YOUTH CULTURE POLLED MY DOG: They Might Be Giants (first 21 years) POLL RESULTS

which one?

From the pink album. Pretty shocked it didn't place. One thing that's going on, I think, is that what's great about it is really not as specifically TMBG as what's great about She's an Angel or Don't Let's Start. If you push me I can sort of imagine Was (Not Was) recording it (to re-up a comparison I think Doc Casino made somewhere upthread.)

soref, sapphires is gonna be my highest ranking song not to place. i think it's gorgeous, but i understand if it's a bit less lyrical or manic than what people want or expect from tmbg

I think if you had asked me to guess what would be top 5 I'd have been close to right and if you'd asked me to guess 6-10 I would have been utterly wrong. (e.g. I certainly would have put "Istanbul" and "Particle Man" in 6-10.)

I don't know what I'm going to do for display names after today, but I've been saving this one for two months until we hit the top 5

just wait til it turns out the top five is actually "spy," "absolutely bill's mood," "space suit," "toddler hiway" and at #1, "birds fly."

I actually really dig all of these except maybe "spy" and voted for none of them which just shows you how damn deep the catalog is

(fact check: no wait, in fact "absolutely bill's mood" and "space suit" were the very last two on my ballot!)

5: She's An Angel
1426 points, 17 votes, 2 #1s

from The Pink Album, 1986
live version on Live!! New York City 10/14/94 and Severe Tire Damage

^ TOO LOW

This was my #1. This has been my favorite TMBG song, and arguably my favorite any song, for 20+ years now.

"they don't happen at ah-ah-all, in fact" one of the sweetest saddest lines i've ever encountered anywhere

Sweet point jump too.

"The secretary says he's on another line, can I hold for a long, long time" is a lyrical precursor to "Whistling In the Dark" and "Someone Keeps Moving My Chair" I realize now

just realized 9 of the top 10 are sung by Linnell

whoever above said that "puppet head" is a spectacular melody, true but i feel that twice as much about "she's an angel"

yeah if you plunk the melody for she's an angel on the piano, it sounds like Bach

don't really have the musical vocabulary to describe this but the way the words are placed not where you'd expect them vis-a-vis the beat on "why did they send her over anyone else how should i react these things happen" is also insanely A+, in conclusion, i placed this too low

p sure i first saw "Puppet Head" video when they were on The Joe Franklin Show

4: They'll Need A Crane
1524 points, 18 votes

1989 single from Lincoln LP, 1988. Their sixth Adam Bernstein video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl7f6T4L2IA

making their network TV on Letterman 1989, backed by Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band:

John Linnell is the greatest songwriter of the past 40 years.

And this was my #2. My favorite lyrics of any TMBG song and the bridge is my favorite TMBG moment.

wow at point jump. this one is below the rest for me because of "where all the other nighmare people like to go, i mean nice people" gag -- it just feels too strained to me, unlike so many of their little verbal moves which just fall so naturally into place, like, well, "call off the wedding band, nobody wants to hear that one again, that one again," which is about as perfect as they get, in conclusion "they'll need a crane" is a land of contrasts and out of the top 4 we correctly chose which one should be #4

3: Birdhouse In Your Soul
1537 points, 17 votes, 1 #1

single from Flood, 1990. their seventh Adam Bernstein joint:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Am-BF7ObCI

early Dial-A-Song version, 1989

live on The Tonight Show 1990, backed by the big band:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zkRjrGmTl4

"You'll Miss Me" is absolute garbage, don't @ me.

I don't like it either but the version that appeared on their first flexidisc single is really intriguing and weird. Flans sings it like he's either trying to be "cool" or not wake the neighbors. Way different than the version that wound up on Lincoln

just realized 9 of the top 10 are sung by Linnell

"Puppet Head" was written by him, though Flans wrote the lyrics. Was always puzzled how Flansburgh could've written a song like that. I like him a lot, but man Linnell is just in a league of his own

This song always makes me ask: how can I sing like Linnell?

Linnell is just in a league of his own

one of my minor disappointments with this poll is that while lots of my personal faves turn out to be really popular, the majestic genius of "State Songs" remains underappreciated

crane at 18 votes, pretty undeniable. what can even be said about either it or "angel." goddamn what amazing songs, about such distant ends of the love/relationship experience.

birdhouse is TOO LOW. surely one of the greatest singles of 1989 by anybody in any genre. so startling and so affecting even on the thousandth listen. the unrequited decency of a night light "who watches over you," which could SO easily tip into pathetic nice-guy-ism. if there's any flaw it's the throwaway quality of the "longines symphonette" line which doesn't really contribute anything and points away to an obscure reference for no real reason. but everything else is perfect.

this one is below the rest for me because of "where all the other nighmare people like to go, i mean nice people" gag -- it just feels too strained to me, unlike so many of their little verbal moves which just fall so naturally into place

I like the whole 'don't call me at work again oh no the boss still hates me' bit, it's perfect imo

nightmare people kind of reminds me of the ugliness men from Someone Keeps Moving My Chair

for me the big hook in Birdhouse is that "who WATCHES OVER YOU" in the chorus, it fits so well despite being kind of out of place. like it was beamed in from another song.

as for "She's an Angel"...its probably the one I've been obsessed with for the longest time. the way it explodes from this intentionally droll verse to this profound and beautiful chorus (both of them, in fact) is really something. sadly they have never once played it when I've seen them, I always wondered how Linnell manages to sing it without running out of air.

i said where your eyes don't go has the cleverest chord progression, but you know, it's probably birdhouse. how both "i'm your only friend" section are in different keys from each other and different keys from the rest of the song but resolve in the same way, but the first time it goes into the chorus and the second time it goes into the verse. it's genius. my #4.

crane was my#2--just so crushingly sad, yet so fun to sing.

honestly my favorite part of "birdhouse" isn't a lyric at all, it's the insistent little keyboard line that transits from the opening "i'm your only friend" to the main part of the song, right as the drums come in.

for me the big hook in Birdhouse is that "who WATCHES OVER YOU" in the chorus, it fits so well despite being kind of out of place. like it was beamed in from another song.

haha yeah the first dozen or so times i heard the song, i thought the line ended with a question mark ("WHO WATCHES OVER YOU???").

I'm honestly a little surprised that 3 people didn't vote for Birdhouse at all. I'm a bit sick of it myself, and I consider it clearly the weakest of these 5 consensus top songs but not voting for it at all just seems wrong.

i guess overexposure is why i didn't vote for birdhouse even higher, it really is a tiny, tight little rube goldberg machine of hooks, both lyrical and instrumental

I wonder if the canonical favorites will have the full 20 votes, hard to imagine anyone not voting for some of the songs yet to come.

o rly

2: Don't Let's Start
1677 points, 19 votes

1987 single remixed from The Pink Album; their second Adam Bernstein collab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJQnZZ-Wmao

early, short version from the 1985 cassette, later unedited on Then

live on MTV 1988, following Shoehorn With Teeth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxniOZvNDUU

1: Ana Ng
1786 points, 20 votes, 3 #1s

single from Lincoln LP 1988; their fourth Adam Bernstein vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7Mw1CQR1Pc

Dial-A-Song c. 1988
live version from Live!! New York City 10/14/94 )with bridge overdubbed for STD 1998)
live from At Large album, 2011

had no idea there was a video for Crane

the bridge makes the song imo

0 #1 votes for "Don't Let's Start" is a little surprising though in a poll with so few entries anomalies like that are expected. It was my #4.

Ana Ng is the correct answer, I think. It's not my personal favorite (tho it's close), but it's songwriting of the highest level and the bolero-like rhythm makes it unlike anything else they've done.

#2 and #1 are my #2 and #1 and two of the songs that mean the most to me in my life, not sure what more I can say.

The highest placing post-"Flood" song being at #17 is harsh but fair.

yea so many great things about that song. personally my favorite is the backing vocals on the chorus...the "Listen Ann" part

also love the opening lines, perhaps the most convoluted way to say "this is about a girl on the other side of the world" possible

Except maybe thanks to the somewhat conservative guy in my high school who sometimes wore a tie to school and in some ways got on my nerves but one day correctly intuited that I needed to hear what was playing on his walkman which was "ana ng," four minutes later I was the man you see before you today

Listen Ana hear my words
They're the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you

great #1. there is no better encapsulation in their catalog of what makes them unique and special: intense and clever wordiness that does not crowd out real feeling (anguish, loneliness, longing for connection, awareness of the desperation of the hail-mary gamble while still making it, how strange it is to believe that there's someone out there for you while also having full knowledge of how large the world is)....... and that incredible shift from the abstraction-of-a-rock-band starkness of the verse to the absolute explosion of MIDI glory that comes pouring out with the arrival of the chorus. and then back AGAIN to the stop-start just a few seconds later for "walked in the glow of each other's majestic presence." and then you get to go on the ride AGAIN with "listen ana..." it's like a whirlpool, and it never ends.

also typically, one of the best turns of phrase isn't one of the showingly clever ones, just a wonderfully non-cliched way of saying something. "and in back of the edge of hearing, these are the words that the voice was repeating."

I didn't submit a ballot, but thanks to all who did and sic for compiling and posting links. I listened to every song in the list. Lincoln & Flood were big in my college radio days but then I forgot all about them until the mickey mouse clubhouse and here come the ABCs came along with my kids, who loved them. So we went to see them on the current tour (kids now in high school) and it was amazing! Got a signed copy of the new one "I like fun" at the show and it's great too! I think 2 or 3 songs off of it wouldn't be out of place in the top ten here had they been released in the 90s.

yea if indeed a 2002-present poll is done I think that one would be more interesting - I have no idea what the top 5 would look like.

Aaah okay, "Where Your Eyes Don't Go" was one was wasn't sure about placing. Its greatness always seemed self-evident, but don't recall anyone ever mentioning it. (Again likely a result of my fandom peaking in more isolated pre-internet days.) Seems I voted for most of the top ten then.

for fun, here's the list according to voters on the TMBG wiki: http://tmbw.net/wiki/Special:Ratings

And here's the list of their most-played songs in concert: https://www.setlist.fm/stats/they-might-be-giants-3bd6a404.html

This is the lowest rated TMBG song on that list ahahahahaha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnXeuc_XMA4