What tracks are the best?

[eddie]

This topic has been presented before but with a different twist. (Obscurities Vs Hits.) I have a slightly different take. I believe the best disco songs or even best tracks of any genre are the songs that are the secondary hits (#5-45) or album cuts. IMHO Twelve inch singles soon became remixes that sometimes worked but rarely rivaled the original and 45 edits were truncated.
Both during and after the music industry recession of the early 1980's, major labels would hold back the best track that had an older or more classic feel to it. A&M did this frequently with Atlantic Starr. They would not release certain tracks as singles but would try to sell the album with it. Blue Magic's "Welcome to the club" is another example but much earlier.

Survey: The best tracks are:
1) The big chart topping hits
2) Secondary hits and album cuts
3) Obscurities and rarely known tracks

[K-Bee]

I don't think you can say anything in general about this. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say. One man's hit is another man's dud.
Obviously loads of good music went largely unnoticed back in the day (as it is the case today as well), but I believe it must have been mainly due to bad promotion.
Releasing singles build on a tried and tested formula is usually the way to go if chart action/sales is to be secured. More often than not, we've seen releases of follow up singles sounding very much like their predecessor. Sometimes it means money in the bank, while in other cases, it just doesn't work since people have already grown tired of the sound.

[QUINNY]

It's simple really.

The best tracks are the ones you like, whether they're massive hits, massive obscurities or somewhere in between. Any true music fan will like a healthy mixture and the nature of music is that it's often the most popular records that are the most difficult to resist.

Personally, I especially mistrust the judgement of anyone who only likes obscurities, because they're just playing a game.

[pepper1dancer]

Why are there Music Critics? How can one person tell a mass of people if an album is good or not? I NEVER understood this. I have albums with some bad ass music and some of my pals wonder, what the heck but that's okay. I LIKE the jam. Let's just enjoy the sound. :roll:

[ol'skinflint]

the "best" tracks are the ones YOU enjoy. Way before the CD age when albums were plentiful and cheap, my favorite pasttime was scrounging bargain bins to unearth obscure treasures. I used to enjoy turning other people on to the good stuff I'd find but couldn't seem to generate the same amount of interest so I'd give up. I'd take all these obscure album tracks and make myself some dynamite compilation tapes, many of which I still enjoy today. Today, I've switched to making personal recordings of rare TV musical performances. There were some awesome musical performances on some recent benefit musical shows for the Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina victims. Madonna really surprised me with a sensitive version of John Lennon's "Imagine". British soul singer Craig David tore up the Beatle's "Come Together" with a tongue tripping rap in the middle, and Rob Thomas put a soulful spin on Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time". But my most treasured recording is the one I made of the performances from "An All Star Tribute to Joni Mitchell". The performances on THAT show, especially Diana Krall's "A Case of You", Cyndi Lauper's "Carey" and Richard Thompson's "Woodstock" blow my mind even though I bet I've played each about 500 times...

[eddie]

I never dug live albums or tribute albums. I previewed the new tribute to Luther Vandross CD and it is not of much interest. The same way with smooth jazz tributes to Luther, R Kelly, or EWF. The hip hop jazz cover albums on Shancahie and Hidden Beach are terrible and add nothing new. But I drove 50 miles the other day just to get Kevin Toney's (Blackbyrds) new smooth jazz release and would do the same for Kim Waters. Those 2 artists with others were prominent on the other tribute Lps.

[ol'skinflint]

I'm not talking about live albums or tribute albums, I'm talking about live PERFORMANCES, most of which seem to never be released as recordings or even on DVDs or videos. Like you, I've been disappointed by "tribute" recordings (they always make me appreciate the originals more) but these performances I've recorded are truly special. In most cases, these performers do new and highly original arrangements of the songs, and that's what makes them so different from the tribute recordings you mentioned. I've already seen a couple people on the internet trying to find copies of these recordings, but mine, especially the Joni Mitchell anniversary concert, leave my house only over my dead body. Instant collector's items. I played one at work once, and one of my co-workers was TRANSFIXED. He asked me "Where did you buy that?" and I said, "You can't buy it anywhere, I made it myself". I could tell by the look on his face that he wanted a copy of it SO BADLY, but he seemed to embarrassed to ask and I'm not sure how I would have responded anyway. And I'm almost positive there'll be some kind of televised musical salute to Luther sometime soon (I've already seen 2 tribute albums). Watch it and I'll bet it'll be better than the tribute albums...

[eddie]

Put in that perspective, there are a few live tracks or revisted tracks that I prefer. In the late 70's, the Ohio players and Betty Wright did full albums for major labels live in the studio that gave certain tracks a unique feel.
Jon Lucien rerecords his 70's stuff but in a more intimate chamber setting. You just hear Jon and his guitar as opposed to strings arranged post hoc in a different city.
Rose Royce has a very well constructed live album that has resurface with many different budget labels. The live version of "Love don't live here anymore" is more powerful vocally and minus the McFadden and Whitehead synthesizers.
Actually my favorite song of all time, "Two occasions" by the Deele is redone atleast partially live. It extends a coda and has an even more dramatic opening.
Confunkshun added a love rap to "I'm leaving" which makes the original obsolete.
With Marvin Gaye, the earlier live albums are better. But that last concert tour is weak and seems to be resurfacing on a different budget label ever month.