Less Than 2

While working on the Beatlesque playlists (of which there are more to come--woo-hoo!), I noticed that a few of these Beatlesque songs were less than 2 mins long (e.g., Queen's "Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon", Sam Phillips's "Love And Kisses", Spinal Tap's "Cups And Cakes", & several Rutles songs). This got me interested in doing a playlist that contained only pop songs that were less than 2 mins long.

Music History Lesson #37A: In the 50s & early 60s, most pop songs were less than 3 mins long--indeed, many were less than 2 mins long (see The Everly Brothers, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Ray Charles, etc.).

(Music History Lesson #37B: Nowadays, the term "pop" seems to refer only to songs that are light, catchy & short [3-4 mins]--& of no real depth or importance. But initially the term "pop" was just a shortened version of the word "popular"--i.e., "pop" songs were simply & all songs that the kids dug. Starting in the 50s, these songs were usually rock [and its now-estranged partner "roll"] but these songs were also R&B, soul, or even country [and its now-estranged pardner "western"]--as long as they weren't those other, unpopular genres of music: classical, gospel, & sea chantey.)

Music History Lesson #37A (cont'd.): In the mid-60s, pop songs became generally longer than 3 mins--indeed, toward the end of the 60s, many pop songs were over 5 mins long (see The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Temptations, every single prog-rock band, etc.).

In this day of decreasing attention spans & faster-paced media, it's interesting that a popular media staple would become longer. In my opinion, The Beatles were perhaps the biggest impetus behind this change (one of the biggest hits of all-time, "Hey Jude", clocked in over 7 mins).

Along with ushering in the mind-expanding, psychedelic 60s, the Beatles pioneered & changed everything about pop music--incl longer & longer songs, songs which faded out & faded back in ("Strawberry Fields Forever") and songs which didn't end til you picked up the phonograph needle from the LP ("Sgt. Pepper's" inner groove).

Even though The Beatles helped to create longer & longer pop songs, they also continued to create songs less than 2 mins long--but after the mid-60s, these Beatle songs were usu 1) partly-formed toss-offs, or 2) parts of a medley (& both were basically Paul's thing, which he continued through his solo career).

My friend Steve Scholz adds that the spawning of longer & longer pop songs was helped by (if not completely due to) the proliferation of FM radio in the 60s & the subsequent creation & rise of the AOR (Album Oriented Rock) radio format. But who the F cares what he thinks?

(Joke! Hi Steve!)

The point of all this is: Nowadays, pop songs shorter than 3 mins are very rare, starting from about 1963 (which is when The Beatles hit the charts)--& pop songs shorter than 2 mins are even rarer.

Below is the list of songs that I'll be playing on my radio show on KRUU on Thur Apr 10th from 9 to 11 PM Central. All songs are less than 2 mins long, & they were all recorded in or after 1963. In fact, these 78 songs can fit onto 1 CD, so the average length of these songs is just over 1 min.

The links below are to the songs in iTunes, unless notated with an asterisk.

* = Amazon.com (not available in iTunes)

1. Horn Intro - Modest Mouse
2. Theme From Flood - They Might Be Giants (TMBG)
3. Our Prayer - The Beach Boys
4. I'll Cry Instead - The Beatles *
5. Hello There - Cheap Trick
6. Judy Is A Punk - The Ramones
7. Little Honda - The Beach Boys
8. Wild Honey Pie - The Beatles *
9. Spines - TMBG
10. Single Pidgeon - Paul McCartney & Wings
11. Places - Fountains Of Wayne
12. It's Only Love - The Beatles *
13. Nine To Five - The Kinks
14. I Will - The Beatles *
15. Here Come The ABCs - TMBG
16. Who Is It? - Talking Heads
17. Shut Down - The Beach Boys
18. Koka Kola - The Clash
19. Cretin Hop - The Ramones
20. Why Don't We Do It In The Road? - The Beatles *
21. Minimum Wage - TMBG
22. Family Of Me - Ben Folds *
23. Through With Buzz - Steely Dan
24. Yours And Mine - Fountains Of Wayne
25. Hold On - John Lennon
26. Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine - The Beach Boys
27. Love And Kisses - Sam Phillips
28. Mean Mr. Mustard - The Beatles *
29. Polythene Pam - The Beatles *
30. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window - The Beatles *
31. Did You See His Name? - The Kinks *
32. Feelin' - The La's
33. Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue - The Ramones
34. Dance, Dance, Dance - The Beach Boys
35. Backwards Traveller - Paul McCartney & Wings
36. I'm Happy Just To Dance With You - The Beatles *
37. Here Come The 123s - TMBG
38. Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon - Queen
39. I'll Follow The Sun - The Beatles *
40. Spine - TMBG
41. The Lovely Linda - Paul McCartney
42. Be What You See (Link) - Paul McCartney
43. The Moneygoround - The Kinks *
44. Dallas - TMBG
45. Don't Back Down - The Beach Boys
46. Junk - Paul McCartney
47. Till The Morning Comes - Neil Young
48. We're Open Tonight - Paul McCartney & Wings
49. Cripple Creek Ferry - Neil Young
50. Cigarette - Ben Folds Five
51. Another Man's Done Gone - Wilco & Billy Bragg
52. Golden Slumbers - The Beatles *
53. Carry That Weight - The Beatles *
54. Her Majesty - The Beatles *
55. Dig It - The Beatles *
56. Catching On Fire - TMBG ^
57. Fingertips (Banjo) - TMBG ^
58. I Hear The Wind Blow - TMBG ^
59. Hey Now Everybody - TMBG ^
60. Who Is That Standing At My Window - TMBG ^
61. I Found A New Friend - TMBG ^
62. Wreck My Car - TMBG ^
63. Aren't You The Guy? - TMBG ^
64. Please Pass The Milk - TMBG ^
65. Leave Me Alone - TMBG ^
66. Who's Knocking On The Wall? - TMBG ^
67. All Alone By Myself - TMBG ^
68. What's That Blue Thing Doing Here? - TMBG ^
69. Something Grabbed A Hold Of My Hand - TMBG ^
70. I Don't Understand You - TMBG ^
71. I Heard A Sound - TMBG ^
72. Mysterious Whisper - TMBG ^
73. The Day That Love Came To Play - TMBG ^
74. I'm Having A Heart Attack - TMBG ^
75. Fingertips (Reprise) - TMBG ^
76. I Walk Along Darkened Corridors - TMBG ^
77. My Mummy's Dead - John Lennon
78. Maggie Mae - The Beatles *

^ = Songs 56 thru 76 are from the They Might Be Giants 1992 release "Apollo 18", in the order that they appear on the album. On the album, this medley is called "Fingertips", & these songs were intended to take advantage of the then-new feature of "Random Play" on CD players.

The album "Apollo 18" is available in iTunes, but as of today, the iTunes listings of the songs "Fingertips 1: Everything Is Catching On Fire" and "Fingertips 2: Fingertips" have the incorrect song samples & incorrect times.