ILM POLLS THE 20TH CENTURY'S BEST TRACKS ››› YOUR RESULTS THREAD ‹‹‹

15. THE SPECIALS "Ghost Town" (1981) [2,304 points, 20 votes, 1 first place vote]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqZ8428GSrI

wait, really?

fuck yeah! Totally solid track.

haha ILM in a nutshell, those last two posts

Two great songs in a row that I thought might be in with a shot of being number one.

I just never get bored of Ghost Town.

Excellent!

I have never heard "Ghost Town" before.

Yet another UK chart hit that confuses everyone else.

Holy shit, I don't think I've ever heard Ghost Town except for the intro (is it sampled somewhere?), but it's awesome! Totally worthy of the #15 spot!

xxx-post

Was that track a mostly UK voter thing? I don't think I've ever even heard this before.

wow i don't know this song either, wasn't expecting to be surprised at this stage of the poll

I gotta say, I don't understand not getting "Once In A Lifetime". The beat is great, the vocal performance is great, the claustrophobic lyrics are great... it's a time capsule of awesome from a band that was frequently awesome and possibly captures their aesthetic better than any of their other songs (even if it arguably isn't their BEST song, it reads as the most Talking Heads-ish song ever recorded; I can't imagine another band doing it).

i love when ilx surprises

"Once in a Lifetime" has a brilliant chorus, but all that talks stuff in the verses is boring as hell. Someone should do a remix with just the chorus.

"talks" = "talky"

no! it's the dual talk/bassline that makes the song great!

Chorusing Heads

what the hell, Tuomas

the verses are the HEART of the song

do you also complain about "I Zimbra" being from a Dadaist poem?

Yesss. 'Ghost Town' in a totally deserved place there.

Ghost Town from what I remember was pretty huge in Uk. Possibly got to #1. It was on Top Of The Pops a lot anyway.

xp - I'd suggest "Once in a Lifetime" might be a US version of "Ghost Town" in that its importance is in part associated with the massive effect it had on people at the time, but I could be completely wrong . For me it's definitely a good song but it lacks some of the properties that make the great Talking Heads songs great, and I wouldn't vote for it on a poll like this.

Was that track a mostly UK voter thing? I don't think I've ever even heard this before.

― _Rudipherous_, Friday, December 3, 2010 6:37 PM (39 seconds ago)

Yeah it was a huge number one hit here. The Specials were massive for about three years.

It's so great some people will discover songs like Ghost Town for the first time, this makes the list seem like a huge success.

i go out on friday night and i come home on saturday morning

Wikipedia: The song spent three weeks at number one and ten weeks in the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart overall.

I'm having trouble believing this is a world beating track in the UK but if you say so...

Around the time of riots in England unless my 10 yr old self is remembering wrongly.

Was that track a mostly UK voter thing? I don't think I've ever even heard this before.

I'm assuming so - it was a #1 single and no-one ever seems to have anything bad so say about it. Not my personal favourite Specials song but yeah, it's great.

xp - I'd suggest "Once in a Lifetime" might be a US version of "Ghost Town" in that its importance is in part associated with the massive effect it had on people at the time, but I could be completely wrong . For me it's definitely a good song but it lacks some of the properties that make the great Talking Heads songs great, and I wouldn't vote for it on a poll like this.

Eh, I'm not sure; I think if you were looking for the US Talking Heads impact song, it would be "Life During Wartime" or "Take Me To The River"

haven't heard song in ages and forgot how good the 'do you remember....' bit is

14. THE KINKS "Waterloo Sunset" (1967) [2,350 points, 21 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpL4xbfmXlQ

(and "Burning Down The House" was their real mainstream breakthrough)

i go out on friday night and i come home on saturday morning

― Roberto Spiralli, Friday, December 3, 2010 6:42 PM (41 seconds ago)

I possibly like that one even more than Ghost Town, when people ask me about my favourite lyrics in songs (they never really do) I would always say that song.

OK yeah, fine with this too.

Eh, I'm not sure; I think if you were looking for the US Talking Heads impact song, it would be "Life During Wartime" or "Take Me To The River"

Ok. I thought there was something about the video for Once in a Lifetime being huge on early MTV.

if you were looking for the US Talking Heads impact song, it would be "Life During Wartime" or "Take Me To The River"

Really? I think "Once in a Lifetime" had more impact than those, but I could be wrong. "Psycho Killer" is pretty well-known too, I would think, but people who might otherwise not know their music.

Yeah, I guess Burning Down the House, too.

Yeah, my own first exposure to Talking Heads was the Once in a Lifetime video on MTV. They played it about once an hour, even in 1983/84.

Ok. I thought there was something about the video for Once in a Lifetime being huge on early MTV.

oh that is possible; I never had MTV in its heyday so I am fuzzy on the history there. I was going off of what I heard on the radio at the time and Wikipedia info on single performance

beautiful track, voted for this one. sincere and cheeky at the same time.

I remember (fondly) my Kinks immersion period ca. 1995. I bought everything by them I could get my hands on, to the point of not being able to concentrate on any one album in particular...except Something Else. "Waterloo Sunset" and "David Watts" are absolutely terrific.

MN rock radio played "Life During Wartime" and "Take Me To The River" to DEATH in the early/mid 80s; I didn't know anything about "Once In A Lifetime" until Stop Making Sense came out (but I did know "I Zimbra", lol)

This is turning out way better and surprising than I expected. Happy to see The Specials and Althea and Donna so high.

I'll give a meh for 'once in a lifetime' 'waterloo sunset' and 'this charming man'. All of them are songs I like but wouldn't consider them as the best of each band's respective output, let alone the best of the century.

in my experience you can hear Burning Down the House, Once in a Lifetime, and Psycho Killer in generally equal proportions on rock radio but not much past that.

this poll is reminding me to go get all of those old Talking Heads albums since I don't live with my brother anymore

Add "And She Was," I remember that being unavoidable on the dial when it came out. xp

Waterloo Sunset is my favourite Kinks song, but I'm not really a fan.

13. STEVIE WONDER "Superstition" (1972) [2,358 points, 22 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDZFf0pm0SE

hell yeah

two hours of meetings, have fun everybody

The Sesame Street performance of this is one of my favourite live clips ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ul7X5js1vE