One day last week we had some fun with songs containing numbers in the titles. Like any producer of media content will be tempted to do occasionally, I’m doing a sequel. Here’s a stroll through my library for a few more:
“Two of Us”/Beatles. My short list of favorite Beatles songs includes “In My Life,” “Day Tripper,” “Ticket to Ride,” the Pop Symphony from Abbey Road, and this, which somehow missed becoming an enormous hit single in 1970, likely because it wasn’t released as one.
“40 Days”/Chris Robinson and the New Earth Mud. An ass-kickin’ track from the Black Crowes’ frontman’s other band, and their 2004 album called This Magnificent Distance. It occurs to me that if Robinson had been born in 1946 instead of 1966, he’d have been considered among the best hard rockers of the 60s and 70s, instead of being a niche act in the 90s and the new millennium.
“Two-Bass Hit”/Miles Davis Quintet. A quick burst of bebop, recorded live in 1958, from The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions box. This isn’t one of them, but there are several tracks on the box recorded live at about the same time on the Steve Allen incarnation of The Tonight Show. They’re notable for Allen’s introductions, which are full of sneering disdain for Davis’ music. Why the famously combative trumpeter didn’t punch Allen’s lights out, I have no idea.
“High Fives”/Simply Red. The guys over at Allmusic.com have been caught wondering why Simply Red hasn’t been the subject of a Where Are They Now? special on VH1 yet. For all I know, they have—although they haven’t exactly disappeared; Mick Hucknall regularly releases music under the name, although the band is a band the way Steely Dan was a band toward the end. This is from the 1998 album Blue.
“No One in the World”/Anita Baker. For about 10 minutes in the late ’80s, Anita Baker was a superstar. Her debut album, Rapture, was magnificent (“No One in the World” was a single from the album); the next one, Giving You the Best That I Got, went to Number One before anybody realized it wasn’t nearly as good. After a third album, Baker took a break from recording to raise a family, releasing only a couple of albums in the next 10 years, both of which contained work that was nominated for Grammys.
“4th of July Asbury Park (Sandy)”/Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. In which all of Springsteen’s romanticism and poetic gifts are on display. Possibly the greatest Springsteen song nobody mentions when naming the greatest Springsteen songs.
“99″/Toto. I’m surprised none of our readers came up with this one, the lead single from Toto’s second album, Hydra. That album strikes me as an underrated one, the musical equal of the more-honored and larger-selling Toto IV.
“992 Arguments”/O’Jays. Another great cut from Back Stabbers. This was actually the second single, but it stalled at Number 57. So Gamble and Huff went back to the well for single number 3. That was “Love Train,” which went to Number One and became the biggest hit the O’Jays ever had.
“Hungarian Goulash No. 5″/Allan Sherman. We’ve discussed Sherman here before—the former TV producer turned folksong parodist who scored three Number One albums in an 11-month span in 1962 and 1963 before the British Invasion swept him away.
“2 + 2 = ?”/Bob Seger System. This was the very first single by the Bob Seger System, released in early 1968. It made the Top Ten in Detroit, of course, but didn’t chart nationally, in part because its lyric about questioning authority was pretty strong stuff for AM radio at that point in time. The flip-side, “Death Row,” was even stronger, and is like nothing you’ve ever heard Seger do before.
“2 + 2 = ?”/Bob Seger System
“Death Row”/Bob Seger System
(Most of Seger’s early albums are out of print, which is more evidence for my contention that there’s no major artist who needs the comprehensive box-set treatment more. “2 + 2 = ?” is on the 1969 release Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man; “Death Row” is on Seger’s second album, Noah. Good luck finding them.)
Filed under: Tracks
I have to agree on the Beatles tune – simply phenomenal craftmanship! And somebody else knows 2+2=? Although I shouldn’t be surprised!
Thanks, JB, for mentioning “99″ by Toto, off their 1979 album “Hydra,” one of their best albums. It’s one of my favorite “headphones” albums. “All Us Boys,” “Lorraine,” “White Sister” and even “St George and the Dragon” are all good songs. Toto was unfairly labeled as a “wimp” band simply because many of their hits were ballads, but their first hit, “Hold The Line” and their follow-up, “I’ll Supply the Love” are hardly ballads. Even their biggest hit “Roseanna” (from Toto IV) has parts that rock out, especially when you play it off the album. In fact, songs off Toto IV, like “Afraid of Love” and “Lovers in the Night” absolutely rock out!