Singles That Don't Represent the Band Well
 

What are some popular songs by artists that you feel don't capture what they're really about?

The first one that comes to mind for me is Radiohead's "Creep", it's a great song and all but their other tracks sound worlds apart from that tune and it's their biggest hit. Another one would be Yes's "Owner of a Lonely Heart", which is crap while a good lot of their material is not.

So what do you think?

Shiny Happy People is a great one.

I think Rusty Cage isn't a good representative of Soundgarden. As the song implies they might be worth checking out.

I'd argue that Black Hole Sun is an even bigger hit, meaning most people know better than to check them out.

I'd argue that "Black Hole Sun" is actually one of their few good songs, unlike "Rusty Cage".

Rusty Cage is a great song, but Soundgarden does a poor job with it.

"Wait what the **** since when have there been two guys in outkast?"

"And there's rapping, too?"

This great moody, sample heavy hit single "Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand" by Primitive Radio Gods is unfortunately not representative of them at all:




This crapfest is what they really sound like:



One of my most disappointing album purchases ever.

One of the rare examples when the singles don't represent the band well but are still excellent.

Wow. I can understand why. That first track is great though so I might DL the album just for that.

Black Sabbath - Changes is an obvious one.

It's truly mind boggling. I can't even begin to fathom how such a thoroughly boring band could have produced such a terrific song. It's like all the creativity they possessed was channeled into just the one track and they had no juice left for the rest of the album.

Maybe Story of my life.. :D

Aqualung might be a good example of this. It captures Jethro Tull's sound but there's no flute, one thing they're pretty notorious for.

I think steel monkey is an even more noticeable example

I'd say "handlebars" for the flobots and "paparazzi" by Xzibit both songs seem to be far away from what the rest of their songs sound like

Coming from The 80's, I will focus on that decade with a couple here.

Psychedelic Furs - Heartbreak Beat (1987)
After turning into stars with the cleaned up re-mix of "Pretty In Pink" for the film of the same name, they had their year of being MTV-ready slick Pop with the Midnight to Midnight album and this US mega-hit which is possibly the song most people connect them with - at least those who did not connect to them when they are usually a sharp, sometimes moody band who have a lot of killer hooks. Experience them best on the first three albums, "All That Money Wants" (the serious rebound single of 1988), and World Outside - the lighter delights of Mirror Moves ("The Ghost in You") should wait after hearing what made them great although it is a fine album. Save this for those moments when you think something sounds good under the influence of Aqua Net Hair Spray - the original 80's environment killing formula - and wearing a fake leather jacket while thinking wearing sunglasses at night is a good idea.

Cheap Trick - The Flame (1988)
True, this was done as an aim for a hit single after CBS noticed their slipping sales (The Doctor was not one of their best moments), but also a sad example of how a usually tight rocking band with solid Pop hooks that have made songs like "Surrender", "Dream Police", and many others too numerous to mention here played the Power Ballad game in an era that was filled with too many of them. Written by outsiders, topped with a guitar riffing that resembled Spirit's "Nature's Way", the best things about this generic US hit is that it introduced the return of the real Trick line-up with it's original Bassist and that Robin Zander can seriously sing this live, showing who can do the Power Metal croon the best. Still, get the 70's albums, their return to form of the S/T 1997 album, and 1980's All Shook Up - or even the Authorized Greatest Hits (not the Columbia short list from The 90's) - and leave this one, and their 1990 album Busted as well, to Trailer Park Memories.

Actually, my pick of Radiohead's singles would have to be "Pop Is Dead", the single that was stand-alone back in the day and almost saw their way down although the success of "Creep" and knowing that The Bends was going to be that album which would make many notice kept them going. Their big hit had a classic Thom Yorke vocal and the guitar dramatics that would develop later on - very early days, and filled with generic teen angst, but with the luck to connect to listeners in a way that would happen to their better music. "Pop Is Dead" was a simple minded whine about the record industry that showed that they were growing up, but still in that awkward phase before The Bends made many take note.

As for Yes, I would have to pick Big Generator's "Rhythm of Love". To me, "Owner of a Lonely Heart" was a slight answer to the never asked question "What if the Drama era still had Jon Anderson instead of one-album replacement Trevor Horn on vocals?" which showed the band ready to face The 80's in style, but Big Generator showed that it took too long and the inspiration was wearing thin. "Don't Kill the Whale" from the very ill-fated Tormato runs a close second - no matter how agreeable the message was, it was a bit too much of a whine with Rick Wakeman's cheese doodles ruining what's at least a punchy tune

Another Brick in the Wall. ****.

"Steal My Sunshine" by Len. Almost all of the songs on Can't Stop the Bum Rush are better and their other work is so different from it, also. I GUESS it was radio friendly by the band is way more intense than that song, for sure. :)

hmmmm.....i actually really like that song but for some reason have never looked into their actual body of work

I agree that "Steal My Sunshine" isn't representative but feel the exact opposite about its relationship to the rest of the album.

ahhhh haaaaa

for some reason that song always makes me think of summer

Me too, for a very specific reason: during one of the best summers of my life one of roommates used to play it all the time.

^fucking weird man


almost exact same story....but instead or roommate co-worker

A couple more, starting with one I like -
A Flock of Seagulls - Wishing (1983) - This is a classic case of "Far better than the rest of their work" as if the Music Gods decided that for just one ultra fine moment, this usually dire band had the song to match Mike Score's hair and Future Now image instead of the usual cheese whiz Sci Fi Pop that screamed One Year Wonder (at least in the US). One beep going through the song which hypnotizing the listener, Nice Synth sweeps, a melody you can whistle to, Paul Reynold's guitar (the only thing that made their first three albums listenable) hitting the notes perfectly with no filler or solos, and Feather-Do himself sounding quite well. This is a choice of a New Wave Era Music Snob ready to admit to the skeletons in the record collection because it is good song...and then you turn to something like "I Ran" and the other moments that they earned their wings as Another British Band That Did Better in The States and wonder what caused such a great moment, which actually turned into their homeland hit. After Reynolds left, they flew south for the sad Dream Come True, making at least their first three albums sound like masterpieces - this from the second and best, Listen. Damn them, in a good way.

The Damned - Alone Again Or (1987) - From the ill fated Anything album, which to be fair had a couple of nice tracks turned into singles (the title track being the very good one), this was the sound of a band trying to be too respectful in their cover of a Psychedelic era classic - this one from Love's Forever Changes album. I never connected The Damned with tasteful respect with their covers as they were either thrashing it up ("Help", "Ballroom Blitz"), soaking the song with 80's Punk Acid ("White Rabbit", their Naz Nomad and the Nightmares album), or going full tilt Wind Swept Gothic Epic ("Eloise", a well deserved UK Top 10), but this is the sound of a band who sound great going over the top sounding like they were trying to be professional - and this also went for the cover of "LA Woman" on the Whistle Test. Going Pro sounded good on the originals, although they were not Classic Damned by a long shot, but this cover showed that the move was a serious oil and water combination which almost ended their story with a disappointment in the end (although the worst was yet to come in The 90's) no matter how good of a move it was in a business sense and how well it worked the first time.

Julian Cope - Five O Clock World (1988) - Working with the Greedheads can lead to some rather sad decisions for even the best of performers, and this was possibly one of his most over-produced moments. Changing the lyric for this cover of The Vogues hit a bit, making this more of an end of the world situation than the simple "guy goes home from work" song, the production has all of what one hates the My Nation Underground album for - Synth Orchestra, flatulent horns, and the treble filled production of The 80's all changing Julian's then-characteristic Neo-Psych Cool into The Jetsons and The Great Gazoo go to The Swinging Sunset Strip - it was that cartoonish. Reading Guitar Army could have not came at a better time.

Another one I like, but...

The Ramones - Baby I Love You (1980) - If this were a Joey Ramone solo single, it would have been perfect, but it was part of the Ramones' ill fated album with Phil Spector and was a very ill fit for the rest of the album. Their biggest hit in the UK, this was possibly one of the major reasons why people hated that era a lot. Although charming in a Grease Goes to the Other Side of the Tracks kind of way (and I would have preferred it that way instead of the wonder bread musical), it's certainly one of those WTF moments until you get used to it. "Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio?" and "Rock 'n' Roll High School" were much more like it.

ADD ON: I would like to add on something by a solo performer legend named Chuck Berry, who's work usually is a collection of influential songs such as "Carol", "Rock 'N' Roll Music", and too many more to list here. To some, he's still best known for the juvenile sloppy throw away of "My Ding a Ling".

You mean, you dislike the rest of it or you think it's all worse than that song? I think there's some real genius in "Hot Rod Monster Jam." I love "Man of the Year," it's mad catchy and feels good in my ears. "Junebug" is so chill and "The Hard Disk Approach" is my favorite on the album. :) I don't think they could have produced a song further from "Steal My Sunshine" other than that one. :D

There's actually not much. And I like that song, too. It's on all of my party playlists. :)

I don't know if I'd say I dislike it but find the rest of the album pretty forgettable.

[QUOTE=Dark Horse;1470330]I think steel monkey is an even more noticeable example

yes, because Aqualung is very typical of Jethro Tull, despite the flute

Dude, you seriously know more about bad music than I will ever know about good music. You of all people on this site make me feel inadequate in my music knowledge. :bowdown:

"Little Willy" by Sweet

Spam that's honest. Refreshing.

"Alone Again Or" was the first song by The Damned that I heard, and I love this cover because the guitar sounds so emotional and the song is so melodic.

"Alone Again Or" by The Damned: love it! :)



^ After hearing this song, I got excited, thinking the rest of their music might sound like that! So I was very disappointed to realize that "Alone Again Or" wasn't representative of the frenzied, rough music they usually make, which doesn't move me.

Other music by The Damned: Yech. :(

I can understand.
To those who are still going "WTF is Screen on about?!!!", an explaination is in order.

They had a lot of different eras with so many line up changes that their collection is really pick and choose.

The best of the early years was this...



Earlier on, they had a couple of singles that broke Punk through in The UK including "New Rose"



Music for Pleasure was their first downfall when the band were fragmenting and losing the plot for the first time. For some reason, maybe memories of listening to it in a car on a way to a show in The 80's Punk years, I don't view it with the distaste that even strong fans view it with.

To me, their greatest era was in the Early 80's with The Black Album and Strawberries, and a 1984 single in "Thanks for the Night/Nasty" was another great record. With a lot of hooks, thanks to their love of 60's Garage Punk and Psych (and with Captain Sensible, a dash of Prog - I can tell he someone was listening to Pink Floyd's "Echoes" while constructing the just as epic "Curtain Call"), things livened up a bit. I still call that time their best.




Without Captain Sensible, who was back in the line-up by the 2Ks, they signed to MCA in 85 and released their more polished music, and at first they were seriously doing well with it. Even an over the top version of "Eloise" was among that era's highlights. It's sad to have seen them fall from what could have been a strong line of commercial successes with the Anything album, sounding like a lot of the energy was drained out through the production. You might like this, as I feel that it's possibly the best representation of their Late 80's line-up where "Eloise" was performed in a perfect setting.



I think after hearing this, their version of "Alone Again Or" seems a bit empty.

UFO covered it as well.



Their version was my first experience with that tune, and when The Damned did it, I thought they were covering UFO. Not so.

Great song though.

Busta Rhymes -Twerk It



Over the years he has devolved to the point of singing in a fake Jamaican accent... The man who's flow, aggression and lyrics had a big impact on late 90's hip hop reduced to working with Nicki Minaj

'Where is my mind" the weakest song from the Pixies is their most popular hit just cause of Fight club..

Also "Let's dance" by bowie cause sadly that was my introduction to bowie..

it was an 80's hit a little after i was born so that was my only reference to him and at the time and i hated it. this may sound stupid but i was too young to get how diverse he is honestly at the time if you had showed me 'space oddity' i would've thought it was by a different artist.

Hardly their weakest song, man. C'mon!

Actually a fantastic song. The Pixies do not have the ability to write a bad song.