Songs that neglect their best bits

I was listening to Bing’s “Don’t Fence Me In” and there’s a terrific drum fill about halfway through that just appears and disappears in seconds, and though I do love that song, I always wish had more of that driving drum section

So I was thinking about songs that neglect or underplay their best bits (“best” and “neglect” are very subjective obviously) - I also thought of Flying Burrito’s “Burrito #2” which has that amazing instrumental break between the chorus and verse, I could listen to it on a infinite loop - and that gets ignored in all the cover versions.

Or even Pet Shop Boys “It’s Not a Crime”, which is just an endless repeat of the amazing chorus, but somehow still doesn’t have enough of that chorus - I want it to keep going forever and forget the verse

The bit after 1:08 and “Jesus Christ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su3a6SYmWtM

After 1:27ish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXkE7f0AMiA

Throughout the song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7mVMjzwcv4

REM’s Diminished - the incredible “sing along…” section clearly needs to get repeated ad infinitum at the end, but instead gets dropped. And the verse melody is annoying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq4lWHbgXmE

Ooh, excellent query.

There's a great sub-category of this where a song starts doing its most awesome thing over the goddam FADE-OUT:

The Band's When You Awake -- that "and if I knew it would do any good" melody and progression.

Neil's Goin' Back -- the melody that he and Nicolette lean into, that gorgeous note-travelling "aaaaaaaa"

Fleetwood Mac's Brown Eyes -- Peter Green solo

There's a great sub-category of this where a song starts doing its most awesome thing over the goddam FADE-OUT:

Harmonia, "Kekse"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0MovqRg0bI

... well not exactly the fade out, it starts around 4:08.

Songs in which the best and last vocal flourishes/ad libs potentially get lost in the fade!

Particularly in the days of top 40 radio when I wanted to tape a song onto a boom box but the fuckin dj would come in with "That's Falco on WPRX Power 105!"

Bits I remember getting ruined in this way include

Cyndi Lauper "All Through the Night" the oooooooohs over the plinky arpeggios 3:30 to 4:30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZONKoKIQ9RY

And Don't Dream at 3:38

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9gKyRmic20

I love a song that reaches a crescendo, only to cut the crescendo short. Two that come to mind are 'Caught by the River' by Doves and 'Run Christian, Run' by SFA. I'm hoping there are versions out there that continue over the cliff into the sea air.

The little moog synth section in Abba's 'Under Attack" is all too short

The break from “too shy”

the whistling bit from built to spill’s “broken chairs”

In Irene Cara's "Fame" there's an oscillating synth part that goes throughout the song but it's more or less buried in other elements of the mix. Then right before the end of the song they start to fade the vocal and for a brief moment you get an idea of how cool that oscillating synth would sound just left alone with that groove, sans vocals. I wish they had let it go like that for a few bars, it would've been a slick coda.

This isn't exactly neglect, because the bit itself is long enough, but it's always kind of annoyed me that the incredibly beautiful instrumental bridge in "Monkey Man" by the Stones goes straight into Jagger somehow retching the words "I'm a monkey."

This is a great thread idea, and I can't yet think of an example myself, but without wishing to be impertinent:

REM’s Diminished - the incredible “sing along…” section clearly needs to get repeated ad infinitum at the end

Then you end up with a pile of mush like "I'll Take the Rain".

Neil's Goin' Back -- the melody that he and Nicolette lean into, that gorgeous note-travelling "aaaaaaaa"

This is beautiful, but it's good they save it to the end; it would leave the song way unbalanced if they did it in every chorus.

The little moog synth section in Abba's 'Under Attack" is all too short

Nice bit, but any longer and listeners might be wondering when Keith Emerson joined the group.

Orbital - Out There Somewhere
I mean, the whole thing is good, but of all its 24-minutes the part around 6 minutes in where it goes into hyperdrive for like 20 seconds and there's that pitch-manipulated vocal is just unparalleled and the track never quite reaches those heights again

a good example is that little instrumental break from Andrea True Connection's "More, More, More" which became the entire basis of "Steal My Sunshine"

oh yeah. also see every song Daft Punk ever sampled. they had a knack for spotting these moments

yeah. another good example of that is the intro of Judy Clay and William Bell's "Private Number" which of course was put to excellent use by Rappin 4 Tay

one more that's always fascinated me is The Charmels' "As Long As I've Got You" -- like everybody else I was familiar with the Wu Tang sample first. But it's kind of awesome and beguiling that something so amazing could just appear in the first few seconds of a song, never to return

^ i always think of both of these tunes together, not only because their intros became iconic samples, but because both intros have a moody, minor-key feel before the song detours into a major key with a very different vibe

ditto with George Dukes "I Love You More" and "Digital Love"

This is beautiful, but it's good they save it to the end; it would leave the song way unbalanced if they did it in every chorus.

This is true.

Vampire Weekend “Diane Young” has this carnival organ sound that shows up for one measure of the middle eight, lasts about 5 seconds, I freaking love it. Not sure where I’d put more of it though. It’s at around 1:32. The whole album is full of little things like that that could fit in this thread imo

yeah one of the great things about hip-hop is how it takes these tiny memorable moments, stretches them out, and creates a new universe for them

exactly, another great example is Nine's "Whutcha Want?" sampling the first few seconds of "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay", completely recontextualizes it into something big and dramatic

There's a great sub-category of this where a song starts doing its most awesome thing over the goddam FADE-OUT

Yeah, "Owner of a Lonely Heart" is to me the most exasperating example. About twenty seconds before the end, as the fade begins, there's a great key change and a really lovely new vocal harmony part. I'm always like, "Wait, don't go! I could listen to at least another minute of this."

Father O'Blivion by Zappa has that too, that "good morning your highness" bit at the end is incredibly pretty, especially for Zappa, and yet it only *starts* when the song is fading out

The last part of "Hey Joe" as it fades!

The fade out of Tracy Jacks by Blur sounds like the orchestra is going into a completely different song that we'll never hear

You Little Fool by Elvis Costello, the last 15 seconds of OOOHHs and AHHHS

A fave neglected bit: "When you're high/you never ever want to come down." (though the fact that it's over too soon is the point).

Speaking of high, the peak that the Diana Ross "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" builds to actually lasts half the song (at least in the 6-min version) but it's never long enough for me.

There's a *second* different guitar solo crammed into the last few seconds of "Hold Me" that I wish was longer.

My favorite most frustrating example is "Repeater": all that stop-and-start tension building throughout the song, then at the 2:32 mark, all hell breaks loose for a cathartic *15 seconds* ("1-2-3-GO!") and then it's over.

Sly & The Family Stone's Family Affair is the first one that comes to mind. It ends way too quickly as it sounds like it's about to go off in a really cool direction as it fades out.

For me it's Autechre's Lentic Catachresis and Reniform Puls (album closers for Confield and Draft 7:30 respectively). Both tracks start brilliantly but quickly dispose of their foundations as a tornado of chaos takes over, engulfing the original structures in a sea of sonics. I find the former conceptually interesting, but the latter feels like a repeat, and the intro for Reniform Puls is far more beautiful with its dissolution far less interesting than Lentic's. I think both of them would benefit from building on the early parts of the tracks more before the chaos, but that's me. I know this is probably a hugely controversial take amongst the Autechre cognoscenti here.

"Hello it's Me" by Todd Rundgren is all about waiting for the "think of me" coda for me.