10 Favourite Sub 3-Minute Songs

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Ok folks!

Let's go for another Top 10 rundown.

This time post you favourite short songs, indeed, anything over 3:00 minutes in length is not allowed.

I'm not ready to start posting my picks just yet, but let that not stop you starting yours list!

BTW Instrumentals are ok to include!

[Zzzptm]

Whispering Bells by The Del-Vikings

I play this at the start of my radio show every week because my mom played it at the start of the show when she was doing it because it's the best Rock and Roll song ever done. OK, so that's my mom and me doing the list, but it's true when the radio show is on. 

The late 50s/early 60s were a gold mine of songs clocking in close to 2:30, and this one's an excellent example of the period. I have loved this song all my life, and it never, ever, EVER gets old.

[Vyn]

Number 10:

Yep. The Ramones kicked off 1976 with this neckbreaker of a song:

Whispering Bells (which is a great tune) caused me to bounce in an equal and opposite direction musically for this pick

[Charger]

Well alright! This is going to require some research as it's hard to remember if a song clocks over 3 minutes or not...most of metal's short songs still tend to be over 3 minutes...and what makes it even more difficult is the 2 second gap between songs...some cds count that to the song's over all length and some do not...so a song that might be 2:59 actually comes up as 3:01 on the cd! So this will be quite the fun little task of detective work!

[Zzzptm]

^ Charger's post made me think of Mötorhead, and then that got me to lookin' at their catalog... and then I found a giant of a song, popular through the ages!

THE TRAIN KEPT A-ROLLIN'

Starts off in 1951 with Tiny Bradshaw doing a jump blues proto-rock number:

We recognize the words, but the music seems a bit laid-back. No worries, the rockabilly Johnny Burnette will get ahold of it and make it much more frantic:

That's the one that slams! 1956 getting dangerously close to heavy metal there... and then the song jumped the pond, so to speak, and got picked up by The Yardbirds:

The scene is longer than 3 mins, but the song itself is 2:57... the band used different lyrics to avoid lawsuit in the film, but kept Burnette's manic riff. Great scene from the film, Page and Beck playing on stage until Beck gets pissed off at his guitar...

That tune where there's a coda got Aerosmith inspired to do their version that starts off slow and then goes manic, but that's over 3 mins, so not featuring it here.

But no worries, Mötorhead fixed it up nice and proper, because THEY PLAYED ROCK AND ROLL!!!

[Charger]

I'm gonna start with a really short one.

#10

BLACK SABBATH - EMBRYO


This is just a 30 second piece but it just touches my soul. This has to be my favourite of all Iommi instrumental shorts. It's just short and sweet. The melody is catchy as hell and works perfectly as an intro to the heavy piece that is Children Of The Grave.

[Zzzptm]

I'm gonna start with a really short one.

#10

BLACK SABBATH - EMBRYO


This is just a 30 second piece but it just touches my soul. This has to be my favourite of all Iommi instrumental shorts. It's just short and sweet. The melody is catchy as hell and works perfectly as an intro to the heavy piece that is Children Of The Grave.

Good call, it *is* a nice little tune!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

My word you lot have been busy!

My first pick (not ranked!)

Rush - Malignant Narcissism

A short instrumental off the Snakes and Arrows album.

This one passed me bye at first, parlty because it was one of their weaker albums. But I've given all the later albums a good listen to in recent years and this track has struck home.

[Vyn]

Had not heard that Rush tune before - it's damn good!

No. 9.

1969 reaches out from the past offers up Communication Breakdown from Led Zeppelin's debut long player. I've never been a big fan of their stuff, but do enjoy a few songs, this being one of them.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
That was on my radar, it might have made my list but I can choose something else now!

[Vyn]

^^^
That was on my radar, it might have made my list but I can choose something else now!

[Charger]

All of my remaining picks actually turned out to be non instrumentals although I do belive few other good instrumentals are out there...


My number 9 is


ALICE COOPER - UNDER MY WHEELS


There were few options from Alice to fill this slot...I'm Eighteen (which may or may not be under the 3 minute mark), Is It My Body and so on but I think this is one of those Alice classics that needs a shout out here!

[Zzzptm]

Good one, for sure. And that made me think of "Witch for a Night" by Sugar Pie DeSanto, an awesome heavy tune from the 60s...

She shreds the microphone and the swell pedal on that organ does its job perfectly. It's not metal, no, but it's a heavy tune and it rocks hard as anything from that day.

[Vyn]

..."Witch for a Night" by Sugar Pie DeSanto, an awesome heavy tune from the 60s...

One of the best parts of these "top 10" threads is that I always come away with a few I hadn't discovered yet. So far, this thread has given me two, both excellent to my ears.

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The who: Iron Maiden
The when: February, 1981
The where: London, United Kingdom
The what: Wrathchild
The why: I did not hear, nor was I aware of, the Metal for Muthas compilation until sometime in the late 1980s, maybe early 1990s. Therefore, my introduction to Wrathchild was sometime in the fall of 1981 while listening to Iron Maiden's new LP Killers on my stereo. I immediately liked it, feeling that it stood out even among the collection of excellent metal it was part of. Up the irons, indeed!

No. 8

[Charger]

^^^
No video there

But WrathChild nearly made it to my list as well but I went with another Maiden track tba