Longest Time Taken to Reach the Vocal, Already

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I heard Europe's "The Final Countdown" at the end of the final episode of the Billboard Radio Countdown online show (r.i.p.) and realized that the first vocal doesn't occur until the 1:27 mark of the song. Has any other Top Ten hit taken longer to get to a refrain? (And a true refrain, i.e., repeated.) Just idly wondering.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 9 January 2006 06:26 (twenty years ago)

"Papa Was a Rolling Stone" takes almost two minutes to reach the vocals. Sorta unparalleled in a pop song, I think.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 9 January 2006 07:51 (twenty years ago)

"first vocal" or "first refrain?"

― Huh?, Monday, 9 January 2006 07:51 (twenty years ago)

By contrast, I would guess that Gary Numan's "Cars" has a longer POST-vocal coda than any other Top 20 hit. It's about 4 minutes long, and there are no vocals at all in the final 2/3 of the record.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 9 January 2006 08:26 (twenty years ago)

"Green Onions" takes the whole song to not get to vocals.

― ohmyface (Matt Chesnut), Monday, 9 January 2006 08:26 (twenty years ago)

"Atomic" has a pretty long intro, as I recall.

― Excelsior Syndrum (noodle vague), Monday, 9 January 2006 08:30 (twenty years ago)

Falco, "Rock Me Amadeus"?

(depending on the mix, and I can't remember which was which right now)

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Monday, 9 January 2006 08:31 (twenty years ago)

Prodigy, "Firestarter"?

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Monday, 9 January 2006 08:35 (twenty years ago)

LCD Soundsystem - Beat Connection

― Robin Goad (rgoad), Monday, 9 January 2006 08:36 (twenty years ago)

"Born Slippy" has a pretty long intro too, though the single edit may shorten it down a bit.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 9 January 2006 08:39 (twenty years ago)

Sébastien Tellier "La ritournelle"

― snowballing (snowballing), Monday, 9 January 2006 09:16 (twenty years ago)

The Cure has some pretty long ones.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 9 January 2006 09:24 (twenty years ago)

Very long intro to JD's Dead Souls, half the track is over before the vocal comes in, but boy when it does....

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Monday, 9 January 2006 11:16 (twenty years ago)

Elton John, "Song for Guy"

I have actually seen this on Karaoke lists. What do they do? Stand there with the microphone for 3.5 minutes until they get to sing "Life.. isn't everything" for 30 secs?

Also,

Wah Heat : Seven Thousand Names of Wah

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 9 January 2006 11:50 (twenty years ago)

Pink Floyd- Shine on You Crazy Diamond

It's like..11 minutes until two lines are said!

― Harrison Barr (Petar), Monday, 9 January 2006 12:16 (twenty years ago)

Are these all really top ten hits?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 9 January 2006 12:17 (twenty years ago)

Since when has reading the question ever stopped anybody posting, ever?

― Excelsior Syndrum (noodle vague), Monday, 9 January 2006 12:52 (twenty years ago)

Queen 'Innuendo' - maybe a minute or so before Mercury's "oo-ooh oo-ooh"?

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Monday, 9 January 2006 13:03 (twenty years ago)

John Mellencamp's "Ain't Even Done With the Night" has a fairly long intro before the first verse.

― Eppy (Eppy), Monday, 9 January 2006 14:00 (twenty years ago)

Was about to mention "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" but it is already done.

Also takes quite some time for the vocals to start in "Close To The Edge" by Yes, but not quite as long as on "Shine On...."

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 9 January 2006 14:20 (twenty years ago)

Speaking of Johnny Cougar, "I Need a Lover" has an insanely long (and completely awesome) intro. I'm about 99% sure it wasn't a top ten though. Possibly Benatar's truncated version did, though?

― Will (will), Monday, 9 January 2006 14:24 (twenty years ago)

"Lust for Life" takes a while.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 9 January 2006 14:27 (twenty years ago)

Surely, "Fascination Street"?

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 9 January 2006 14:33 (twenty years ago)

"Sound & Vision" was a top ten hit - the vocal doesn't come in until the song is about two-thirds through.

― jz, Monday, 9 January 2006 14:38 (twenty years ago)

Fela to thread.

― mike a, Monday, 9 January 2006 14:40 (twenty years ago)

(oh, you said "top 10 hit" - well, maybe Fela had hits in Africa)

― mike a, Monday, 9 January 2006 14:41 (twenty years ago)

Mahler's "Symphony of a Fucking Thousand". Maybe it was released as a single and went top 10 somewhere.

― Excelsior Syndrum (noodle vague), Monday, 9 January 2006 14:43 (twenty years ago)

Which Boston song is it that takes about 4 minutes to get to the vocals? "Long Time"? And was that intentionally self-referential?

― erklie, Monday, 9 January 2006 15:39 (twenty years ago)

The intro has a separate title, though -- "Foreplay/Long Time." Still, it's the same track.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 9 January 2006 15:44 (twenty years ago)

ah, yep you're right.

― erklie, Monday, 9 January 2006 15:47 (twenty years ago)

But "Foreplay" fits the meta bill too! Oh man my think piece on this is gonna rock.

― erklie, Monday, 9 January 2006 15:48 (twenty years ago)

none of these songs ("Crazy Diamond," "Long Time," "Lust for Life") were actual pop hits, though, rather retroactive classic rock favs. In the US anyway.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 9 January 2006 15:49 (twenty years ago)

The bulk of Disintegration, really, was insane with this -- but the songs from it that made the charts were pretty radically reduced single versions.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 9 January 2006 17:01 (twenty years ago)

Haha the bulk of almost every Cure album after the first one is insane like this! I mean, off the top of my head you've got:

A Forest
Play For Today
At Night
In Your House
Seventeen Seconds
Primary
Other Voices
All Cats Are Grey
The Funeral Party
The Drowning Man
Faith
A Short Term Effect
The Figurehead
Cold
Pornography
The Top
The Empty World
Sinking
Six Different Ways
Push
The Kiss
Torture
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
How Beautiful You Are...
The Snakepit
Hey You!!!
One More Time
Like Cockatoos
Icing Sugar
Shiver And Shake
A Thousand Hours
Plainsong
Pictures Of You
Closedown
Last Dance
Fascination Street
Prayers For Rain
The Same Deep Water As You
Homesick
... and now I'm bored with listing Cure songs, but anyway!

― Dan (And So On) Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 9 January 2006 17:15 (twenty years ago)

Teen Age Riot by Sonic Youth arses around for just over two minutes until, simultaneously, the vocal drops and, according to some, grunge is invented. Kim Gordon mutters "you're it" and "spirit of desire" a couple of times during the arsing, but that doesn't count.

― Mike W (caek), Monday, 9 January 2006 17:20 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, definitely -- but Disintegration kinda pushed it, though, right? Like the ridiculous tension-building of Plainsong? Or maybe the issue is just the sound of that record, where (like "The Funeral Party," too) the intros repeat in slow neat blocks, very clean, so that you find yourself waiting for the voice in a way you don't quite as much with, say, "A Forest." (Because like at the beginning of "A Forest" there are a bunch of six-string bass fills and runs moving everything around.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 9 January 2006 17:22 (twenty years ago)

breaking into heaven - Stone roses.

― danny boy, Monday, 9 January 2006 17:26 (twenty years ago)

Overall I think that Faith, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and Disintegration are all heavily influenced by that type of songwriting; the most egregious example might be "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep" because of the combination of slow tempo and strict repetition of verse/bridge create this entirely hypnotic effect.

I used to joke that you could write a reasonable Cure pastiche by writing a verse and a chorus and then playing through the instrumentation for it twice before actually doing any singing.

― Dan ("Plainsong" Is A Good Example, Too) Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 9 January 2006 17:31 (twenty years ago)

Can somoone check when the vocals on Blue Monday come in? That must take over a minute.

― Johnny B Was Quizzical (Johnney B), Monday, 9 January 2006 17:36 (twenty years ago)

Come on people....you missed an easy one.

Cortez The Killer

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Monday, 9 January 2006 17:42 (twenty years ago)

I recall being infuriated as a youth by the length of the intro to "Black and White" by Michael Jackson.

― Michael A Neuman (Ferg), Monday, 9 January 2006 17:44 (twenty years ago)

man, you must've had a rough childhood.

― my name is john. i reside in chicago. (frankE), Monday, 9 January 2006 18:00 (twenty years ago)

1991-94 in particular.

― Michael A Neuman (Ferg), Monday, 9 January 2006 18:05 (twenty years ago)

I recall being infuriated over Macauley Culkin's lipsync rap, but that gave way to befuddlement upon seeing MJ thrash that car.

― erklie, Monday, 9 January 2006 18:07 (twenty years ago)

Speaking of The Cure, I believe "Trust" from "Wish" is the one Cure track that takes the longest of all to get to the vocal.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 9 January 2006 19:02 (twenty years ago)

I have a song on a mix CD that was released in the past year
or two, and the last minute or two of the song _could_ easily
have been released as a nice power-pop single - if it hadn't
been preceded by EIGHT minutes of jagged, Television-like
guitar jamming. I can't remember the artist or song title, natch.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Monday, 9 January 2006 21:06 (twenty years ago)

not a top-ten hit, but Luomo's "Market" takes six minutes to reach the first line.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 9 January 2006 21:08 (twenty years ago)

The vocals of "Blue Monday" come exactly 2 minutes, 9 seconds into the song.

― D.V. Caputo, Tuesday, 10 January 2006 02:01 (twenty years ago)

ride's "leave them all behind" has a very very long intro, and IIRC the single didn't truncate it (although a radio edit exists)

― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 02:12 (twenty years ago)

not a top 10 hit, but the vocals take just over 5 minutes to come in on the le mans song "cancion de todo va mal" (8 minutes and wonderful).

― rajeev (rajeev), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 03:00 (twenty years ago)

Also takes quite some time for the vocals to start in "Close To The Edge" by Yes

Also see "Heart of the Sunrise" amongst, I'm sure, many others.

But "Foreplay" fits the meta bill too! Oh man my think piece on this is gonna rock.

If that fits your bill, don't forget "Siruis/Eye In the Sky" by the Alan Parsons Project.

Also,
"Unsung" by Helmet

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 03:15 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Lazy-Deep Purple

― Bill Magill, Tuesday, 14 February 2006 22:39 (twenty years ago)

These ones have some significant vocal delays:

"Manifesto" - Roxy Music
"On Some Faraway Beach" - Brian Eno
"Sound and Vision" - David Bowie

― Joe (Joe), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 03:03 (twenty years ago)

rajeev, I dunno if you're around, but I didn't notice your Le Mans shoutout until tonight AND YOU SO FUCKING RULE for mentioning that song.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 07:04 (twenty years ago)

Tell you today - Loose Joints.

― Ant, Wednesday, 15 February 2006 09:14 (twenty years ago)

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