vocal pop hits with long, entirely non-vocal instrumental outros

(apologies if there's a thread like this already, search function is not fully functional it seems)

i've been listening to gloria estefan/miami sound machine's "anything for you" quite a bit lately, and it didn't hit me until several listens that the last full minute of its four-minute runtime is entirely instrumental. i almost expect a handful of adlibs or more "don't wanna say goodbye"s but they never come, and it works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uLl8aA95zA

surely there must be many more, right? like, obviously instrumental fades in vocal pop songs are super common but i'm looking for examples where the last quarter or more of the entire recording is totally instrumental. why am i struggling to think of them?

(i'm sure the full-length versions of lots of classic rock and disco cuts would qualify, but i'm thinking of the radio edits here, which in many of those cases cut out the outros significantly or entirely. ironically, tho, the radio/7" edit for "anything for you" is actually 20 seconds longer than the album version.)

'Racing In The Street' comes immediately to mind.. (not sure if it's quite what you're after tho)

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

Bwa-ah-ah-ah

Hazel O'Connor and "Will you?"

The last half is all sax break, in fact it got issued as a single on its own as it was used as a TV theme tune. That's not happened before, or since.

Would Layla count?

yes!

Good first choice, dyl

Do you guys know who wrote that Layla coda?

Jim Gordon

does this count?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KJA4PVZvQk

ehh there's not enough vocals in it I don't think. I imagined a second verse that doesn't exist

Jim Gordon

Hotel California

roxy music - more than this

Beatles, "Strawberry Fields Forever"

(unless you count John saying "I buried Paul")

oh wow can't believe i didn't think of "more than this" or "hotel california" immediately!

good suggestions everyone

Faith No More - "Epic"

another one i should have thought of instantly but didn't: massive attack "unfinished sympathy"

(the "hey hey hey" vocal sample does recur throughout but i'll count it anyway lol)

valerie dore - the night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPcb_JD6k-0

i'd never heard that before, like it a lot

steely dan - gaucho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FU5TrjqEIE

freur - doot doot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1OPsG1PY-I

I've never liked the song so I'm not gonna listen to it to confirm, but I think Robert Plant checks out about halfway through "Fool In The Rain" and the band does some kinda salsa-like jam for the rest of it...

purple rain

so many prince songs

Rolling Stones -Can't You hear me knocking

Thunder Road

Rolling Stones -Can't You hear me knocking

Isley Bros - Who's That Lady

Yes! Now gone from Spotify except for version with Ron Burgundy spoken intro.

The Allman Bros - Ramblin' Man

reminded by the Talking Heads poll - Burning Down the House!

purple rain

― flappy bird, Saturday, April 1, 2017 6:59 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

uh he does a pretty famous "hoooooo ohhh oooooh oooooh" falsetto towards the end

that's not the end of the song. the last minute of the song is an instrumental coda in an entirely different key - violins mixed with some crowd noise.

ahh, right. i always forget about that part

it's the last minute of the song but the whole song is 8 minutes long so it's not that big a part imo

a semi-recent example that i really loved: the joy formidable "whirring"

the instrumental ending was about 40% of the total runtime on the radio edit, and iirc on the album version it's several minutes longer than that even

(a similar situation for a more recent song, but w/ the instrumental part not being as long: the brothers osborne "stay a little longer")

now that i'm thinking of radio edits and purple rain i have to say i'm not sure if i ever even heard the single edit to "purple rain", which is supposedly about 4 minutes long. i assume it's basically forgotten? even the classic hits stations that play the single edit of "when doves cry" will play the album version of "purple rain" around here

Galaxie 500's "Fourth of July" was arguably a 'hit' at some level. Sort of. 5:36 long; second and final chorus finishes at 2:15. There are some later wordless vocalisations ("na na na na na na naaaaaah" etc), but even those cease by 3:50.

Gee, never heard "Whirring" before. Now that's a loooooong outro.

I'd say George Michael's "Careless Whisper" fits in spirit. It doesn't quite fulfil the 25% condition though.

This one from the early 1970s does: The Buoys "Give Up Your Guns" (US band, hit in mainland Europe - or possibly just in the Netherlands - only).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j-HMU0hoNM

The Wedding Present "Interstate 5" has a very long instrumental at the end. I believe it was a single, maybe not a "hit."

Sultans of Swing

"Baba O'Riley," but it wasn't a single/wasn't a hit (though it's one of their top 5 iTunes songs, I think).

seems crazy in retrospect that wasn't a single. what was the single for who's next? won't get fooled again?

Baba was a single, but released after the album came out.

The lead single was Won't Get Fooled Again followed by Behind Blue Eyes

Yeah, "Baba" was released as a single in Australia and Holland and a few other countries, but not the US or UK.

The single edit of WGFA is really disorienting. It doesn't work edited down to three minutes or whatever.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - 'Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)'

Gary Numan - 'Cars'

The Wedding Present has loads of these, "Flying Saucer", "Kennedy", etc

Joy Division – "Atmosphere"

Faith No More's "Epic" was a great call here.

Does New Order's "Blue Monday" count? Or is it too dance-based.. I think the 7-minute 1983 version charted and there's about 3 minutes of instrumental outro.

both those war on drugs songs, Under The Pressure and An Ocean Between The Waves

also Ride - Vapour Trail has that lovely cello outro

"No More Lonely Nights" has a pretty long outro incl. an extremely long fadeout.

pretty loose definition of "pop hits" in this thread

Yeah, I came rushing on here with "The Riverbed" and then went "oh yeah, pop hits; sorry" and moved on

oh! "Chump" by Green Day. wasn't a single but they played it at every show from like 93-98

Gary Numan - 'Cars'

This was the first one to come instantly to mind - I'd say the coda is like 40% of the song.

And I don't think "Layla" should count, since the single was faded before the coda even started

"Theme From Shaft" probably counts, except I guess it's mostly instrumental with a short, but very famous vocal part.

Stevie's "I Wish" is an awesome example--I'll slap any DJ who cuts the song off before the horn outro (though most DJs def don't play the outro for the full minute or so it takes on the record).

roxy music - more than this

― clouds, Saturday, April 1, 2017 8:07 AM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Definitely the best example here so far. The guitar licks near the end are amazing.

"Chump" by Green Day.

Not a charting hit, but I first heard the song played live on 120 Minutes so imo this should count.

ZZ Top - La Grange. Vocals only in the first third of the song.

Stranger In Moscow

Journey - Stone in Love goes from a catchy AOR to a sort pop-prog guitar solo outro (there are some light vox so it's cheating a bit but i still think it fits)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFqXFE8OSG4

oh! "Chump" by Green Day. wasn't a single but they played it at every show from like 93-98

― flappy bird, Wednesday, April 5, 2017 6:07 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not a hit, doesn't count.

This was the first one to come instantly to mind - I'd say the coda is like 40% of the song.

Yup, which is quite something given that the song only goes on for three and a half minutes!

xp

Gary Numan - 'Cars'

This was the first one to come instantly to mind - I'd say the coda is like 40% of the song.

it's more like 60%... numan stops singing before 1:30 and the song is about 3:50 long.

Manic Street Preachers - You Love Us

tom tom club "genius of love" (ends with about 70 instrumental seconds)

("wordy rappinghood" almost ends with two-plus instrumental minutes but they sneak the vocals back in right at the end)

Madonna's "Don't Tell Me" has a good 90 seconds of strings, keyboards and (very) processed vocoder at the end, including 30 seconds of fading coda. I reckon that counts.

Is there a complementary thread for songs with long intros relative to the song as a whole? I was thinking of another Gary Numan song, "Complex", which is only three minutes long half of which is intro.

For the long intro thread: Stone Roses' "Love Spreads." Vocals start about 1:15 into a 5:45 song.