Greatest Overachieving Ever
 

Okay so a new take on best song ever.

Forget the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, JD, Smiths, Pink Floyd etc.

Which band\artist made a single song that is among the all-time best or your all-time favorites and dwarf all their other individual efforts ever.

My Nomination is "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel.



but I gave that almost no thought.

Let's here your mindless guesses.

Does it's use in 'Reservoir Dogs' elevate the songs interpretation though?

Yes and No. I loved that album right from the start because of that song. In retrospect most of the rest is garbage, a few nice blues riffs, but nothing with the hook of that song. Hearing it in one of my favorite movies and used in the ironic way it was just makes it all the more inexplicable. I didn't say you couldn't use mitigating circumstances to win this contest.

No that's fine and there is no winner ;) and good choice. It is a great song. Here is mine. Basically a one hit wonder but this track is so brilliant and I have absolutely loved it since hearing it as a 9 year old upon release in '81

"Matador" by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, one of my favorite songs of all time. The video is nothing special, but as far as I'm concerned the song is about as close to perfect as you can get. On top of all that it has one of my all time favorite bass lines as well. And, god damn, is it fantastic live!

The rest of their album This Is The Sea is quite good, but I think that this song towers significantly over everything else they did.

I love that song!

I much prefer the track 'Good News' from Dream Harder. The Whole Of The Moon is overplayed. Good band though.

Booker T. & The MG's; Time Is Tight. The rest of their tracks are agreeable enough, but this one is transcendent.


A bit more controversial; Jimi Hendrix, Axis (Bold As Love). Amazing, mindblowing song. No other Hendrix track even comes close for me.

Even more controversial (?); Nirvana, Something In The Way. Love this song! Most every other Nirvana song is pretty dull.


...but a relatively "minor" artist? Has to be Vienna, by Ultravox. Midge Ure's a complete hack and Ultravox is basically a less commerically successful version of Duran Duran (shudder), but Vienna is one of those perfect pop songs.

I would Say Green Day - Time Of Your Life. Nothing that exciting but I love the lyrics to that song

waitwaitwait, are are saying Something In The Way is basically the only Nirvana song that's not dull?

Spandau Ballet's first single was f*cking awesome.
Dunno what the hell happened to them after that though.

Don't you mean 'Good Riddance'?

And probably Ballroom Blitz from Sweet, I have their greatest hits and can't listen to anything but that song from the album.

Pretty sure I stopped listening to Green Day after Dookie. That song ruined them for me and made me realize what an ugly mother BJA is.

Eh come on, you don't need to pretend to be a Green Day purist :).

American Idiot and Warning are both alright...Dookie was probably their best though, only because of Longview.

Warning was just a sad attempt for the band to go way past it's limits without any sense of direction.

Very damn mediocre album.

The only acceptable Green Day song is Platypus, and for some reason that 1 song is really good.

I think Dookie is all you need. Everything else is mostly garbage outside of the singles. Hell, just get International Superhits, you'll pretty much have the bulk of all the good songs in their discography.

Green Day are really more of a singles band anyway, as with most bands in the pop rock field.

^Green Day's entire recorded output. :D

Oh come on Warning, Fashion Victim, Minority, Waiting, and Macy's Day Parade are all very good. The only songs I really don't like are Jack@ss and Castaway.

Like I said, the singles are good, everything else not so much.

5/12 songs are very good. That makes a pretty good album.

Well not for me because I think everything else is pretty horrible, I can't even stand Minority, they're trying to show their "range" here and the result is pretty laughable.

"Oh look we have our ballad (Macys Day Parade), our love song (Church on Sunday) our "funny" song (Deadbeat Holiday), our really "punk" song (Blood, Sex and Booze), our "satire" (Fashion Victim), we even have a really lame "message" song called Hold On where I'm playing harmonica oh and we have a song called Misery that sounds like a very bad cover of a Tom Waits song. We have everything, this album surely won't end up being a cliche piece of poo".

You're free to disagree, I just think Green Day are a horrible album band, stick to the singles kids.

Not really a fan of Mercury Rev at all but this song is pure brilliance.

Johnny On The Spot - Texas Is The Reason

Yeah.

(Ok, ok, I like the Unplugged version of All Apologies, but it's still pretty mediocre. Something In The Way is perfect.)

Jesus, not saying Something In The Way isn't a good song but it's probably one of the most boring Nirvana songs I have ever heard..

good sound track of songs you hear way too often

I liked it for exactly that reason actually. They diversify somewhat without changing their sound drastically.

YouTube - Sugarcubes-Birthday (English)


I like the Sugarcubes and Bjork and all, but this track is the classic. It's (dare I say it) a perfect pop song.

Mazzy Star - Fade Into You

They have other good music, but this track is purely wonderful. A height that I don't think they really approached with anything else.

Someday - Los Lobos

I can't find a video of it or a link, as no one knows what the **** it is. But it's used in the opening scene in A Love Song for Bobby Long, the excellent movie based off the excellent book Off Magazine Street by R.E. Capps.

PS. Loved JayJam's pick of Stuck In The Middle. I think that it's used in Resevoir Dogs (one of my faves) makes it all the more eligible for this list.

I Did a review of this album and came away feeling a similar way. Other stuff is good, but that hit song is a belt of a classic