Valerie, POLL on Me: The Steve Winwood Singles Poll

Yeah. That's the only song on this list I can stand, actually.

I dig a whole bunch of these but I went with "While You See A Chance". I'm tempted of course by "Valerie" but the re-recorded version scared me off. I'll try to justify my vote later.

Higher Love is there twice (#8, #12) -- duplicate, or different versions?

"Arc of a Diver"

No, my mistake (xpost)

Dan's beloved "Freedom Overspill" (which doesn't sound very free and never spills over the edges, but that's our Stevie):

No Still In The Game, no credibility

"Spanish Dancer". The "Arc Of a Diver" album is ace.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

So...wait, there was no option for "Valerie," the original, non-re-recorded version?

hmm. i might have voted for "high life" just out of nostalgia. it was the theme to our senior prom. even though the band that got hired didn't actually know the song. and the prom itself was pretty lame. so maybe i wouldn't have voted for it. but it's a good tune.

I think "While You See a Chance" was the right winner, but I really have always loved "The Finer Things".

The production during the chorus leaves me a little cold (although the melody is great), but the intro and verse are gorgeous. also love the video blending the cheering fans and him sitting patiently behind the keyboard.

Roll With It is reactionary garbage.

the whole Roll With It album sounds like watered-down Huey Lewis. it came out immediately after Lewis' Small World album, and several days prior to Elton John's Reg Strikes back, and it fits perfectly with that pair. The title track sounds like music they'd spin to play off a Cubs victory on WGN radio. i know this album pretty well because my folks had the cassette (ok my dad specifically, he had the cassette) and it was on heavy rotation in the car. the other heavy rotation cassette was Graceland, and whereas Graceland (an album by a guy who was 7 years older than Winwood) felt vibrant and youthful and spoke of worlds that were alive and cinematic, this one struck me even then as stuck in an inescapable dull rut, signified by that two-note organ hook on the title track that Alfred references in the above link. that title track btw makes Walk of Life sound like Dark Magus.

I hate this album, like, really hate it.

The epitome of '80s middle-age bland out. I think someone here derided this stuff as Armani rock, but when you look at this and whatever Eric Clapton, Don Henley, Sting and God knows who else was making, it really does suggest '80s mainstream culture as I picture it whenever I think of Reagan and Wall Street, even when the songs are railing against the times.

Armani is more mysterious.

Michelob Rock!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSc6U9BDIqU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4lkkYO3TXY

Wow almost every song on roll with it is over 5 minutes long

More info than I cared to know, but apparently Tom Lord-Alge not only cut down those 5-minute+ songs for single release, he mixed them again specifically for radio play. It's an extremely polished and manicured album, and probably a classic case of producing the life out of something just to give it a soulless "professional" sound.

I don't know too much about Steve Winwood, but I do know that "Back in the High Life" was recorded with a huge crew of awesome session dudes, and "Roll With It" was recorded mostly by Winwood, with iirc his touring band.

"Back in the High Life" and "Valerie" are fine because they're casual and not written in English, respectively.

‘Don’t you know what the night can do’ is almost 7 minutes long!

"Back in the High Life" again underrated.