Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 00:01 (twelve years ago) link
Excellent!
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 00:14 (twelve years ago) link
YES
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 00:37 (twelve years ago) link
AND LOVE LIVES BLEEEEEEEEEEDIN IN MY HANDSOH IT KILLS ME TO THINK OF YOU WITH ANOTHER MANI WAS PLAYIN ROCK 'N ROLL AND YOU WERE JUST A FANBUT MY GUITAR COULDN'T HOLD YOU SO I QUIT THE BAAAAAAAAAAA-AH-AH-UH-AAAAAAAHND
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 00:38 (twelve years ago) link
LLUHV lies BLEEDin in mah HAYNNND!
Great turnout and great spread of votes - thanks for playing, y'all!
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 00:52 (twelve years ago) link
Deserved winner and, yes, deserved spread. There are many ballads I could have gone for here, but then there goes one of the best album openers ever.
My vote was first and foremost for "Funeral For a Friend" though.
― Hongroe (Geir Hongro), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 11:20 (twelve years ago) link
"The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909–34)" 4:23 1"I've Seen That Movie Too" 5:59 1
I'm just happy these got any votes at all.
― billstevejim, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 19:11 (twelve years ago) link
I get the impression "Candle In The Wind" didn't really resonate as a "signature song" until the live version came out which was around, like... 1988 seems correct.
Would people still hate that song without this context? I figured it was considered more of a deep album cut until the late 80's.. For example, it wasn't on the original "greatest hits".. The one that sold 90 million copies..
― billstevejim, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 19:18 (twelve years ago) link
Which is interesting because "Border Song" is hardly one of his signature songs, and yet until the late 80's I would bet more people had heard that song than Candle In The Wind.
― billstevejim, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 19:20 (twelve years ago) link
I thought it was the Lady Di death that brought it into the mainstream
― Iago Galdston, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 19:20 (twelve years ago) link
The live version from the late 80's got a shitton of airplay.
― billstevejim, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 19:22 (twelve years ago) link
yeah i definitely knew it as a semi-big EJ hit before 1997 (unlike "Tiny Dancer," which i had never heard before That Movie and is now one of his biggest classic rock radio staples)
― some dude, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 20:16 (twelve years ago) link
very good point re Candle not being on the Hits album. that's very suprising.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 20:18 (twelve years ago) link
I'm pretty sure I heard "Tiny Dancer" on adult-contemp stations throughout the 80s IIRC... easily played just as often as the big hits. I knew it from a pretty young age, although if I'm remembering incorrectly, then it would have just been from my parents playing the records throughout my childhood.
― billstevejim, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 20:24 (twelve years ago) link
This was part of the reason I was bothered by SPIN placing "Tiny Dancer" in their top 20 singles of 2000... My reaction was like, "Wtf, I've loved that song all along.. Just because charles aaron (or whoever) couldn't figure out that it was a good song prior to Almost Famous means everyone else felt the exact same way?" I considered that a lame assumption.
― billstevejim, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 20:27 (twelve years ago) link
Every time I hear the intro to "Danny Baily" my mind goes to some nerd-core song called "Bad Driver" that sampled it. MC Chris maybe? Internet isn't turning up much.
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 22:11 (twelve years ago) link
This is one of the better distribution of votes I've seen in recent years.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 22:13 (twelve years ago) link
a "Jamaica Jerk Off" vote! the lols abide
― Euler, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 23:05 (twelve years ago) link
0 for "Candle In The Wind" is actually quite surprsing, but I guess everyone got sick of it after the Diana thing. I used to love it myself, but almost skip it these days,
― Hongroe (Geir Hongro), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 23:31 (twelve years ago) link
The only version I can stand for a couple minutes is the '87 live one.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 23:32 (twelve years ago) link
Overexposure is right - it's actually a really nice song but I just wish I could have come to the song fresh as some undiscovered album track gem.
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 23:43 (twelve years ago) link
Seem to remember a far away, long ago Eden in which that was the case, when the only time you would here it on the radio was during the graveyard shift.
― Everything You POLL Is RONG (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 16 March 2012 15:18 (twelve years ago) link
Tiny Dancer was pretty unknown here; again not on the big hits comp. what with this poll and the stuff about changesonebowie in the Bowie poll; i'm realising *just how big* comps really were in the 1970s. i mean even The Beatles had a massive famous comp that became a classic in it's own right in the early 70s! it's weird.
― piscesx, Friday, 16 March 2012 15:30 (twelve years ago) link
well back then big acts would release an album every year and each one might only have 1 or 2 big hits, so i can see how those comps were a lot more useful or essential in the pre-pre-pre-pre-iTunes era
― some dude, Friday, 16 March 2012 15:32 (twelve years ago) link
The Beatles comp to which you are referring is Rock and Roll?
― Everything You POLL Is RONG (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:06 (twelve years ago) link
Red and Blue albums, I think.
― Doctor Casino, Friday, 16 March 2012 17:09 (twelve years ago) link
When did these actually come out? They seemed to always be around so I assume very early seventies.
― Everything You POLL Is RONG (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:12 (twelve years ago) link
wiki says 1973
― some dude, Friday, 16 March 2012 17:15 (twelve years ago) link
"Best Of"s were actually much bigger business in the late 80s/early 90s though.
― Hongroe (Geir Hongro), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:23 (twelve years ago) link
Why is that? Just from CDs coming in and boomers throwing out all those musty old records for one convenient little disc with all the favorites etc? Or Gen X/Y types playing catchup?
― Doctor Casino, Friday, 16 March 2012 17:24 (twelve years ago) link
well, the music industry as a whole was. but it seems like a lot of the really ridiculously big 10+ million selling greatest hit comps (beatles, eagles) came out in the '70s. (xpost)
― some dude, Friday, 16 March 2012 17:26 (twelve years ago) link
Oh yeah, The Eagles, of course.
I bought some greatest hits back in the day such as Hot Rocks but I steered clear of the Red and the Blue albums, they were too unwieldy. Why buy four LPs worth of material with what maybe a quarter of the groups entire output? To avoid "Mr Moonlight" and "Wild Honey Pie"? I think pretty much the entire Hey Jude/Beatles Again album was taking up one of those LPs.
― Everything You POLL Is RONG (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:51 (twelve years ago) link
A lot of those grew up with Red and Blue, and as far as no-nonsense comps go they're still exemplary.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:51 (twelve years ago) link
Fair enough. But I think there was another opinion that they were a little bit on the tamer side of the catalogue, which is where the Rock and Roll comp came in.
― Everything You POLL Is RONG (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:54 (twelve years ago) link
Similarly I recall hearing "Don't Let The Sun Go Down" on the radio way more often after the live George Michael duet blew up early '92 which I had forgotten about until like 5 minutes ago.. Although it was on "Greatest Hits" I dunno if it was on the radio all that much throughout the 80s.
― billstevejim, Friday, 16 March 2012 20:54 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, and at the same time I feel like the death of the mass-audience greatest-hits album is sort of a loss, in the sense that an artist could always toss on two or three songs that weren't actually big hits at all, or even just album cuts, and make them part of their canon by fiat. Millions of kids would grow up hearing these kind of minor songs right alongside giant blockbusters in the tracklist. It's like this last chance for the artist/record company to say "No, really, this was a good one, it deserved better!"
― Doctor Casino, Friday, 16 March 2012 21:13 (twelve years ago) link
Well, then there's the case of Tom Petty's first comp, boasting songs we've all heard for years and not a single surprise but was and remains a massive seller.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 16 March 2012 21:15 (twelve years ago) link
Well, except "Mary Jane's Last Dance," but that's a whole different animal of the "new song thrown on the comp," a la Slip Slidin' Away.
― Doctor Casino, Friday, 16 March 2012 21:46 (twelve years ago) link
Also, actually, looking at that Petty list some of it is definite non-hit canon stuff, but I don't know how many of them had become giant radio staples by the time the thing came out. I mean, "American Girl" never charted in the US but I assume it was a well-known song by 1993! "Listen To Her Heart" peaked at #59, tying "Here Comes My Girl," "Into The Great Wide Open" at #92, and "Even The Losers" was an album track.
― Doctor Casino, Friday, 16 March 2012 21:51 (twelve years ago) link
I mean, we're now pretty far afield of Elton but - I bet that Steve Miller greatest hits would rack up a pretty similar range, those have all become beloved barbecue-and-road-trip classics on the strength of the, what, five or six actual hits that were on it? I could be totally wrong though.
― Doctor Casino, Friday, 16 March 2012 21:53 (twelve years ago) link
It kinda blows my mind people not hearing Tiny Dancer a lot. Maybe I just heard it a disproportionate amount because my dad played Madman Across The Water a LOT.
― butvi wouls (Phil D.), Friday, 16 March 2012 22:18 (twelve years ago) link
Like some dude, I never really heard it too much until That Movie
― Everything You POLL Is RONG (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 16 March 2012 22:20 (twelve years ago) link
thing about Candle in the Wind is I always preferred his solo live piano version where he riffs a bit vocally at the end than the full-band version on the original.
the Di version was an atrocity. The rhyme scheme and meter didn't fit at all.
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Friday, 16 March 2012 22:21 (twelve years ago) link
"Tiny Dancer" peaked at 41 and was on the US charts for seven we
― Everything You POLL Is RONG (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 16 March 2012 22:30 (twelve years ago) link
weeks in 1972
Yeah Elton had more than 10 a-sides prior to "Greatest Hits" getting released ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elton_John_discography
The 9 biggest hits were all included, and it looks like the 10th song could've been a toss up between Levon, Tiny Dancer or Friends which were all Top 40 (Top 41, whatever)... Levon charted the highest out of those 3.. It's possible Tiny Dancer wasn't included because of its length... Candle In The Wind didn't initially chart at all.
― billstevejim, Friday, 16 March 2012 23:17 (twelve years ago) link
And IIRC that album actually has multiple tracklists since CiTW did chart in the UK. Greatest Hits are funky things.
― Doctor Casino, Friday, 16 March 2012 23:27 (twelve years ago) link
Just saw "Friends" when I looked at the charts. Wouldn't be able to tell you how that went
― Everything You POLL Is RONG (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 16 March 2012 23:39 (twelve years ago) link
I don't think "Friends" had much longevity chart-wise, but it was on "Freedom Rock."
It was also on this "deep cuts" comp that I used to listen to a lot... It had one of those "Nice Price" stickers on it.http://991.com/NewGallery/Elton-John-Your-Songs-521516.jpg
― billstevejim, Friday, 16 March 2012 23:47 (twelve years ago) link
The only version of "Candle in the Wind" I can listen to is the one most of us knew growing up: the Live in Australia one that became a top ten hit in late '87 or early '88.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 17 March 2012 01:40 (twelve years ago) link