Length of songs
- Thread starter Song4uman
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Carpe diem
Well-Known Member
In retrospect, Solitaire was not a good single selection. It is dark and introspective (and lengthy) and not really suited to top 40 radio. Similar to Crescent Noon of the CTY album (which wasn't released as a single). But Karen's vocal on Solitaire was a tour de force and remains my favorite Karen performance. With IJFILA; a little less production, a little less fuzz guitar solo, etc, and who knows...Anne Murray made it famous, so kudos to her. Another great KC moment left to fall by the wayside.
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The average length of "top 40" hopeful singles has evolved over time. In the 50s and 60s, you would rarely see a single with a running time much over two minutes -- and often, less than two minutes.
In the 70s, songs got longer and longer to where four-minutes-plus singles weren't all that rare, but the three minute mark was what most radio programmers desired.
Also in the 70s, if an artist got "huge" they could release a single in just about any length they wanted and if the song was good, radio would play it. Thus we got the Beatles' "Hey Jude" at just over 7 minutes, Elton John's "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" at nearly 7 minutes, and many others. (EJ was probably the king of long singles, releasing quite a few that topped five minutes.)
By the time IJFILA came out, the failure of any particular single at that point in their career probably had more to do with their fading popularity at the time than it did with the length of the song.
In the 70s, songs got longer and longer to where four-minutes-plus singles weren't all that rare, but the three minute mark was what most radio programmers desired.
Also in the 70s, if an artist got "huge" they could release a single in just about any length they wanted and if the song was good, radio would play it. Thus we got the Beatles' "Hey Jude" at just over 7 minutes, Elton John's "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" at nearly 7 minutes, and many others. (EJ was probably the king of long singles, releasing quite a few that topped five minutes.)
By the time IJFILA came out, the failure of any particular single at that point in their career probably had more to do with their fading popularity at the time than it did with the length of the song.
There are a lot of "part one" and "part two" songs. Sometimes the actual song was split in half (as in Amercian Pie) but, I think more often, "part two" was just the same song without the vocals.
Carpe diem
Well-Known Member
^^and may I add; Light My Fire by "The Doors", edited enough (7:06 album version to 2:52 for the single) to become an AM Top 40 #1 hit as early as 1967.
