Watching the NPR Tiny Desk concert with Wu Tang, specifically hearing the beginning of Triumph made me think back on how off the wall that single was.

A 6? 7? minute song with no hook and no jiggyness kicked off a multi-platinum double-disc album. There's no way that song should have worked as a single, but it did.

Same for Radiohead's Paranoid Android. A song that stuck out for radio and MTV at that time. But it was the first big song on a landmark album.

An underrated leftfield single was Stressed Out by A Tribe Called Quest. Granted there weren't many upbeat songs on that album, but The Jam might have worked as a lead single in retrospect.

Maybe Jeremy by Pearl Jam. A song based around an in school suicide that was a big hit for them.

I'm not into Prince but I'd imagine he'd have a couple of songs released that must have made record execs stay up late at night wondering what they would do for work in case the single flopped hard enough.

Any others?

don't know what they was thinking with that

She had to do it, but.....I guess it really was "something" that she actually did it (made a song that broke a lot of rules)

Like, it's some assassin shit, it made me feel quite terrible to listen to, but I couldn't let it go because the hook was so right. It's not often you get to hear women eviscerate men, and it felt so right a year+ after Big Sean's "IDGAF"


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You could make a case for pretty much all their singles but those two stick out for me, mostly because of the breakdowns at the end of both.

Rosa Parks for turning that content into something extremely catchy.

I mean, this is what they do and why they're a contender for greatest duo of all time...

but anyways - great call!

But that harmonica at the end of Rosa Parks ?! Damn.

Meatloaf was a one album wonder in 1977 and didn't even release new music from 1987 through 1993. He was closing in on 50 years old and playing clubs and colleges. Then he re-teamed with Jim Steinman and chopped a song down to 5 over-the-top minutes of operatic power ballad. It goes to #1, gets heavy rotation on MTV, and re-launches his career all over again

Used to watch the hell out of that video on MTV

It was one really long verse, followed by ODB repeating the hook over and over. Definitely an unorthodox single....by an unorthodox artist.

All from the House of Timbaland.

All sounded like nothing else in rotation when each dropped, respectively.

All were straight from left field but became HUGE mainstays on the radios, the cars riding by, MTV/BET/VH1, you name it.

Nothing else sounded like this at the time.
Sure, there was Grindin', but that wasn't a major mainstream hit (& first #1 for Snoop). After "Drop it Like it's Hot" there came a slew of other songs that ran with that minimalism.

That shit was a stone cold classic the moment it was released. Act like you know, at least.

it was definitely a major hit.

....something that a lot of songs copied from "Drop It Like It's Hot."



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I'm not sure what singles were like at the time of its release but I have to imagine it was insanely left field considering it still sounds different than any other song I've ever heard haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keO7TwUfyQY

...and I will say the singles (Busted Loop, Leftfield, & Slappin' Suckas Silly) was basically the best songs on the album, even the remixes for the singles were better than what's on the album, not sure why I thought this album was good back then, listening to it now it seemed kind of wack, I'm surprised the label didn't shelve this album.

Not sure why you think "Leftfield" seemed strange for a single, if you think about it, it's basically in the same vein as Pharcyde's "Passin' Me By", that beat is pretty dope too.

Other than the three singles, there was one commercial-ish song on the album that could've been a good single an that's "Frontline", but since they're from the Carolinas, I have to give them props for even putting some decent music out.

Peace,

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For 20 years I could always depend on one poster here to hold it down for 88-94 and that’s you. Big up ha ha ha

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Like things used to be whatever the best song you had that people could understand is what you ran with.

Today the odd-but-dope songs are still being made but everyone makes a single to fit in the times.

To answer the post tho with somewhat recent examples.

Kimbra-Top Of The World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4FApt6z55c

Big Boi-Shutterbug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWsvkW6rKkQ

Alessia Cara-Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKp2CrfmVfw

She always seemed like an enigma to me how she became popular, her music isn't something you can just blend in with other tunes, her vocals aren't easy on the ears sometimes, I've heard remixes of her music that sounded three to ten times better than what was on the album and wonder how she made it with the lackluster production at the time.

Macy had two album cuts that were decent but the singles the label pushed by them were...terrible to me; but I will say I did like the remixes for "I Try", "Why Didn't You Call Me", & "Do Something" were way better than the original.

Its really off beat (literally) and nothing was out like it at the time.

By all aspects that song should not have been a hit single.

...but looking back nothing is too left field for Ghost lol. And it actually knocks more than I remembered

It was a big hit around the world with Amis chants. Not a chance in hell it would be released today.

Taco's "Puttin' on the Ritz" is another. A throwback to another era and the tone deaf decision of having a video with blackface in it, like Al Jolson performances.

Whodini's "Keep Runnin' Back" I remember there was talk of trying to reignite their career, but it just seemed forced

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68ugkg9RePc

"I'm twenty-two, catch
In the prime of my life,
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"She was on that tip about stoppin' the violence
About my people she was teachin' me..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyhrYis509A

"I'm twenty-two, catch
In the prime of my life,
I don't have time to be a wife"

https://twitter.com/MeeshUniVerSoul
https://instagram.com/soul.con.fusion/

"She was on that tip about stoppin' the violence
About my people she was teachin' me..."

This sound was huge in Europe, still is... The dance / clubby techno sound.
It was out of left field for mainstream America, as well as Cotton Eye Joe
which also blew up in the States.

It was definitely left field for America.


>This sound was huge in Europe, still is... The dance / clubby
>techno sound.
>It was out of left field for mainstream America, as well as
>Cotton Eye Joe
>which also blew up in the States.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

Shit be jamming. And kimbra’s vocals are amazing.

>Shit be jamming. And kimbra’s vocals are amazing.

https://youtu.be/6VCdJyOAQYM

Tennessee, mr. Wendell, everyday people and the remix.

Or that the image of the group was left-field at the time and so the single was viewed as out of the ordinary because it came from the group?

Their imagery was way different and fit the song. Nothing else sounded or looked like them.

https://youtu.be/ghb6eDopW8I