And it wasn't in a documentary! Come on, if there can be a movie about the Flaming Lips, that guy deserves it. He knew Sam Cooke! And his success was indie as fuck!
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, 9 January 2009 08:02 (fifteen years ago) link
impossible to choose... "Love Child", just for the hell of it. (also: did Dave Marsh put this list together?)
― Ioannis, Friday, 9 January 2009 12:07 (fifteen years ago) link
Gotta go with "Green Tambourine" ... funny, the local oldies radio station was doing a biggest hits of 1968 retrospective last Saturday morning and I heard all of these. Had forgotten how terrible "Judy In The Sky" is.
― zaxxon25, Friday, 9 January 2009 13:29 (fifteen years ago) link
"Love Child," of course.
― Matos W.K., Friday, 9 January 2009 13:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Grapevine without hesitation.
― chap, Friday, 9 January 2009 14:10 (fifteen years ago) link
Dock Of The Bay, people.
― kornrulez6969, Friday, 9 January 2009 14:32 (fifteen years ago) link
every great year has a bobby goldsboro...
...whose "Honey" is still at least ten times as good as the Beatles' worst single ever.
― xhuxk, Friday, 9 January 2009 14:40 (fifteen years ago) link
out of these i'm probably happiest when "grazin" or "tighten up" comes on the radio...
― extremely intoxicated & uncooperative outside a Hסּסּters in Winston-Salem (will), Friday, 9 January 2009 14:49 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 12 January 2009 00:01 (fifteen years ago) link
The thing is if I vote against "grapevine" it's only because I burned out on it. but I remember first getting floored by it back in high school, just freaking out: this is the greatest singer ever, greatest arrangement ever, etc etc. I felt that way about a number of Supremes songs at various points that year but not "Love Child." "green tambourine" is amazing too but at the end of the day "grapevine" is stronger than its big chillification/california raisination.
― J0hn D., Monday, 12 January 2009 00:19 (fifteen years ago) link
time to drag out the grapevine acappella I think
― ecuador_with_a_c, Monday, 12 January 2009 09:19 (fifteen years ago) link
Lots of great records here, but Marvin is the man and "Grapevine" may be his greatest single performance. So . . .
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 12 January 2009 11:46 (fifteen years ago) link
which one of these is best to do karaoke to?
i have only ever done jeannie c. riley this way
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 12 January 2009 12:50 (fifteen years ago) link
"hello, i love you" could be pretty wild
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 12 January 2009 12:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Robert Smith pulled it off.
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 12 January 2009 13:39 (fifteen years ago) link
"Tighten Up", by a whisker over "Love Child".
― mike t-diva, Monday, 12 January 2009 13:58 (fifteen years ago) link
Dock of the Bay came on an oldies station this weekend and stole my vote from the Grazing/Grapevine knockdown. Something incredible about pairing the beauty of the music and mastery of Otis's voice (every line has its own choice, surprising but perfect inflection) with the hopelessness of the lyric.
― dad a, Monday, 12 January 2009 14:05 (fifteen years ago) link
― kingkongvsgodzilla, Monday, 12 January 2009 14:08 (fifteen years ago) link
See the tree. how big it's grown
I voted Mrs Robinson.
― billstevejim, Monday, 12 January 2009 17:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 13 January 2009 00:01 (fifteen years ago) link
wow! lots of closeted s&g fans here, apparently.
― Ioannis, Tuesday, 13 January 2009 12:45 (fifteen years ago) link
Was listening to "People Got to Be Free" (0 votes) the other day and noticed that you can take it either as a leftist anthem or a rightist one. Wondered how people took it when it came out at the height of the Vietnam War debate. Too bad the Rascals got nothing here; their string of singles 1967 to 69 is pretty astonishing to my ears.
― Josefa, Tuesday, 13 January 2009 14:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Wow. I don't hear what y'all do in "Green Tambourine." The rest, though.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 8 April 2019 00:21 (four years ago) link
Good morning!.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 29 April 2021 09:53 (two years ago) link
Aw bump Tighten up a notch wontcha.
― Van Halen dot Senate dot flashlight (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, 29 April 2021 13:30 (two years ago) link