Heart of Rock and Soul Poll: the 1001 Greatest Singles Part 3: 926-950

Stevie
Loudon
Southside

I sing "Urgent" all the time but I really hate it (unlike the band Argent, who are pretty entertaining).

Ghost Town!

Tough. "My City Was Gone" has the beautiful bass line, but in the end the actual words of this song are much dumber than what surrounds it on _Learning to Crawl_ so hard to vote for. The Specials are my favorite band on here but "Ghost Town" isn't high on my list of theirs. No, I think I'm going to vote for a song that I can't exactly defend, but which mystified and thrilled me as a kid and still warms me now. And that song is "Life's Been Good."

x/p I 100% agree re "Urgent." Saw "2/5 of Foreigner peforming as Foreigner" at the county fair and couldn't stop singing it for weeks. I also do the sax part with my mouth.

Ooh Poo Pah Do! And I won't stop voting till I create a disturbance in your poll.

Tough as hell, here. Voted Walsh, but the Specials, Elton, Foreigner, Frankie Ford, Cooper, Dionne, "5" Royales weren't far behind.

this is a tough one.

i'll say:

1. Five Royales- Baby, Don't It Apollo
2. Brenda Holloway- Every Little Bit Hurts Tamla
3. Jerry Lee Lewis- One has my name Smash
4. Foreigner- Urgent
5. Dionne Warwick- Don't make me over Scepter

As for:
Lorraine Ellison- Stay with me Warner

Amazing record, but I always thought it goes for the jugular a bit too fast.

My Top 10, in some order to be determined later, would be:

926 1978 Joe Walsh- Life's Been Good Asylum
927 1982 Junior- Mama Used to Say (American remix) Mercury
929 1962 Dionne Warwick- Don't make me over Scepter
930 1981 Specials- Ghost Town
937 1972 Alice Cooper- School's out Warner
938 1963 Gino Washington- Gino is a coward Ric Tic
940 1960 Jessie Hill- Ooh poo pah do, part 2 Minit
941 1981 Foreigner- Urgent
942 1975 Elton John- The Bitch is Back Decca
947 1959 Frankie Ford- Sea Cruise Ace

Think I'll vote for "Sea Cruise," though I'd probably change my mind tomorrow.

Silliest choice (and therefore one of the most entertaining) has to be the song by Southside Johnny, who I've tried repeatedly to get but never have (bought 2 used '70s LPs by the Jukes this year, both only barely worth keeping.) And I'm somebody who likes hack white-guy bar-band soul-rock. I assume he's here because of the Bruce connection.

Not my favorite Alice Cooper, but "School's Out" is a pretty great song, and a great performance by band and singer.

i really like the joe walsh too, but on the full version the bridge is deadly boring.

I wonder if Marsh specified the edited version in the book.

Elton over Stevie, with a fond tip of the hat to Alice Cooper, Foreigner, and The Specials.

Fairly middling set here overall, containing for the most part a bunch of stuff I like but few that I love. In the end, a close call between Joe Walsh, Junior, and Gino Washington. There's a few things I don't know, though, so my vote is skewed. F'rinstance, pretty sure I'm unfamiliar with this entire stretch:

943 1953 Five Royales- Baby, Don't It Apollo
944 1966 Howard Tate- Ain't Nobody Home Verve
945 1961 Barbara George- I Know A.F.O.
946 1964 Brenda Holloway- Every Little Bit Hurts Tamla

Most surprising choice, for some reason, is the Simon & Garfunkel cut (never one of my faves, though I like how the chorus sounds so much like ABBA's "SOS"). Most boring is the Pretenders, which, even by their generally dull standards is lacklustre.

I've actually always liked "My Little Town" a lot (in fact, maybe it should've made my Top 10 upthread instead of something else), but yeah, I do agree it's a surprising choice, given the extent to which history seems to have passed it by when compared to several other S&G (and Simon solo) songs.

Also, I guess I was just assuming that Marsh isn't a fan to begin with (given that most of his cronies aren't). On the other hand, maybe it's NOT such a surprising choice for that reason. I should lift a finger and read what he has to say about it (and relisten to the song, which I'm maybe underrating).

F'rinstance, pretty sure I'm unfamiliar with this entire stretch:

943 1953 Five Royales- Baby, Don't It Apollo
944 1966 Howard Tate- Ain't Nobody Home Verve
945 1961 Barbara George- I Know A.F.O.
946 1964 Brenda Holloway- Every Little Bit Hurts Tamla

Me neither.

Three stone classic New Orleans grooves to pick between, but I've got to go with Jessie Hill. A contender for the greatest party record ever. I've always imagined that somewhere there exists unreleased parts 3 - ∞.

hey you all need to hear that brenda holloway track!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdZ7RSux9Os

I voted "Ghost Town," though in a different frame of mind I could have just as easily gone with "Baby Don't Do It" or "Sea Cruise." My least favorite is definitely Southside Johnny, but this has the biggest number of can't-remembers/never-heards of the Marsh polls thus far.

Ya know, I was gunna get snippy and vote only for 1980s entries (hi Junior) even in the face of my all-time fave Stevie, prolly my all-time fave Alice, and Dionne (even though I prefer to hear those world-historic singles together on the desert island Rhino double album Anthology). But then there was "Gino Is A Coward." How could I not vote for it? Here's a song in which one Gino Washington feels out the absolute limits of rock 'n' roll as a democratizing force. Could he ride into immortality (or at least fame and riches) as a coward afraid of not just girls but quite possibly (or is that impossibly?) rock 'n' roll itself? The gamble didn't quite pay off what with one Geno Washington grabbing at a bit of democracy while Gino was drafted into the army and with history largely forgetting both. But rock 'n' roll never sounded more commodious in the 1960s than on this genius, complex, head-spinning single.

Gino is a coward? That's your song, Gino? I still can't believe it.

ghost town!

tho you left the water running deserves some love too

The only song I really, really love in this group is "Dead Skunk." There are Brenda Holloway and (many) Dionne Warwick songs I much prefer to the ones listed.

The Wallace Brothers "Precious Words" is probably the most obscure song here, and maybe even in the book as a whole, but its an impassioned raw vocal performance by two teenage kids from Atlanta, backed by some church organ and not much else. Well worth seeking out if you're a deep soul fan.

sounds awesome

it's on a CD called "the heart of southern soul, vol. 2" -- all volumes highly recommended.

F'rinstance, pretty sure I'm unfamiliar with this entire stretch:

943 1953 Five Royales- Baby, Don't It Apollo

(shuffles foot)

(coughs)

(twiddles thumbs)

I went with Otis over Alice Cooper. There are a bunch of these I don't know. Seems like there are lots of late 50s / early 60s sides on Marsh's lists that I ought to check out.

(shuffles foot)

(coughs)

(twiddles thumbs)

hahaha HERO (I really fucked up when I sold this back when I was trying to go all-digital)

. . . except I can't open .sitx on my laptop. Ah well.

Ugh sorry. Every time I zip files, they become .stx. Need to correct that. But you could probably open "twiddles thumbs."

I wonder if Marsh specified the edited version in the book.

― Hugh Manatee

It's a book of singles; so, yeah.

Alfred/Scott, I'll bet you have heard "I Know" ("...you don't love me no more").

Lotsa 5 Royales in this book!

(Sorry if I sounded snotty, Hugh...)

Just read the entry on Dead Skunk--quite a screed against prog and other 70s stuff he didn't dig.

That's a lot of the book, isn't it?

So many of these songs I don't know, have started putting a Spotify playlist, listening as I go... I've also ordered the book from Amazon...

"Urgent" now stuck in my head again. I think I voted for "Ghost Town."

Thanks Kevin for the 5 Royales thing.

It's going to take a lot to get me to vote for anything over Stevie whenever he shows up here.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Xpost

De nada, swoods.

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