Heart of Rock and Soul Poll: the 1001 Greatest Singles Part 13: 676-700

One day closing? You might not get many voters...For me, two songs far outdistance everything else: the Pastels' "So Far Away," in the running for my favorite doo-wop ever, and "Smiling Faces Sometimes." I first came across "So Far Away" on a Chess reissue from the mid-80s, The Golden Age of Rhythm & Blues, which may or may not have ever made it onto CD. The Undisputed Truth, I still remember hearing on the radio at the time. Over the years, it's become sort of a sacred record to me, both the key early-70s ("neoclassical," Vince Aletti called it) soul hit and the greatest Nixon record of all. So as great as "So Far Away" is, "Smiling Faces" gets my vote easy.

Well, I love "Save It For Later," too--three favourites in this group.

WE'RE COMIN' TO YOUR TOWN TO HELP YOU PARTY DOWN

Voting for: Tom T hall

Could have voted for: Grand Funk, Isleys

Runners up: BTO, the Beat, Petty, Slim Harpo, Pitney, Dusty.

Never much liked: "De Doo Doo Doo," "Sun City."

Never heard: Some others, just like always.

Buzzzawhile. Sting it.

Also voting for Tom T. Hall although Undisputed Truth would be a close 2nd.
Runner ups: Conway, BTO, Petty, Grand Funk, Isleys, English Beat, Dusty, Bobby Darin, Slim Harpo

Tom T. Hall is my #2, followed by Beatles, Isleys, Pitney.

...and thinking
and praying
and planning
and dreaming...

lolz at #694...I had to grab the book off the shelf for research - never heard of 'Beat' or their 1974 hit "Save It For Later". (Like, about 9 years later!)

My top five in order:

1. Beat Save it for later
2. Beatles We can work it out
3. Nutmegs Story untold
4. Slim Harpo I'm a King Bee
5. Tom T. Hall The Homecoming

The Beat single is one of the best 12" of all time. The Beatles single is unquestionably one of their best. I thought the Tom T Hall single is just "Homecoming" -- no "The."

There are a lot of songs I'm completely indifferent to in this stretch of the book.

There are a lot of songs I'm completely indifferent to in this stretch of the book.

^^^

tender years

"refugee" is the best out of the five or so songs i know here, so i won't vote because at least 2 of these songs HAVE to be better than "refugee"

Beat > Undisputed Truth > Isley Bros > etc.

ack! Tom T. Hall vs. Undisputed Truth vs. Beatles vs. GFR vs. BTO vs. Otis..."got to twist my body! must go limp!" ack!

(went with "Smiling Faces.")

Beatles over Tom Petty

Save it for Later

ρεμπετις OTM.

One day closing?

I can never figure out the ILX timewarp. Posted the poll on Sept. 10, with a closing date of Sept. 13, and somehow that's a one day poll? But I'm trying for a quick turnaround on these since there are 27 left to go.

The thing is that polls close at midnight GMT, which can be a lot sooner than it seems.

I must have goofed on the one-day turnaround--sorry. It is more like three days. I think time-zone variance may create a bit of a grey area.

peak Isleys > second-tier Beatles > lots I don't know, others I'm not so nuts about

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Top-tier Beatles for me. Tons of better fare out there by Dusty, Tom T., The (English) Beat, etc. That Aretha is my least favorite single released from/around Young, Gifted and Black. Will seek out Pastels. Etc.

So who should have written this book instead of Marsh? Well, Leland, of course. But Tom Smucker? Ken Barnes? Nik Cohn?

Do you just mean a book-length singles guide? Ken Barnes is an interesting choice and I'd love to see a collection of all his singles columns over the years (from NY Rocker, Creem, etc.). I imagine it would function much like Aletti's recent disco book -- and not much at all like Marsh's tome -- in that it'd serve more as a chronological document of pop radio, and less like a guy setting out to write about his favourite songs, after the fact. I'd lap that up, for sure. Leland's SPIN columns would be nice, too, but it's a much shorter period covered. Smucker and Cohn I have a hard time imagining doing a book like this, but who knows.

To be honest, I think it makes perfect sense for Marsh to have done it. He came of age early enough in rock's history to bring the historical perspective, and he continued to stay tuned to pop radio, at least until the time that he published the book. Any decent writer who puts out a singles book, though? Pretty much guaranteed that I'll at least read some of it.

sweet! the beat won!

xpost

I just mean a 1001 Greatest Singles book by any of those writers (although I'd obv. welcome a Barnes columns collection). I tried to think of writers who had been around for a while by the time this was published (apart from Leland, of course). Freedberg came to mind briefly as someone way too weird for such a project but now I think it'd be a hoot. Anyone who'd offer more idiosyncrasy in the writing and the selection is what I was driving at.

It'd probably be easier to come up with a quirkier book today after rivers of reissues, cd-rs, P2Ps, blogs, etc. Although I seem to recall a Best Singles Since Punk book but can't recall the title. Anyone ever read this?

Here's the greatest singles since punk and disco book; I remember seeing it at the time and thinking it was lame, but beyond that I can't tell you. And I may well have just been cranky then:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Uncool-Greatest-Singles-since/dp/1844031055

I don't get Leland as a replacement for Marsh at all, btw, unless you wanted to limit the best singles to about five years in the late '80s (or so). And Marsh's choices are more idiosyncratic than you give them credit for, Kevin (and Leland's tastes less idiosyncratic than you give them credit for too), but then you already know I think that.

Freedberg was the first person I thought of, though. He's got a historical perspective at least as deep as Marsh's too (in fact, he probably goes further in both directions.) And his tastes and ideas are always his own.

A Jim Green or Steven Harvey singles book would be cool, too! (The first person to figure out who they both used to write singles columns for wins.)

The problem with the Mulholland book is that there's no real wtfness about it. It's a fine summation of the post punk canon and he's a fairly engaging writer but there's nothing in it which surprises or irritates. Marsh's book is frequently infuriating with many of the choices, his prejudices and his general crankiness but it's definitely a more rewarding read.

just a guess: NY Rocker?

xp

You're half right.

Jim Green = Trouser Press? Not familiar with Steven Harvey.

Yep, that's the other half. (Ionnis got the Harvey half. So you two can split the prize money.)

I'm not even positive Green was actually any good (I don't have any old copies of Trouser Press around to check), but I do know I liked him at the time. Though I was admittely an impressionable young new waver in those days. Harvey was definitely good, and I still have a few issues of New York Rocker here to prove it.

Actually, though, the NYR singles pages were split between him and three or four (maybe more) other guys, but (give or take Barnes, who also did a real good column in Creem later), Harvey was my favorite.

I've been thinking for a while now that someone should put together an anthology of classic singles reviews. Maybe this is its own thread?

Yeah, would love to see a book like that.

Greg Shaw reviewed shitloads of singles in his Creem column from the early-mid 70s also ("Jukebox Jury").

That's weird about Steven Harvey: I have a whole bunch of old NYRs and I don't remember any other singles columnist in there but Barnes... I'll have to pull them out again.

What/who would be in your personal anthology of classic singles/tracks reviews?

I don't get Leland as a replacement for Marsh at all, btw, unless you wanted to limit the best singles to about five years in the late '80s (or so).

I don't get why a Leland book would be so limited. He knew quite well about pre-1985 music. First heard about Patti Jo's "Make You Believe in Me" (precisely kind of quirk I'd like to see in such a book) from one of his Singles columns.

Leland's tastes less idiosyncratic than you give them credit for

Right but he has soooo much more to offer than idiosyncrasy so that hardly matters.