Heart of Rock and Soul Poll: the 1001 Greatest Singles Part 5: 876-900

I voted Dusty.

so surprised to see Gabriel/Bush here that i had to vote for it

oh yeah, Marsh loves Peter Gabriel.

yeah, but it was what 3 years old when he wrote the book? and not the most obvious So single, just kinda stuck out for me. plus i love that song.

I'm giving Randy Travis (probably) his only vote.

Dave Marsh gets a lot of shit, but fifteen years ago he was the one first critics I read who championed "Silent Morning" and "Jam On It," so I voted for Noel, which really is one of the great freestyle anthems of the late eighties.

I wanted to make sure "Patches" got a vote.

I'm voting Johnnie Taylor, for that perfect Muscle Shoals groove and production by the very underrated Don Davis.

Another for Dusty. Apparently I was in love with it as a four-year-old, being played my mum's old 45s on my grandparents' dansette

Dusty for me too. The way her voice cracks during that penultimate "want" makes my heart melt everytime.

top 10, though I definitely need to listen to "The Boiler" again sometime (and the Byrds and Dusty and the song I'm responsible for come close):

881 1956 Chips- Rubber biscuit
883 1980 Teddy Pendergrass- Love T.K.O.
884 1984 Fat Boys- Jailhouse rap
890 1974 Raspberries- Overnight sensation (hit record)
891 1985 Commodores- Nightshift
892 1970 Clarence Carter- Patches
894 1958 Jerry Lee Lewis- Breathless
895 1957 Huey Piano Smith- Rocking Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu
897 1987 Noel- Silent morning
900 1954 Penguins- Earth angel

Voting for Huey. Would have voted for "Jam On It," though, if it was up there (which I thought Alfred meant it was.) Would also have voted for Aerosmith's version of "Walk This Way" if it was up there.

Think "Patches" would be my #2, fwiw (and may have been my #1 on a different day.)

not the most exciting stretch of the book, is it?

"the boiler" is disturbing. don't think i ever want to listen to it again.

i'm voting for "nightshift" because i like it a lot and i suspect noone else will vote for it.

but my top 5 would look a bit like this:

Penguins- Earth angel
Clarence Carter- Patches
Tommy Tucker- Hi-heel sneekers
Commodores- Nightshift
Sam Cooke- That's where it's at

This is a great list! I don't know this part of the book, though, maybe the prose is boring. "Earth Angel" is the one I adore (most); next would be Clarence Carter, then the Byrds, then Randy Travis, and next the Commodores. Shit, "Laugh Laugh" is great too.

Earth Angel is the only song in this batch I really like.

I wanted to make sure "Patches" got a vote.

Oh don't worry!

Dave Marsh gets a lot of shit, but fifteen years ago he was the one first critics I read who championed "Silent Morning" and "Jam On It,"

Yeah, that YOU read. Sorry to be snippy but this is a ginormous sore spot with me.

the song I'm responsible for

wait what?

"Jam On It" actually tied with John Waite's "Missing You" for 25th Place in the Pazz & Jop singles poll in 1984, which means it had at least 16 supporters at the time. And "Silent Morning" had its fans too (I remember Doug Simmmons putting it in his top 10 that got printed in the Voice, and he wasn't alone.) So Kevin has a point, but then so does Alfred -- Marsh did go against the general critical consensus a lot when it came to '80s dance pop (and pop metal, and country, etc.) For instance (along with Barry Walters, and maybe a couple other people) he was one of the most vocal early supporters of Madonna, when most critics still couldn't stand her.

I mean, to a pick someone close to Kevin's heart, Marsh was going crazy for all sorts of '80s chart pop (see the discography in the back of the back of The First Rock & Roll Confidential Report, 1985), when John Leland was still mainly writing about bands like Die Kreuzen and Killdozer (see The New Trouser Press Record Guide and The Rolling Stone Review 1985, also both 1985). (Not that there's anything wrong with reviewing Die Kreuzen and Killdozer, since that's mainly the kind of stuff that I was writing about back then, too.)

"Overnight Sensation" is a great song about, as Eric Carmen puts it, wanting a hit record. It got to #18, and after the failure of it and the Starting Over album to sell they broke up. Too bad. It's a power pop epic.
Randy Travis' song is primo Country Neo-Trad.
Teddy P's is an Old School masterpiece.
From there it's the Penguins, Huey Smith, Run DMC, Dusty and one of the great Tribute records ever by the Commodores (done after Lionel left).

i find overnight sensation kind of blunt and charmless.

I'm torn between the following:
- Byrds
- Chips
- Teddy Pendergrass
- Jody Reynolds
- Raspberries
- Commodores
- Clarence Carter

"The Boiler" was certainly an interesting record, and it seemed like a neat choice at the time for Marsh, but I just don't believe anyone has fun listening to the thing (it reminds me of Christgau putting Eminem's "Kim" at the top of his list whatever year that came out).

I need to download Noel. I have the 12" somewhere, bought it a couple years after it came out and was fairly let down by it, to be honest. But I probably didn't give it a fair listen, should dig it out again.

I mean, to a pick someone close to Kevin's heart, Marsh was going crazy for all sorts of '80s chart pop (see the discography in the back of the back of The First Rock & Roll Confidential Report, 1985), when John Leland was still mainly writing about bands like Die Kreuzen and Killdozer (see The New Trouser Press Record Guide and The Rolling Stone Review 1985, also both 1985).

That's not true, xhuxk. Leland reviewed Tommy Boy's Greatest Beats comp in 1985 for Spin (probably the first issue but my files are a mess right now) and even mention "Jam On It" in the review fwiw. And his 1986 Singles columns always featured a mix of black/Latino pop with white indie.

mentionED

and Gabriel-Bush's "Don't Give Up" is a pretty good song btw.

One of my favorite keyboard/bass sounds of the eighties.

Kevin, I never said that Leland (or I) completely ignored black or Latino pop. I said his (and my) specialty in 1985 (especially early '85, when books about '84 came out) was still indie rock. And right, by 1986 he was probably coming around more. But in '85, Marsh was on top of it more than he was.

...or "at least as much," maybe I should say. I mean, I'm not sure what Leland was listening to at home (and I admittedly don't have copies of his '84 or '85 top 10 lists.) It's possible that he just grabbed the reviews of mainly artsy noisy indie rock in those books because he was relatively new on the block, and nobody else would take them. But my main point is that Marsh had been actively plugging dance and hip-hop oriented pop for ages by then, when lots of critics weren't.

I still disagree because it was too early in Leland's career to even HAVE a specialty. But all of this is moot in the face of what Marsh wrote in the "It Takes Two" entry (and to Spin itself).

a lot of great stuff but earth angel is an earworm like no other.

1. "Rubber Biscuit," 2. Byrds, 3. probably "Endless Sleep," with "Love T.K.O." close. There's probably a straight line that goes from the Chips to the Fat Boys, but the Chips are infinitely funnier and livelier.

And xhuxk, what song were you responsible for???

"As for "Walk This Way," Run DMC covered that song because Rick Rubin read a Village Voice review of Done With Mirrors I'd written in which I called "Walk This Way" rap. 22 years ago! You can look it up. (I called "Lord of the Thighs" rap, too, but nobody ever covered that one.)" -- Xhuxk, back in the day.

Went for 'The Boiler' - first heard it on a 2-Tone compilation when I was about 12, bit of a shock really, I'd never heard a song like it. 'Earth Angel' would be a very close second though.

Fwiw, I talk a bit about "On The Other Hand" (which I'm not even convinced is one of the best tracks on Travis's Storms Of Life, a pretty good album by a good singer I've never loved) at the link below:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=694#comment-2229

After a day to think about it I went with the Byrds.

Part of me wants to slsk all 1001 of these. I had the same impulse when Tom E. started Popular over at Freaky Trigger, but I've resisted that one so far.

"Laugh Laugh", just ahead of "Don't Give Up". Nothing else comes near.

I'm partial to "Overnight Sensation" (as well as Carmen's 1988 remake, "Make Me Lose Control"). Top Five:

1. "Overnight Sensation"
2. "Nightshift"
3. "I Only Wanna Be With You"
4. "Walk This Way"
5. "So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star"

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