Sayburr
08-26-2008, 09:01 AM
Well, throughout all of the controversy, we have come to the final vote. Eight songs trying to win out as the best top 40 song for bands that only had one top 40 on the Pop/Hot 100 Billboard charts. Also know as a one-hit wonder by some definitions. I hope you have enjoyed this little series of polls and now its time for you to pick your favorite from the list of songs below:
Thin Lizzy - Boys are Back in Town
"The Boys Are Back in Town" is a single from Irish hard rock/proto-metal band Thin Lizzy. The song came out in 1976 on their album Jailbreak. It was honoured with the 499th position among Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Rolling Stone praised lead singer Phil Lynott's "Gaelic soul" and called the "twin-guitar lead by Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson" used "crucial to the song's success".
The song is played after most Republic of Ireland football matches. In March 2005, Q magazine placed "The Boys Are Back in Town" at number 38 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.
Mountain - Mississippi Queen
"Mississippi Queen" was written by Leslie West (who supplies lead vocals and guitar) and drummer Corky Laing. Originally appearing on their 1970 album Climbing!, it has remained Mountain's most popular song. It begins with the banging of Laing's cowbell and West's easily recognizable guitar tracks.
Being put together by David Rea and Corky Laing, the lyrics were inspired by an incident that happened to Laing while playing at a club in Nantucket. An unnamed friend's girlfriend was there, visiting from Mississippi. She happened to be wearing a see-through dress that evening. Quite suddenly, the power on the entire island went out, and in a drug-induced moment of creativity, Laing began belting out the words.
The song seems to be a confession of love by the singer to a Cajun lady he met whom he called the "Mississippi Queen" (the lyrics could also seem to imply that she lives aboard the famous riverboat named the "Mississippi Queen" which plies the waters of the lower Mississippi river and often calls at the port of Vicksburg). The setting of the song occurs somewhere "down around Vicksburg" (a city on the Mississippi River across from Louisiana), "around [the] Louisiana way", which lends itself to several competing interpretations: that she lived across the river from Vicksburg (the bridge on Interstate 20 connects the Mississippi-Louisiana sides) where there is a well-known local strip club or that she is just passing through on the boat (as mentioned above) or that she is originally from south Louisiana (the area of Louisiana where Cajuns reside) and now resides in Mississippi (Blues notables Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters both hail from the area in and around Vicksburg, Mississippi).
Early in the song, he compliments her lovemaking skills (or admits his lack thereof) by stating "...she taught me everything", then goes on to say she was a dancer who "moved better on wine". The singer continues, saying that she had asked him to be her man to which he replies, "I'd do what I can". He evidently took her up on her offer as the next line says "to keep her looking pretty, buy her dresses that shine...while the rest of them dudes were makin’ their bread, boy I beg your pardon, I was losin’ mine."
Dexys Midnight Runners – Come on Eileen
"Come On Eileen" by Dexys Midnight Runners was the biggest-selling British single of 1982. The song was written by Kevin Rowland, "Big" Jim Paterson, and Billy Adams; it was produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. It originally appeared on the album Too-Rye-Ay.
The song begins with Celtic-style fiddle played over a drum beat, with the bass guitar and piano providing accompaniment. An extended version has an additional intro of a Celtic fiddle solo, playing the Irish song "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms", by Matthew Locke.
The chorus was loosely inspired by the song "A Man Like Me" by the 1960s British soul group Jimmy James and the Vagabonds.
The bridge of "Come On Eileen" features an improvised counter-melody which begins in a slow tempo and gets faster and faster over an accelerando vocal backing. The chord sequence of the bridge is actually the same as the verses but transposed up by a whole tone.
Throughout the song, there are numerous tempo changes and key changes
The music video to accompany the single was directed by Julien Temple. It features members of the band wearing sleeveless shirts and overalls.
Drummer Seb Shelton was fired from the band during the filming of the music video.
The "Eileen" as featured in the video (and on the record sleeve) is Maire Fahey, sister of Siobhan Fahey, former singer with Bananarama and Shakespear's Sister. The American singer Johnnie Ray, an early rock-and-roll crooner, is also featured in the video using old film footage, and mentioned in the opening lyrics.
Greatful Dead – touch of Grey
“Touch of Grey" is a 1987 single by the Grateful Dead, sometimes known by its refrain "I will get by." It combines non sequitur lyrics with a pop tempo. The music was written by Jerry Garcia, and the words are by Robert Hunter. It was also released as a music video, the first one by the Grateful Dead.
First performed in 1982, it was finally released on In the Dark in 1987, and went to the top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100, the only song by the band ever to do so. It was released as a single with "My Brother Esau" and later "Throwing Stones", and has appeared on a number of albums and collections.
Its video gained major airplay on MTV and featured a live performance of the band, first shown to be life-size skeleton marionettes dressed as the band, then as themselves. The video's popularity helped introduce the Grateful Dead to a new generation of fans, resulting in the Grateful Dead gaining mainstream attention after years of existing on the fringes of the music scene.
Jimi Hendrix Experience – All Along the Watchtower
"All Along the Watchtower" is a folk song written and recorded by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience began to record their cover version of Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower” on January 21, 1968, at Olympic Studios in London. According to engineer Andy Johns, Jimi Hendrix had been given a tape of Dylan’s recording by publicist Michael Goldstein, who worked for Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman. “(Hendrix) came in with these Dylan tapes and we all heard them for the first time in the studio,” recalled Johns. According to Hendrix’s regular engineer Eddie Kramer, the guitarist cut a large number of takes on the first day, shouting chord changes at Dave Mason who had turned up at the session and played guitar. Halfway through the session, bass player Noel Redding became dissatisfied with the proceedings and left. Mason then took over on bass. According to Kramer, the final bass part was played by Hendrix himself. Kramer and Chas Chandler mixed the first version of “All Along The Watchtower” on January 26, but Hendrix was quickly dissatisfied with the result and went on re-recording and overdubbing guitar parts during June, July, and August at the Record Plant studio in New York Engineer Tony Bongiovi has described Hendrix becoming increasingly dissatisfied as the song progressed, overdubbing more and more guitar parts, moving the master tape from a four-track to a twelve-track to a sixteen-track machine. Bongiovi recalled, “Recording these new ideas meant he would have to erase something. In the weeks prior to the mixing, we had already recorded a number of overdubs, wiping track after track. (Hendrix) kept saying, ‘I think I hear it a little bit differently.’” The finished version was released on the album Electric Ladyland in September 1968. Hendrix’s obsessive re-working of the song totally transformed it: from a quiet acoustic ballad to a pyrotechnic display of Hendrix’s guitar virtuosity. The single reached number five in the British charts, and number 20 on the Billboard chart.
Dylan has described his reaction to hearing Hendrix's version: "It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn't think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day."
Surfaris – Wipe Out
"Wipe Out" is a song written by Bob Berryhill, Pat Connolly, Jim Fuller and Ron Wilson. The song was first performed and recorded by The Surfaris, who were elevated to international status with the release of the "Surfer Joe" and "Wipe Out" single.
The term 'wipeout' is a fall from a surfboard, especially one that looks painful.
Bob Berryhill, Pat Connolly, Jim Fuller and Ron Wilson wrote the song almost on the spot as a suitable B-side was needed for the intended "Surfer Joe" single. In late 1962, while the band was in Cucamonga's Pal Recording Studio recording the single, one of the band members suggested that a gimmick sound indicating a wipe out off a surfboard be emulated. The suggestion was made that during the introduction before the music starts, a cracking sound, imitating a breaking surfboard, should be made.
Also in the introduction is a manic voice babbling, "ha ha ha ha ha wipe out". The spoken voice at the beginning of the song is the voice of the band's manager of the time, Dale Smallen.
Ron Wilson's energetic drum solo (a speeded up version of his high school marching band's drum cadence) was beaten out on malt-shop tables all over the country which also helped "Wipe Out" to become one of the best-remembered instrumental songs of the period. The afterthought track spent four months on the national Billboard chart in the autumn of 1963, reaching #2 and kept out of the top slot only by Stevie Wonder's Fingertips. Meanwhile, original A-side "Surfer Joe" only attracted airplay in the wake of Wipe Out's success, and peaked at #62 during its six-week run.
Following the death of television personality Morton Downey, Jr., news reports and obituaries incorrectly - credited him as the composer of "Wipe Out".[- As of 2007, Downey's official website continues to make this claim.
Derek and the Dominos – Layla
"Layla" is the title track on the Derek and the Dominos album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, released in December 1970. It is considered one of rock music's definitive love songs, featuring an unmistakable guitar figure, played by Eric Clapton and Duane Allman, as lead-in. Its famously contrasting movements were composed separately by Clapton and Jim Gordon.
Inspired by Clapton's then-unrequited love for Pattie Boyd, the wife of his friend and jam buddy George Harrison, "Layla" was unsuccessful on its initial release. The song has since experienced great critical and popular acclaim. It is often hailed as being among the greatest rock songs of all time. Two versions have achieved chart success, first in 1972 and again twenty years later. In 2004, it was ranked #27 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
In 1966, George Harrison married Pattie Boyd, a model he met during the filming of A Hard Day's Night. During the late 1960s, Clapton and Harrison became firm friends. Clapton contributed guitar work on Harrison's song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on The Beatles' White Album but remained uncredited, and Harrison played guitar pseudonymously on Cream's "Badge" from Goodbye. However, trouble was brewing for Clapton. Between his tenures in Cream and Blind Faith, in his words, "something else quite unexpected was happening: I was falling in love with Pattie."
Boyd divorced Harrison in 1977 and married Clapton in 1979. Harrison was not bitter about the divorce and attended Clapton's wedding party with Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney. During their relationship, Clapton wrote another love ballad for her, "Wonderful Tonight." Clapton and Boyd divorced in 1989 after several years of separation.
The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony
This is a song by British alternative rock band The Verve, and is the lead track on their third album Urban Hymns (1997). It was released on 16 June 1997 as the first single from the album, reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart. The single was released in the United States in early 1998, peaking at number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100. The song also became infamous for the legal controversy surrounding its use of an orchestral sample as its hook.
Rolling Stone ranked "Bitter Sweet Symphony" as the 382nd best song of all time. In May 2007, NME magazine placed "Bitter Sweet Symphony" at number 18 in its list of the "50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever". In September 2007, Q published a list of "Top 10 Tracks" as selected via a poll of 50 songwriters; "Bitter Sweet Symphony" is included.
Thin Lizzy - Boys are Back in Town
"The Boys Are Back in Town" is a single from Irish hard rock/proto-metal band Thin Lizzy. The song came out in 1976 on their album Jailbreak. It was honoured with the 499th position among Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Rolling Stone praised lead singer Phil Lynott's "Gaelic soul" and called the "twin-guitar lead by Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson" used "crucial to the song's success".
The song is played after most Republic of Ireland football matches. In March 2005, Q magazine placed "The Boys Are Back in Town" at number 38 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.
Mountain - Mississippi Queen
"Mississippi Queen" was written by Leslie West (who supplies lead vocals and guitar) and drummer Corky Laing. Originally appearing on their 1970 album Climbing!, it has remained Mountain's most popular song. It begins with the banging of Laing's cowbell and West's easily recognizable guitar tracks.
Being put together by David Rea and Corky Laing, the lyrics were inspired by an incident that happened to Laing while playing at a club in Nantucket. An unnamed friend's girlfriend was there, visiting from Mississippi. She happened to be wearing a see-through dress that evening. Quite suddenly, the power on the entire island went out, and in a drug-induced moment of creativity, Laing began belting out the words.
The song seems to be a confession of love by the singer to a Cajun lady he met whom he called the "Mississippi Queen" (the lyrics could also seem to imply that she lives aboard the famous riverboat named the "Mississippi Queen" which plies the waters of the lower Mississippi river and often calls at the port of Vicksburg). The setting of the song occurs somewhere "down around Vicksburg" (a city on the Mississippi River across from Louisiana), "around [the] Louisiana way", which lends itself to several competing interpretations: that she lived across the river from Vicksburg (the bridge on Interstate 20 connects the Mississippi-Louisiana sides) where there is a well-known local strip club or that she is just passing through on the boat (as mentioned above) or that she is originally from south Louisiana (the area of Louisiana where Cajuns reside) and now resides in Mississippi (Blues notables Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters both hail from the area in and around Vicksburg, Mississippi).
Early in the song, he compliments her lovemaking skills (or admits his lack thereof) by stating "...she taught me everything", then goes on to say she was a dancer who "moved better on wine". The singer continues, saying that she had asked him to be her man to which he replies, "I'd do what I can". He evidently took her up on her offer as the next line says "to keep her looking pretty, buy her dresses that shine...while the rest of them dudes were makin’ their bread, boy I beg your pardon, I was losin’ mine."
Dexys Midnight Runners – Come on Eileen
"Come On Eileen" by Dexys Midnight Runners was the biggest-selling British single of 1982. The song was written by Kevin Rowland, "Big" Jim Paterson, and Billy Adams; it was produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. It originally appeared on the album Too-Rye-Ay.
The song begins with Celtic-style fiddle played over a drum beat, with the bass guitar and piano providing accompaniment. An extended version has an additional intro of a Celtic fiddle solo, playing the Irish song "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms", by Matthew Locke.
The chorus was loosely inspired by the song "A Man Like Me" by the 1960s British soul group Jimmy James and the Vagabonds.
The bridge of "Come On Eileen" features an improvised counter-melody which begins in a slow tempo and gets faster and faster over an accelerando vocal backing. The chord sequence of the bridge is actually the same as the verses but transposed up by a whole tone.
Throughout the song, there are numerous tempo changes and key changes
The music video to accompany the single was directed by Julien Temple. It features members of the band wearing sleeveless shirts and overalls.
Drummer Seb Shelton was fired from the band during the filming of the music video.
The "Eileen" as featured in the video (and on the record sleeve) is Maire Fahey, sister of Siobhan Fahey, former singer with Bananarama and Shakespear's Sister. The American singer Johnnie Ray, an early rock-and-roll crooner, is also featured in the video using old film footage, and mentioned in the opening lyrics.
Greatful Dead – touch of Grey
“Touch of Grey" is a 1987 single by the Grateful Dead, sometimes known by its refrain "I will get by." It combines non sequitur lyrics with a pop tempo. The music was written by Jerry Garcia, and the words are by Robert Hunter. It was also released as a music video, the first one by the Grateful Dead.
First performed in 1982, it was finally released on In the Dark in 1987, and went to the top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100, the only song by the band ever to do so. It was released as a single with "My Brother Esau" and later "Throwing Stones", and has appeared on a number of albums and collections.
Its video gained major airplay on MTV and featured a live performance of the band, first shown to be life-size skeleton marionettes dressed as the band, then as themselves. The video's popularity helped introduce the Grateful Dead to a new generation of fans, resulting in the Grateful Dead gaining mainstream attention after years of existing on the fringes of the music scene.
Jimi Hendrix Experience – All Along the Watchtower
"All Along the Watchtower" is a folk song written and recorded by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience began to record their cover version of Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower” on January 21, 1968, at Olympic Studios in London. According to engineer Andy Johns, Jimi Hendrix had been given a tape of Dylan’s recording by publicist Michael Goldstein, who worked for Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman. “(Hendrix) came in with these Dylan tapes and we all heard them for the first time in the studio,” recalled Johns. According to Hendrix’s regular engineer Eddie Kramer, the guitarist cut a large number of takes on the first day, shouting chord changes at Dave Mason who had turned up at the session and played guitar. Halfway through the session, bass player Noel Redding became dissatisfied with the proceedings and left. Mason then took over on bass. According to Kramer, the final bass part was played by Hendrix himself. Kramer and Chas Chandler mixed the first version of “All Along The Watchtower” on January 26, but Hendrix was quickly dissatisfied with the result and went on re-recording and overdubbing guitar parts during June, July, and August at the Record Plant studio in New York Engineer Tony Bongiovi has described Hendrix becoming increasingly dissatisfied as the song progressed, overdubbing more and more guitar parts, moving the master tape from a four-track to a twelve-track to a sixteen-track machine. Bongiovi recalled, “Recording these new ideas meant he would have to erase something. In the weeks prior to the mixing, we had already recorded a number of overdubs, wiping track after track. (Hendrix) kept saying, ‘I think I hear it a little bit differently.’” The finished version was released on the album Electric Ladyland in September 1968. Hendrix’s obsessive re-working of the song totally transformed it: from a quiet acoustic ballad to a pyrotechnic display of Hendrix’s guitar virtuosity. The single reached number five in the British charts, and number 20 on the Billboard chart.
Dylan has described his reaction to hearing Hendrix's version: "It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn't think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day."
Surfaris – Wipe Out
"Wipe Out" is a song written by Bob Berryhill, Pat Connolly, Jim Fuller and Ron Wilson. The song was first performed and recorded by The Surfaris, who were elevated to international status with the release of the "Surfer Joe" and "Wipe Out" single.
The term 'wipeout' is a fall from a surfboard, especially one that looks painful.
Bob Berryhill, Pat Connolly, Jim Fuller and Ron Wilson wrote the song almost on the spot as a suitable B-side was needed for the intended "Surfer Joe" single. In late 1962, while the band was in Cucamonga's Pal Recording Studio recording the single, one of the band members suggested that a gimmick sound indicating a wipe out off a surfboard be emulated. The suggestion was made that during the introduction before the music starts, a cracking sound, imitating a breaking surfboard, should be made.
Also in the introduction is a manic voice babbling, "ha ha ha ha ha wipe out". The spoken voice at the beginning of the song is the voice of the band's manager of the time, Dale Smallen.
Ron Wilson's energetic drum solo (a speeded up version of his high school marching band's drum cadence) was beaten out on malt-shop tables all over the country which also helped "Wipe Out" to become one of the best-remembered instrumental songs of the period. The afterthought track spent four months on the national Billboard chart in the autumn of 1963, reaching #2 and kept out of the top slot only by Stevie Wonder's Fingertips. Meanwhile, original A-side "Surfer Joe" only attracted airplay in the wake of Wipe Out's success, and peaked at #62 during its six-week run.
Following the death of television personality Morton Downey, Jr., news reports and obituaries incorrectly - credited him as the composer of "Wipe Out".[- As of 2007, Downey's official website continues to make this claim.
Derek and the Dominos – Layla
"Layla" is the title track on the Derek and the Dominos album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, released in December 1970. It is considered one of rock music's definitive love songs, featuring an unmistakable guitar figure, played by Eric Clapton and Duane Allman, as lead-in. Its famously contrasting movements were composed separately by Clapton and Jim Gordon.
Inspired by Clapton's then-unrequited love for Pattie Boyd, the wife of his friend and jam buddy George Harrison, "Layla" was unsuccessful on its initial release. The song has since experienced great critical and popular acclaim. It is often hailed as being among the greatest rock songs of all time. Two versions have achieved chart success, first in 1972 and again twenty years later. In 2004, it was ranked #27 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
In 1966, George Harrison married Pattie Boyd, a model he met during the filming of A Hard Day's Night. During the late 1960s, Clapton and Harrison became firm friends. Clapton contributed guitar work on Harrison's song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on The Beatles' White Album but remained uncredited, and Harrison played guitar pseudonymously on Cream's "Badge" from Goodbye. However, trouble was brewing for Clapton. Between his tenures in Cream and Blind Faith, in his words, "something else quite unexpected was happening: I was falling in love with Pattie."
Boyd divorced Harrison in 1977 and married Clapton in 1979. Harrison was not bitter about the divorce and attended Clapton's wedding party with Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney. During their relationship, Clapton wrote another love ballad for her, "Wonderful Tonight." Clapton and Boyd divorced in 1989 after several years of separation.
The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony
This is a song by British alternative rock band The Verve, and is the lead track on their third album Urban Hymns (1997). It was released on 16 June 1997 as the first single from the album, reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart. The single was released in the United States in early 1998, peaking at number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100. The song also became infamous for the legal controversy surrounding its use of an orchestral sample as its hook.
Rolling Stone ranked "Bitter Sweet Symphony" as the 382nd best song of all time. In May 2007, NME magazine placed "Bitter Sweet Symphony" at number 18 in its list of the "50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever". In September 2007, Q published a list of "Top 10 Tracks" as selected via a poll of 50 songwriters; "Bitter Sweet Symphony" is included.
