Prolific bands/artists with one super special SONG that will always mean the world to you but you don't really care for the rest of their relatively sizeable discography

I'm sure Negativland have done some great stuff, which may turn my head one day. Until that day comes, they'll always have this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY0ASHW3604

So many...I'll make a list when I'm home later.

this is an interesting concept to me. feel like i'm such a cynical nerd that any time i heard a song i loved that much, i sought out more by the band and (in this context) was inevitably disappointed. subsequently i probably wright them off out of bitterness and snobbery.

because right now i can't think of a single one.

wright=wrote

I wouldn't say it means the world to me, exactly, but the thing that came to mind straight away was Bruce Springsteen "Atlantic City".

James Taylor - Fire and Rain

Jive Talkin' by the Bee Gees

Ghost - Square Hammer.

That song makes me feel like I'm 13 and having the best week of my life at summer camp. But everything else I've heard by them sounds like The Darkness.

My view would be kind of the opposite: Ghost are often brilliant but that single sounded like reheated leftovers. Hard for me to imagine preferring that to one of the bangers off their debut.

Hope to list more, but for now: "Trouble Every Day" by the Mothers of Invention and "Panic" by the Smiths. There are a few other songs by each I like, but mostly indifferent to both. Also thought of the Jam's "That's Entertainment"...but it comes up a bit short of meaning the world to me (I like it a lot).

I could see "Fire and Rain" as a perfect choice for this thread for a lot people, but there are two songs on Taylor's Apple debut I really love.

Perfect Blue Buildings by Counting Crows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhKeY78LL-8

Nothing else I’ve heard measures up tbh

ian you reminded me of one!!

"get thy bearings" by donovan is alltimer for me. everything else though? meh. "wear your love like heaven" was cool and some of the early coffee shop stuff has a distinct charm, but i honestly don't need any of it. "get thy bearings" is serious life music though.

xpost clemenza— "trouble every day" is a fine choice! i do like that one. not sure if it's world-defining though. hmm...

Nothing else I’ve heard measures up tbh

you know what they say about the size of an artist's discography ;)

This is a list I've typed out several times. All of these are songs I either really like or love from for me generally uninteresting artists.

Mike & The Mechanics - Over My Shoulder
Texas - Inner Smile
Steve Miller Band - Macho City
Eagles - Journey of the Sorcerer
Bon Jovi - Keep the Faith
Bros - When Will I Be Famous?
Chris De Burgh - A Spaceman Came Travelling
Jennifer Lopez - Get Right
Atomic Kitten - Whole Again
Starsailor - Alcoholic
Curiosity Killed the Cat - Down to Earth
Sebadoh - The Freed Pig
Dannii Minogue - Who Do You Love Now? (Stringer) (with Riva)
Nik Kershaw - Sometimes (with Les Rythmes Digitales)
Interpol - Untitled
of Montreal - The Past Is a Grotesque Animal

(a few there with *not* sizeable discographies but still)

imo it's fine for this to be 'artists with one amazing track that dwarfs everything else they've done', even if that's just an album or two and even if most of it's pretty good.

Nik Kershaw - Sometimes (with Les Rythmes Digitales)

this however is cheating unless you also don't like anything else JLC has done nearly as much.

Pastor Troy - "Saddam"

this however is cheating unless you also don't like anything else JLC has done nearly as much.

Fair, fair. It's just it's the only Nik Kershaw song I ever listen to that wasn't written for someone else to sing.

"Get Well Soon" by Reggie and the Full Effect is another 1 amazing tune song I love, but never liked really anything else I heard by them.

Tune also has a cool video with the Loch Ness monster drinking off a bad breakup and losing his liquid lunch in the alley behind a bar. That's pretty classic too.

The Earth Dies Screaming-UB40

I'm actually in awe of "Trouble Every Day," Austin--especially this video you can see on YouTube of that + Watts Riot footage.

lots of folky things from my childhood:
Kenny Loggins, House at Pooh Corner
James Taylor, Fire and Rain
Gordon Lightfoot, Sundown

I'm afraid Kelly Watch the Stars is one of these

Oh yeah, I second Interpol - "Untitled," never heard anything else from them that hits me like that one.

Supergrass are cool. In It For The Money is a really good album. But honestly, if the only thing Gaz Coombes gave the world was its title track I'd be just as grateful to the fella. That song is absolutely fundamental for me where everything they did just isn't quite. Okay maybe the Hollow Little Reign piano hook too. But not really

foreigner - “waiting for a girl like you”

Manic Street Preachers - "Design For Life"

Pet Shop Boys - "Left to My Own Devices"

Love this and will listen to it multiple times on repeat but I am, at best, indifferent to everything else by them.

Bettie Serveert, “Ray Ray Rain.”

I think “Tomboy” and maybe a total of 3-5 other songs on their first two records aren’t bad, but “Ray Ray Rain” is just absurdly beyond anything else I’ve heard from them. It’s not that their other songs are awful or even sub-par; it’s that “Ray Ray Rain” is that great.

Negativland might work for me too, but with Time Zones as the, er, "timeless classic", as one of the Youtube comments puts it.

Jens Lekman's "Maples Leaves" (any of the '00s versions, eg. this ) also comes pretty close for me.

Pet Shop Boys - "Left to My Own Devices"

Love this and will listen to it multiple times on repeat but I am, at best, indifferent to everything else by them.

― Kim Kimberly, Wednesday, 14 June 2023 23:17 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

It's probably my PSB OPO (give or take the extended Always On My Mind), but I'd still say large parts of the rest of their discography (especially all of Introspective) are extremely dear to me as well

Barbra Streisand, "Evergreen", though I'm not familiar with almost any of the rest of her discography and haven't been curious.

For Barbra, I'll take "Stoney End," thank you.

Plug In Baby is one of my favourite rock songs of the 21st century but the rest of Muse's discography just doesn't stick with me

For Barbra, I'll take "Stoney End," thank you.

Status Quo - You're Just What I Was Looking For Today

A Goffin/King composition also recorded by the Everly Bros whose version wasn't released until years later afaik. It's an outlier track on their second album, which itself is an outlier in their buttrockin' catalog being mostly chamber pop in the style of the Bee Gees. With dayglo fuzz guitars melting in the sun it's almost like a precursor to 'All Apologies'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuI9SpbJrgU

Feelin' Alright by Joe Cocker

John Cage, 4'33"

Regina Spektor, “Fidelity”

realiti (demo)

i wouldn't say that it will always mean the world to me but i very much enjoy 'how you remind me' by nickelback and i don't care who knows it

also the middle by jimmy eat world

I guess I’ll be dragged, but “What a Fool Believes”.

The Black Crowes and really just this one performance of the song -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbO5SnpXZjk

a couple of the bands already mentioned in this revive kind of fit this for me -

Supergrass - Caught By The Fuzz - there are a few other songs I like but this one I've always loved, and is the only song of theirs I actually listen to on any regular basis, probably somewhat context-related because it came out when I was 18 and shortly after it was released I saw them at my 2nd ever proper (non-pub) gig (which tbf was pretty good iirc apart from Alright which I hated)

Bettie Serveert - I'll Keep It With Mine - cheating maybe since it's a cover but I love this version. but again I do like a few other songs by them, just not enough to consider myself a "fan"

Not exactly a sizable discography (yet), but everything I've heard from Greta Van Fleet is pure sludge except for "Highway Tune", which I love.

I guess I’ll be dragged, but “What a Fool Believes”.

Dragged for liking the song? It's a stone classic. Just not the only one in the Doobies repertoire, imho.

Yes, if anybody is to be dragged it's gonna be me. Go on, kick this ass!

Dinosaur Jr - Start Choppin’
this song truly sends me in a way not much else of their does. i do like them, but nothing to the level of this track for me

Michael Penn - No Myth
I own a few of his records (not that he’s prolific unless you count film scores) but my god this song is the mountaintop for me. So gorgeous.