Heart of Rock and Soul Poll: the 1001 Greatest Singles Part 2: 951-975

"Strawberry Fields". "Controversy" and "I Feel Fine" are great and all, but "Strawberry Fields Forever" is one of the best songs ever, and it is a shame to see it this low on the list.

970 1979 Prince- Controversy
971 1976 Boston- More than a Feeling
972 1960 Kathy Young and the Innocents- A Thousand Stars
973 1962 Dion- Lovers who Wander
974 1978 Ray Parker and Raydio- Jack and Jill
975 1964 Beatles- I Feel Fine

Great sequence.

Family Affair. Many of these are far too low.

1. family affair
2. talk talk
3. more than a feeling
4. rock the boat
5. jack and jill
6. lovers who wander
7. controversy

1. Rolling Stones- Happy
2. Rob Base and D.J. E-Z Rock- It Takes Two
3. Screamin' Jay Hawkins- I Put a Spell on You
4. Sly and the family Stone- Family Affair
5. Prince- Controversy

Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock for me.

hound dog

Worst: "Rock the Boat" (yes, over "Celebration").

Matos you are sailing with a cargo full of wrongness and crazy talk.

The Slummer the Slum is my jam.

"The Slummer the Slum" is one of very few (about 5%?) that I've never heard from his book. At least 5%, I sought out specifically because of what he wrote. That book had a *huge* influence on me and my desire to write about music.

Wow these are coming at us fast!

Um, I'll go with Rob Base and D.J. E-Z Rock: "It Takes Two" (grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...) (and sorry "More Than a Feeling")

"Rock the Boat" is a bit mild. But The Hues Corp. did a very gritty version of it live on, I think, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert or whatever that show was called.

Gloria Gaynor- Honey Bee

You gotta love how garage rock this disco entry is.

Eddie Kendricks- Keep on Truckin' part 1

And how "soulful" this one is (if it even is disco).

how can someone not like rock the boat???? weirdo. their debut, freedom for the stallion, is really good by the way. very cool and trippy hippie soul album. rock the boat is the most pop thing on it.

not you, by the way, talking about matos. i never thought it was mild though.

Ooh I found the clip!! This rox:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mScE_ZkD3mI

Wow!!! That waaaay cuts the single version! Check out the tug of war-ish dance at 2:53!

how can someone not like rock the boat????

Better question: How can someone not like "Rock The Boat" but love "Rock Your Baby" SINCE THEY ARE PRETTY MUCH BASICALLY THE SAME SONG??? Or at least they sure seemed like they were when I was 13 and they were inventing disco; they've been more or less inseparable in my mind ever since. (But we all love Matos anyway; we are just giving him a hard time.)

Btw, the song that has pissed me off the most on this list during my lifetime, through no real fault of its own (it's a good song) though I'll probably hold something against it forever regardless: "It Takes Two." (Matos and Kevin will understand. Not that they'll ever agree with me about the issue.)

OMG what now? It pisses you off on MARSH'S list (at a measly 956 no less)? Why?

i love a lot of these songs and i can't pick just one but then i see hound dog and i'm like fucking hound dog man greatest blast beats in history. gotta vote for it.

xp Kevin, nope. Not what I said. Its pissing me off has nothing to do with where Marsh put it (even though I'd have put it a lot lower, probably.)

To be less amiguous: "The song that happens to be on this list that has otherwise pissed me off due to placement on an entirely different list" etc etc etc

That live version definitely cuts the single, which, yep, is mild (and not terrible, just the worst record of those 25).

Also, "Rock Your Baby" and "Rock the Boat" really don't sound that much alike.

"The Slummer the Slum" is one of very few (about 5%?) that I've never heard from his book.

Seek it out. It's great: stop-time pseudo dance-craze with very sharp guitar, a total find even though the "5" Royales had a pretty amazing career overall. The 2CD Rhino anthology Monkey Hips & Rice needs to be restored to print badly, complete w/wonderful (factual!) Ed Ward notes.

And as much as I'd love to credit the only Ray Parker Jr. record in Marsh's book, "Jack and Jill," wonderful as it is, sounds to me like a blueprint he improved on a few times, esp. with "A Woman Needs Love" and especially the immortal "You Can't Change That."

Tough choice between "Strawberry Fields," Screamin' Jay and "Family Affair." Matos, I voted for "Rock Your Baby" on the other thread too, but the idea that "Rock the Boat" is the worst on this list is radioactive to me.

One glides and one plods. It's pretty simple.

I'm surprised to be the only person who feels this way so far here, but I'm not offended or anything. I can see "Celebration" being worse for a lot of people, but I never grew to hate that song all that much. (Nor do I hate "RTB," as I've said. It's a good list of records.)

I guess it's been used in too many commercials, but "What a Wonderful World" is such a beautiful composition. Old man Louis pulls it off just fine:

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

okay, fine, rock the boat is "mild". which is a really mild term to describe it. to put it mildly. at least now i know that matos is a Boston fan! who would have guessed?

Fuck you too.

sourpuss.

Oooh.

worst internet fight ever. look, just because you are wrong about rock the boat, doesn't mean you can't be right about other things! though thinking it takes two is a better song than hound dog or i put a spell on you isn't a good place to start.

Only one of us is fighting, Scott.

i'm not fighting! you said fuck you to me. that's fighting talk.

Right, you're not being a passive-aggressive dick here at all, because you're Garrulous Lovable Guy Scott.

oh brother whatever. i'll move on.

that live Rock The Boat is amazing

Whatevs. "Mild" is not always bad, and "Rock The Boat" is a great great great record. Period.

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What the hell is going on here? I've got a feeling I don't want to know. Anyway, today it's "I Feel Fine".

Marsh bringing the people together (Scott, I confessed Boston fandom, not Matos).

Here's "Slummer the Slum":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUJieUDf0RU

Spin WAS right, bitchez!!! nonetheless, "Hound Dog" may well be the single greatest cover in rock history. so that.

"Rock The Boat" but love "Rock Your Baby" SINCE THEY ARE PRETTY MUCH BASICALLY THE SAME SONG???

not true. rock your baby has that spectacular early drum machine thing going. and the great falsetto vocal. ROCK YOUR BABY IS A BETTER SONG. actually that is probably in my top 5 ever.

as for these tunes:

1. Family Affair
2. Harlem Nocturne
3. Happy
4. I Put a Spell on You
5. A Thousand Stars

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

Really did not mean to start a drunken Saturday night war between two of my best friends in the world (= Matos and Scott) last night btw. And fwiw I do agree "Rock Your Baby" is slightly better than "Rock The Boat." Just honestly never occurred to me in the past 35 years that someone could love love love the former and dislike the latter, but a couple people here have proved me wrong. Not a problem; you learn something new everyday, I guess.

I am pretty sure mine will be the only vote for the Chi-Lites but a) I am bound by ancient law to vote for any Chi-Lites song on any poll and b) the proto-industrial-noise-dance synth swoop at the beginning is amazingly harsh and c) as meaningless political pop platitudes go it's my fave rave.

Oh, hi everybody. How you been?

I was always surprised that Marsh, being a big Elvis fan, would rank Hound Dog so low. So, that's who I voted for, although Bosto and the Beatles come close.

like everyone else i think marsh prefers the sun stuff to the rca stuff.

i love the chi-lites, just not this particular song. i think there are more chi-lites in the book, so hang on to your hat.

Oh, my hat's on all right. But this is one of my fave raves by them.

uh, Geir OTM

this would be hard for me without "it takes two," but it's not all that hard with it on the list.

Love "Rock the Boat" AND "Rock Your Baby" but the latter does possess a mysterious quality that still stops me in my tracks (I love how it takes "Family Affair"'s machine-beat innovations and points them towards disco). But anyway, on this list my favourite thing is probably "Happy" or "Family Affair" with half a dozen others not far behind.

I don't hate "Celebration" even remotely btw. Was sick of it for a long, long time, but it sounds pretty fresh to my ears again, and it sounds to me like the foundation for "One More Time," which is in my running for best record of the current decade, so...

Screamin' Jay

I read this brick when I was in middle school, looking forward to finally hearing some of these songs.

1. "Family Affair," 2. "Happy," 3. "It Takes Two." I'm actually amazed that Marsh had "Family Affair" so low, although with a thousand songs to plow through, I'm guessing it was sometimes like throwing darts.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Boston/Sly/"Strawberry Fields" are contenders, but "Rock Your Baby" is just so effortlessly enjoyable that I can't not vote for it - it's like flying on a magic carpet that can reach the speed limit but just barely, and can't exceed three feet off the ground.

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

A respectable top five.

Ha! Top two = HI-larious!!!!!!!

I didn't see "Rock the Boat"!!! I think I'm gonna use my time machine for the first time..

Thought I voted for "Honey Bee." Oh well.