artist/band with large catalog and you only really need to hear one song by them.

Rod Stewart - Young Turks

Is surely what you meant.

Man, Heart is essential listening

smashing pumpkins - cherub rock

hope I don't piss anyone off too bad with this one, but: Shriekback - My Spine (Is the Bassline)

Have tried, but nothing else I've heard by them grabs me at all. If any huge fans think I am missing out on the rest of their catalog, I would love some suggestions.

cat power - metal heart

not really large catalogues i guess, but still
beach house - zebra
xx - vcr
bon iver - skinny love

I think if you only picked Strawberry Fields Forever and associated boots flying around that would be enough for The Beatles.

There are people who have made better blues and girl scream pop, better concrete or used sitars in their tracks more interrestingly, had better riffs or did the studio as an instrument thing...so for all the goodies in their immense catalogue you could actually get away w/SFF. Besides, so many tendencies are there in one single song that its a good sum.

That's what I do anyway.

America - A Horse With No Name

cat power - metal heart

Jukebox or Moon Pix version?

Ventura Highway by America is hundred times better than Horse With No Name.

i mean seeeeriously rules so hard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5J54RVZjYs

And to play to type:

Bardo Pond - "Tommy Gun Angel"
Cocteau Twins - "Donimo"
Dead Can Dance - "Summoning of the Muse"
Stereolab - you know, the one that sounds like Neu! or Faust.

cat power - metal heart
Jukebox or Moon Pix version?

metal heart is the song i was going to post -- but i need both versions
i want her to keep recording this every 10 years until she's 90 years old
it's the only cat power song i need by a wide margin

Electric Six, but 'Gay Bar' instead of 'D!HV'.
A bit unfair on Rod Stewart, as he had loads more great songs besides 'Maggie May' - although everything since about 1992 can be skipped.

Lazy and obvious, but...Mudhoney - Touch Me I'm Sick. Honestly assumed this would be mentioned in first 5 replies

They're great and all, but really.

radiohead, maybe 'there there'. nb i love radiohead

should be good for another hundred posts or so *crosses fingers*

oh i know who is the ultimate example of this for me is bjork

America - A Horse With No Name
i love about 9 songs by this band

Fela "Lady"
Neu! + La Dusseldorf "Hallogallo"

I don't think saying "this band can be reduced" is a bad thing. I think it shows a clarity of intent.

Until recently, the only Grateful Dead song I ever needed (or wanted) to hear was "Box of Rain."

Rod Stewart - Young Turks

Is surely what you meant.

No I think he said "Hot Legs"

"cat power - metal heart
Jukebox or Moon Pix version?"

moon pix

otm, but i like them both. fortunately, the rules do not limit different recordings of the one song

Blue Cheer's version of "Summertime Blues." I like that one OTT cover tune, have no need for any more by them.

coldplay - yellow
eminem - my name is
kanye west - through the wire
the strokes - last night
bright eyes - waste of paint
the smiths - how soon is now
gorillaz - clint eastwood
delibes - lakme (the flower duet)

how soon is now is a good smiths pick. kinda get all your smithiness right there. could definitely understand someone picking ace of spades by motorhead for the same reason.

I was about to say that "How Soon Is Now" is a distinctly bad Smiths pick, since it doesn't sound much like anything else they did! It's a total one-off in their catalog. And is 2-3 minutes too long. If I had to pick one song to get all your Smithiness from, it'd be "Still Ill".

Thinking the same myself, a very un-Smiths song to me.

its so epic though. and i can definitely see someone who doesn't care about the smiths listening to it a lot. i just meant that lyrically/emotionally its got all the smithiness but then it has the rock wallop and it makes sense for a non-fan to pick that one. more so than the other well known stuff like this charming man or whatever.

no non-smiths fan is gonna pick still ill as the one smiths song they listen to!

and suedehead would be prefect for non-moz people too.

Oh, I wasn't thinking about what song the non-fan would be most likely to enjoy--I was thinking about what song nails the basic essence of the band so well that you could hear just that one track and understand what they're about. But I see now that I may have missed the point of the thread.

Yeah, I'm in the camp of loving "How Soon..." and really not being much into other Smiths.

Smiths don't fit in here imo (my POO would be "Ask" though, duh)

I don't think there's any sort of "don't fit" about this though. It's highly subjective, one song I think is awesome and a bunch of others by the same artist that don't do much for me.

Which isn't the same as picking one song that encapsulates the band.

Yeah I'm a bit confused on the intent of this thread. For example I think "Clint Eastwood" by Gorillaz is a bad pick since their other stuff really isn't like it, but if you're saying "this is their only good song", well I guess I'm kinda on board. But then "Hallo Gallo" is named which makes sense but the Neu!/La-D discography is pretty stellar so it also feels wrong.

I think this is essentially for bands you don't really care for but you like one of their songs--thus, fans of said band will be disappointed because you're usually choosing something atypical or peripheral to what fans like about them (cf. my picks like "Train in Vain" above)

Muse, 'Supermassive Black Hole'

I guess that would have a different answer depending on what you like best about The Clash. Lots of their best elements are all in "I'm So Bored With the USA" but I dunno if I would choose that as "only need to hear one song"

although "Guns of Brixton" might work

Yeah this is a subjective discussion, obv.

With "How soon is now" as my first and repeated exposure to The Smiths it was more of a deterrent, not that it's a bad song, but that it's so non-indicative that it held me off a few precious teen years from investigating a band that I would later love to death (see also "Never met a girl like you before" Edwyn/OJ)

So far I haven't read another example that's made me say "yeah" as much as Scott's original mention of "Pump it up" I could listen to that song five times in a row

yeah i recall being disappointed in myself for not having gotten into the smiths sooner/earlier in my adolescence, too

Oh I definitely feel this way about "Love is a stranger" re: Eurythmics and Annie's entire catalog

i see this question as being like, i get the right amount of x every time i hear x by x. like, one or two vodka red bulls is good for me, maybe four or five if i feel like going nuts, but it's not going to lead me to explore the world of clear alcohol + energy drink pairings, though there is absolutely nothing wrong with that world and its enthusiasts.

i was just thinking about bands that i NEVER listen to on my own. ever. not cuz i hate them or anything but just because...i don't know could be lots of reasons. but even with those bands there is usually at least one song that i'm always happy to hear. it COULD be the most representative/distilled song in their catalog, but not always. like i said about "ace of spades" i could definitely see people loving that song and never listening to a motorhead album. and with that song you do kinda get all of what makes motorhead great in one short sharp package.

i mean there are other talking heads songs and elvis costello songs that i like but i am always in the mood for the two songs i mentioned. they always sound great. doesn't mean i would change the station in the car if psycho killer or allison came on the radio. (that's the only way i hear their songs pretty much. car radio. unless they are playing in a movie or something)

Starlight is obviously the right pick for Muse. As a bonus, it makes Keane superflous as well.