Hit songs with no or minimal production

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Hmmm.. "Candle In The Wind" to thread, I guess? ;)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 15 October 2004 13:37 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Universal" Small Faces

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 15 October 2004 13:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Flat Beat

F.U.R.B.

Mad World

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Friday, 15 October 2004 13:41 (twenty-one years ago)

toxic

― peter smith (plsmith), Friday, 15 October 2004 13:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Eh?

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 15 October 2004 13:57 (twenty-one years ago)

all the libertines singles...

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:07 (twenty-one years ago)

White Town - "Your Woman"

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 15 October 2004 14:12 (twenty-one years ago)

aloso VU's white light white heat album

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:14 (twenty-one years ago)

That was neither a hit nor a song!

― pedantic asshole (nickalicious), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Very minimal production (thanks Rick Rubin):

Jay-Z "99 Problems"
JOhnny Cash "Hurt"

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:17 (twenty-one years ago)

ok, well white light white heat the song, then ! (quite famous some years later with live covers by bowie for instance).

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:19 (twenty-one years ago)

minimalist production is very different from no prodution.

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Plastic Ono Band - "Give Peace A Chance"

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 15 October 2004 14:22 (twenty-one years ago)

the title of the thread is "with no or minimal prod", yes ?

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:22 (twenty-one years ago)

give peace is even a live recording, isn't it ?
another idea then, are there hit songs that were live recordings ? (besides give peace, that is)

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Shangri-Las "Remember (Walking in the Sand)"

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, but I'd call the production on "99 Problems" 'minimalist' rather than 'minimal'. I'm sure Rubin still sweated loads to get all the sounds exactly right. 'Minimal' production to me suggests just sticking a few microphones in a room and letting the band do their thing, ala "In Utero".

xxpost

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Hit singles recorded live:

Specials - Too Much Too Young
Elvis Presley - American Trilogy
Opus - Live Is Life
Motorhead - Motorhead
Johnny Otis Show - Ma He's Making Eyes At Me
Lonnie Donegan - Gamblin' Man
Little Stevie Wonder - Fingertips Part 2

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 15 October 2004 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

just sticking a few microphones in a room and letting the band do their thing, ala "In Utero".

that's an extreme underestimation of what steve albini does. he's one of the most fastidious engineers in rock. i'd say in utero's production is a lot like rick rubin's "99 problems" production in that sense.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I don't really know what I'm talking about. I just wanted to play.

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

hum....wouldn't have said that 99 problems had no or minimal prod...

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:30 (twenty-one years ago)

"peu importe de gagner, l'important est de participer" pierre de coubertin !

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

more live hits:

cheap trick, "i want you to want me"
peter frampton, "show me the way" and others
billy joel, "she's got a way"

there are LOTS of these.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

also live hit : no woman no cry - marley (i don't even remember hearing a studio version of that song.... which i hate...).

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I've heard a studio version. It's very different.

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:33 (twenty-one years ago)

but it seems there are much less live hits nowadays, yes ? or am i mistaken ?

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:33 (twenty-one years ago)

really ? how different ?

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Pearl Jam's Binaural album was recorded live in studio with two microphones (hence the title). I can't claim to be able to recall any 'hits' off of that one though.

x-post no I think you're right about that Alex

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:35 (twenty-one years ago)

GRINDIN'

― Daniel Mitha (ykeo), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:35 (twenty-one years ago)

The studio version of No Woman No Cry is faster a lot rootsier as I remember. It even has a skankin' guitar line.

Again, I'd call the production on Grindin' minimalist rather than minimal.

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:37 (twenty-one years ago)

as for minimal production, i'm still amazed by how "unproduced" the last libertines album is. to me, it's the least produced hit album/songs i've heard in quite a while.

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:38 (twenty-one years ago)

all the white stripes and strokes hits

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:40 (twenty-one years ago)

wooden : ok, thanx... may not give it a listen right now but that's worth knowing for my general culture !
so any idea as to why there are less/no live hits nowadays ?

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Bob Dylan's first few don't have hardly any production, do they?

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Friday, 15 October 2004 15:23 (twenty-one years ago)

dylan's first few albums didn't have hardly any hits either. he didn't crack the US pop chart till he started rocking.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 15 October 2004 15:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Also live: Chuck Berry - My Dingaling. Any production gloss on this one would be merely gilding the, um, lilly.

― briania (briania), Friday, 15 October 2004 15:26 (twenty-one years ago)

right. i think almost all his albums from the 60's have a very minimal prod (if not none).
i'm wondering if the first macca solo couldn't fit in here too...

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 15:27 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't agree with the no hits on the first dylan albums : blowin in the wind was on his second... and although it may have not charted then, it was definitely a "hit" in the sense of its popular impact. (back to the question of the definition of what a hit is on the song with no or minimal percussion thread)

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

"blowing in the wind" had huge popular impact -- thanks in no small part to a much more produced cover version by peter paul & mary.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 15 October 2004 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

as for dylan's "blowing in the wind," turn on classic rock radio or oldies radio or any format of your choice, and you won't find it there. go back in time and you still won't find it.

there are lots of important, influential, impactful, blah blah blah, songs out there with minimal or no production, like "blowing in the wind," which was a major cultural moment almost all by itself. but it wasn't a pop hit. and what's interesting to me about such a song becoming a "hit" is how different it automatically sounds against the glossily produced songs it needs to stand up against on radio and tv, how it defies the conventions of the arena that it ends up in. dylan's "wind," by contrast, was produced exactly within the conventions of the folk/protest genre in which it was created and in which it has always lived.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 15 October 2004 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

although it may not be played much on radio i'm pretty sure most of the people would cite it amongst a few others when asked to name dylan's songs they know, so i think it can be considered as a hit (as long as we haven't defined exactly what we consider a hit). if not, i think many songs mentioned here aren't either...

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

one or two of the Nirvana Unplugged tunes were sorta hits

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Friday, 15 October 2004 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

(x-post)
true, but many, or most, of those people might well not know it if peter paul & mary hadn't glossed it up and turned it into a hit. with production and stuff.

i agree with you that lots of songs mentioned here weren't hits.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 15 October 2004 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

(x-post)
maybe but the thing is i think there are much more people who know the song sung by dylan than people who even know peter paul&mary's version (i don't know theirs !).
and for the definition of what is a hit i think there should be an obligation to define precisely all the words and notions used in a thread (or not).

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

there should be an obligation to define precisely all the words and notions used in a thread

good luck!

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 15 October 2004 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, lack of intellectual "rigueur" in the kids nowadays !

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

splitting hairs aside...

Timmy Thomas "Why Can't We Live Together?" owns the thread.

― Beta (abeta), Friday, 15 October 2004 16:17 (twenty-one years ago)

There is no such thing as 'a record with no production'. Just because a record sounds 'natural' doesn't mean it is. It's also not any more 'natural' (or any less of a 'production') to put a live performance on a record, or just feature an acoustic instrument. In fact, you could argue that since an acoustic instrument goes analog-to-digital whereas an electronic instrument usually stays entirely in the digital realm, there's less 'production' on an electronic record than an acoustic one. The signal goes through fewer transformations.

I suppose there are quantitative ways you could use to measure how 'produced' a record is: count the number of transformations the signal goes through (D-A, A-D, effects units etc), count the number of edits made on the record... But nobody's defined what counts as a 'transformation' or what counts as an 'edit'. 'Candle in the Wind' is 'edited' first at the writing stage. When it comes to be recorded there are no doubt lots of takes, and for all we know the highlights of each of them might have been sliced seamlessly. Elton's voice is probably going through a lot of effects to, and just because they're effects designed to make it sound like he's singing in a 'natural' space, it doesn't mean it's any less of a 'production' to situate his voice in those artificial electronic spaces.

― Momus (Momus), Friday, 15 October 2004 16:19 (twenty-one years ago)

there you go, let's define, people !

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 15 October 2004 16:23 (twenty-one years ago)

agreed with momus 99 percent. but are you saying there's no difference between, say, bruce springsteen's nebraska -- acoustic indstruments and voice recorded quickly at home on a four-track, with few obvious edits or effects -- and the flaming lips' last few albums?

i don't think any recording is truly natural -- putting it on tape or cd automatically denaturalizes it -- but certainly there's an aesthetic difference between the production style of those two examples, one more minimal, one less minimal. no?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 15 October 2004 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Beck: "Loser"

― Anonymous Coward, Friday, 15 October 2004 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Agreed with Beta on Timmy Thomas.

Also, Timmy-T, "One More Try" (does anyone else even remember this? it was a No. 1 hit, unless I've imagined it)

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 15 October 2004 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Would the Streets fit in here?

If I was being mean about the production on Streets records I could say: just press the demo button on an expensive modern keyboard workstation (one of the 'dance music' oriented ones) and verbally trundle through a crappy shure mic about E and fish & chips etc:

― mzui, Friday, 15 October 2004 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

mzui, that's not mean. that sounds like a great record, even better than either of the ones the streets has actually made!

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 15 October 2004 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

biz markie - "just a friend"

― whenuweremine (whenuweremine), Friday, 15 October 2004 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

anything by the Smiths pre-Meat Is Murder?

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 15 October 2004 18:18 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, I suppose virtually any pre-1965 hit not produced by Phil Spector fits in here to some extent.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 15 October 2004 21:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Dylan in the Billboard album chart pre-'65:

'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan' No. 22
'The Times They Are A-Changin'' No. 20
'Another Side of Bob Dylan' No. 43

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 15 October 2004 23:18 (twenty-one years ago)

"A New England" Billy Bragg

OK, not a hit? substitute the wonderful "Levi Stubbs Tears" or "Between the wars"

And lock thread.

― mark grout (mark grout), Saturday, 16 October 2004 06:32 (twenty-one years ago)

The Flying Pickets' "Only You", perhaps? Although Momus obv correct re voice production etc.

― OleM (OleM), Saturday, 16 October 2004 12:25 (twenty-one years ago)

"Tom's Diner" ?? Or was it only a hit after the super-dance remix. The orig was all accapella..., thereby giving it the simplest production of all!

― pher (pher), Saturday, 16 October 2004 14:45 (twenty-one years ago)

"Only You" has the vocals carefully scattered around in wide stereo. So, no, that is definitely a heavily produced record.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 16 October 2004 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

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