10 Favourite Sub 3-Minute Songs

[Zzzptm]

^ Just wanna say it is not easy finding a sub-3:00 song in the progressive 70s.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

That Rainbow song is just NOT one I would have chosen, the weakest song on the album IMO.

Option 5

The Cure - Jumping Someone Else's Train

The album track is 2:55, the video is only 2:49 (I think it might be the London to Brighton line)! Quite possibly my favourite song by the Cure, a song criticising people who try to take credit for new fads and fashions they had nothing to do with.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^ Just wanna say it is not easy finding a sub-3:00 song in the progressive 70s.

I know what you mean, but Yes had several on "Fragile", and Emerson, Lake and Palmer had 3 sub 3-minute tracks on Brain Salad Surgery, I toyed with "Still... You Turn Me On" for this list, but it just missed the 10.

[Charger]

I purposely left out Rainbow as well as I also think Do You Close Your Eyes is indeed the weakest track on the album and couldn't bring myself to put it on the list...or any list for that matter...


At Number 5 comes the obligatory MELANIE C song!

This starts out as pretty simple basic piano song BUT it grows a bit and has a great feel and the melody is sublime! The solo part is actually bit rocky and jazzy at the same time!

SUDDENLY MONDAY this one!

[Vyn]

No. 5

Link Wray's Rumble. You can just feel the subversion oozing out of that song. The way he overdrove his tube amps is a simple and direct call to action for the youth to go smoke some devil's cabbage, perhaps participate in fisticuffs, and engage in pre-marital sex. With the opposite gender, because that homo stuff is too far out there for the pearl-clutchers to even consider.

[Zzzptm]

I stand by my inclusion of "Do You Close Your Eyes", as even if it's the weakest track on Rainbow Rising, it's still a great rocker. 

Mel C's song is great fun, nice bit of sunshine for the day.

Link Wray's song is Debbul Moozik! I think it's the only instrumental to ever have been banned for the lyrical content it didn't have. And, yes, it was banned, good and hard.

Of reference would be The Ventures' "2000 lb Bee" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCsryLIIzAA which was one of the first tunes to feature guitar pedal effects, a fuzz pedal in this case. But that's not my entry for the day, just a reference.

My entry for the day is...

"Testify" by The Parliaments

Song is 2:50, the uploader padded 13 seconds I'm not responsible for.

Motown didn't want songs written by George Clinton, so he went and recorded them with his own group and made his own way with this tune setting the stage for his musical explorations to come.

[Charger]

Now we're starting to the to the cream of the crop here...

At #4 we have some Judas Priest Style Heavy Metal

Early priest would have had a few songs that might have made it to the list, Running Wild, Hell Bent For Leather for example...but I think this is the one that needs to be mentioned here. This kind of defines a heavy metal classic and also contains surprisingly lot of song for just under 3 minutes!
It's
THE RIPPER!

[Zzzptm]

Came across this one in my musical perusings this morning and it's a banger from The Stripp with them doing cameos as Bono, Lemmy, Rob Halford, Amy Winehouse, Meatloaf, AC/DC, Guns 'n' Roses, The Ramones, KISS, Elvis, and Def Leppard. Dude!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

As a one-off listen I suppose The Stripp were ok, but man I'd get tired of that quickly!

==================

My choice is not for the easily offended. It's post-punk, crude yet funny...

Pick No. 4

The Macc Lads - Do You Love Me

From their debut album Beer and Sex and Chips 'n' Gravy this is 2:21 of vaguely acceptable offence!

Looking at the 5 albums the band put out, they only actually have 6-7 songs which are OVER 3-minutes in length, and none manage to make it to 4-minutes.

I chose this one because it's rather good, it's maybe less offensive than most, but is very witty and self depricating!

[Zzzptm]

^ An ever so faint reference to The Contours' "Do You Love Me" in their chorus. Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3zJZ2d4cis

My next submission is The Boys' reworking of The Hollywood Brats' "Tumble With Me":

Glam trash gone new wave punk, love it.

[Vyn]

Good stuff! Have never heard anything from The Boys, and it has been a long time since I caught a tune from The Macc Lads.

And The Ripper - you stole that shit right out from my number three slot, Charger lol

But, for now, here's No. 4:

The Balloon Farm and their late 1967 hit single, "A Question of Temperature". A one-hit wonder in the truest sense of the term, nothing else those guys produced came close to the right mix of musical ingredients the way they did with this song.

[Charger]

And The Ripper - you stole that shit right out from my number three slot, Charger lol

Up and onwards!

Only thing left is the TOP 3

And at third place we have

I've talked about Savage Master before! They are really great, in your face occult themed heavy rock. And this track from their SUBERB Mask Of The Devil album is the opening track and it ticks all the boxes a great opening track needs to!
BLOOD ON THE ROSE this one!

[Vyn]

I had several that didn't make the list by a hair's breadth, so coming up with a new number 3 was easy-peasy.

In 2018 Judas Priest released Firepower, their 18th long-player, to universal acclaim. Both fans and critics hailed it as the best JP album in years...the music for sure lives up to the implications of the album's title. Truth in advertising for once!

The second song on the second side of the second disk is, "No Surrender":

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
I'll catch up on those 2 later...

Pick 3 for me is...

The Jam - Town Called Malice

Probably their last good song before they split in 1983 (I think!), this is their biggest selling song (2x platinum or about 1.2 million).

[Zzzptm]

Louis Jordan - Fat Sam From Birmingham

Just before Rock and Roll hit the big time, there was Louis Jordan cookin' up tasty jump blues, this one from 1953. The syncopated drumbeat definitely puts it in the category of early Rock and Roll and the lively, good-humored lyric makes it one of my favorite brassy early rock tunes.