of the biggest-selling albums ever ever, Michael Jackson's Bad, was previewed by the otter-wet I Just Can't Stop Loving You, a number one single yet not exactly remembered as a classic.

Video Game Fan 2000

"Some Might Say" is so much better than anything else Oasis did afterwards. "Roll With It" is dog. Had to believe that album of stodgy pub chants came from the same band who knocked out "Acquiesce"

Quote from: famethrowa on April 20, 2021, 01:18:52 AM
I think Butcher's Tale was the first single for US release? To cash in on Vietnam sentiment. It died on its arse but Time Of The Season went ok afterwards.

You're right!
In which case, its a clear thread winner so far. Questionable taste, obviously unmarketable and not representative of the album or the band. I like the song though.

daf

Quote from: Video Game Fan 2000 on April 20, 2021, 12:44:48 AMElvis Costello's label looks at his Imperial Bedroom, sees a handful of sweet chamber pop songs among the Sgt Pepper experiments, and then selects "You Little Fool" a midtempo song about neglectful parents unwittingly involved in the grooming of their daughter, as the first single. 

QuoteElvis Costello : 'You Little Fool,' which is one of the brightest-sounding tracks until you listen to lyrics, was released purely because it had a hook. I kept saying, 'Well, "Man Out of Time" is what the album is about, that's the heart of the record. You can hear that, can't you?' Of course, in those days, the people who understood what you were saying at the record label, those people didn't have any power."

Video Game Fan 2000

"Beyond Belief" never being a single is beyond belief. What a masterpiece.

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Video Game Fan 2000 on April 20, 2021, 04:51:04 PM
"Beyond Belief" never being a single is beyond belief. What a masterpiece.
I read that on the day they were recording it, Pete Thomas came in suffering a massive hangover. Rather than bollock him for being unprofessional, Costello told him to take a moment and have a go at the song. The song does have that edge of a nasty feeling that comes from having a thick head and sickly stomach.

Egyptian Feast

It's his greatest song, IMHO. I never fail to get the shivers from it. An opening track which is so good the rest of the album, excellent as it is, can't live up to it.

Video Game Fan 2000

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on April 20, 2021, 05:12:24 PM
I read that on the day they were recording it, Pete Thomas came in suffering a massive hangover. Rather than bollock him for being unprofessional, Costello told him to take a moment and have a go at the song. The song does have that edge of a nasty feeling that comes from having a thick head and sickly stomach.

For a guy who always ran such a tight ship, I always appreciated how "Beyond Belief" always sounded about to fall apart on him at any moment, the tension just keeps mounting and his vocal gets more precarious by the second. I think I know why now! Definitely right about the slightly sickly sound - the drums up to "you see your alice" section then again at "rose and thistle" bit. Dang.

The Rockpalast version is great too. Maybe a stripped version like that would've made a banging single.


BJBMK2

Was going to suggest Help The Aged, but then it's hard to think of a track on This Is Hardcore that's primed for radio play.

daf

Quote from: BJBMK2 on April 20, 2021, 08:28:08 PM
Was going to suggest Help The Aged, but then it's hard to think of a track on This Is Hardcore that's primed for radio play.

Fun Fact : I remember lovely Joanna Lumley was raving about 'Help the Aged' on 'This Morning with Richard & Judy' at the time. Wonder if she ever checked out the rest of the album.

purlieu

Quote from: BJBMK2 on April 20, 2021, 08:28:08 PM
Was going to suggest Help The Aged, but then it's hard to think of a track on This Is Hardcore that's primed for radio play.
Another, of course, that came out well before the rest of the album.
I'm a Man and Sylvia would have been my choices for later singles. Instead they went for This is Hardcore and Party Hard. Can't knock their audacity, I suppose.

Brundle-Fly

*Yellow Submarine slowly submerges and disappears out of thread into the murky depths with its sole crew member, E. Rigby who gamely attempts to resurface.

SteveDave

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on April 20, 2021, 11:38:28 PM
*Yellow Submarine slowly submerges and disappears out of thread into the murky depths with its sole crew member, E. Rigby who gamely attempts to resurface.

I've always wondered about this being released in Britain as a single on the same day that "Revolver" came out? Were Parlaphone that worried about the parent album scaring the horses that they released the kids song to show that it's not all acid epiphanies and songs about sleeping.

Sebastian Cobb

[tag]OMC leave thread disappointed[/tag]

DrGreggles

Quote from: SteveDave on April 21, 2021, 09:45:48 AM
I've always wondered about this being released in Britain as a single on the same day that "Revolver" came out? Were Parlaphone that worried about the parent album scaring the horses that they released the kids song to show that it's not all acid epiphanies and songs about sleeping.

I've never understood this either - same with Come Together/Something 3 years later.
Maybe they just looked at singles buyers and albums buyers as completely separate markets.