Hi folks. This post is on something I have been thinking about for quite a while. This concerns some of my favourite rock bands which I have heard on the radio as well as buying their albums on CD, cassette and through iTunes. This is when radio stations were programmed to play two songs in a row and the same two songs back to back, by certain bands. Any of the bands I am mentioning here just so happen to have an album out with two songs in the running order, which are so closely linked together that it is hard to stop the song on time, to move onto the next one. I have actually heard mistakes where the next song would start, while another song by a different band was playing. An example of this is The Police and the album Zenyatta Mondatta and I remember hearing Driven To Tears and if you have the album, you know that next in the running order is When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What’s Still Around. The two songs have no break and this made it hard for radio programmers back in the day, when the music was on vinyl.
I am talking about FM rock radio and it didn’t play music on cart machines like AM radio stations did. Of course, these days it is all on computer, but back then we had situations like that happening sometimes and in case you’re wondering, I had never heard that happen again, unless the entire side of Zenyatta Mondatta was being played, as a set of music, or any other album for that matter.
Unfortunately, I can’t find out how this had originated, but my guess is that it probably happened during the time of album oriented radio in the 70s, when playing a Beatles or Led Zeppelin song, which I will get to in a bit. Then other bands decided to sequence their albums with two or more songs which go together and it could be tailor-made for rock radio, or pure coincidence. Either way, Queen aren’t the only band besides Led Zeppelin and The Beatles to have two songs in a row played together, every time they are heard on the radio.
So, why do radio stations do this with certain songs? Back then there were the long songs which allowed the disc jockey to go to the bathroom and do whatever for those few minutes before returning to the control room and either doing a minute or so of talk, or playing the next song with or without the station ID sandwiched between songs. Back then, radio stations had 3 turntables and two CD players, with probably six cart machines, which had station IDs, commercials and other bits and bites for fun. There is a playlist that each station goes by, in order to meat certain criteria such as, in Canada making sure that 30% of the music in rotation is Canadian. Then there is the amount of talk required and the commercials, along with playing the station ID and contests. I am going from my own memory so, I may not have all of the answers. Anyway, here are some examples of bands having 2 songs in a row and there are some, which I had included because they wouldn’t be complete without each other.
The Beatles is the first band to seemingly do this, with the opening 2 tracks from the 1967 landmark album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, with the title track and With a Little Help From My Friends always being played together in a set of music. It’s rather obvious because they go naturally together like twins and unlike how they have been programmed on radio, they are not as one track on CD, or digital downloads and if you create a playlist, or put your music on shuffle, you will hear one or the other and I will get into how I feel about that later on down. I could have included the Abbey Road Medley, but I wanted to choose the first example because those two songs have always been played as one. Also, parts of the Abbey Road Medley have been split up for various time reasons and I had heard this, on a program called Breakfast With The Beatles on Saturday and Sunday mornings on ChumFM in Toronto.
Queen actually have more than 1 example of twin tracks and you could probably choose the entire black side of Queen II, without Seven Seas of Rhye, but I have never heard any other song on the radio, besides the one I had just mentioned. With Sheer Heart Attack, we have: Tenement Funster, Flick of the Wrist and Lily of the Valley, which is obviously a nod to an album I had previously mentioned. However, the twin tracks which have been programmed to be played together on radio are We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions. I believe the they should be played together on not just radio, but on CD and digital downloads. Unfortunately, with shuffling we get one, but not the other coming next an that is sacrilege. With all the examples and others coming, you have to have the songs on at least one compilation, with all of these twin tracks as one individual track, as apposed to two. When I was living somewhere, they had programming and something called Music Appreciation was one of the classes, the person who ran it played WWRY, but that was it. What? No Champions after it? I didn’t confront the person in charge, because they were only doing this voluntarily and I liked them. However, I could have gone after them if I was not a nice person and given them hell, for not playing the songs together and just playing the one song. I could’ve also given Queen hell, for doing the same thing on the Queen Rocks compilation, but why bother?
Next is The Hellion and Electric Eye from Judas Priest’s 1982 album Screaming for Vengeance. The two tracks have been left as is on all, but one compilation and live album each. The 1997 compilation Living After Midnight has the two tracks as one and the same with Priest…Live! and so far, this is the only example of bands doing the right thing for radio. Yes, I’m looking at you Queen, The Beatles and others! As I am editing this post, this song happens to be playing during a 2 hour block of music, which is all metal after midnight.
Here is an odd one, which doesn’t make sense to me. Led Zeppelin II has Heartbreaker and Living Loving Maid (She’s Just a Woman) played together on FM rock radio, even today. Why? The two songs aren’t exactly related and they are in the same key, but in different pitches and the sound of the two tracks is also quite different, with the drums being higher in the latter and having a dryer mix. Another reason that they do not go together is that only Heartbreaker has been played as a standalone… … live. So, what’s the reason for this, besides one DJ having to go really bad one day?
For the next one, the two songs relate to each other and being in similar tempos, but different keys. In 1978, Journey released their fourth album Infinity. It was produced by a queen producer, but it was the first album to feature Steve Perry on lead vocals. By the way, Brian has nothing but nice things to say about Steve. Anyway,Feeling That Way and Anytime were played together for years on rock and classic rock radio. I wonder what the reason for this is. Was it an accident much like the other examples on this list, except for at least one? Both of these songs feature keyboardist Gregg Rolie, who came from Santana, along with guitarist Neal Schon. Unlike the Led Zeppelin example, this actually works and appearing as the second and third track on the album respectively, it’s a transition between Greg and Steve, even though Lights open side 1. By the way, it was Greg who sang the vocals on some of Santana’s best known songs and among them was Black Magic Woman.
Staying in the 70s, Yes also has a couple of songs played back to back on rock radio back in the day. Their 1972 album Fragile has at least one song, composed by each member of the band at the time. In this case, Long Distance Runaround (written by singer Jon Anderson and “The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)” composed by basis Chris squire, whom Deacy is certainly a fan of. I have heard both songs played back to back and for the longest time, I thought they were one until I boughtFragile in January 1994, in order to learn one of the songs on guitar at school. In case you’re wondering, I have forgotten how to play Mood for a Day, as I am not a classical player. I only learned it because somebody else did and I bought the album because I like the band and their sound at the time.
Even a 90s punk band was affected by this, in that on Green Day’s 1995 album Insomniac, there is a pair of tracks side-by-side and one of them happens to be the single Brain Stew and the second track in this companion piece is Jaded. I actually heard both songs in 1996 on the radio together at least once and once is enough for me, to remember this pairing of songs, even if it was a mistake. It’s funny, the two also appear with each other on the 2001 album International Superhits! and on Greatest Hits: God’s Favorite Band, Brain Stew appears alone.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience has a pair of songs which ran together and are so closely linked that you have to hear them back to back, or else it’s not complete. On the 1968 album Electric Ladyland we have 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) which was separated on the 1993 remaster of the album, but put together on more recent remasters the short sound collage Moon, Turn the Tides…Gently Gently Away at the end of A Merman I Should Turn to Be. I did hear all three tracks on the radio during the long running program Psychedelic Sunday on Q107 and I never forgot that. I forget exactly where the two tracks were separated on the 1993 remaster but it came to mind before I discovered the newly remastered version with the different track assignments on Youtube Music.
Here we go with another band you would not expect to have two songs played in sequence regularly. AC/DC are another band which have two songs on an album, which are right after each other and no break between them. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap has its own song pairing, with Big Balls and Rocker. No, this was not a mistake as at least one radio station I have listened to over the years was programmed to play the two songs back to back whenever Big Balls was played. I’m not sure how they did that with CDs, but with records it was easy to just let the songs run together and don’t do anything. My guess is that neither song was released as a single, but listeners like them so much that it was decided that they should be played back to back and so, that came to pass for a few years anyway. I haven’t heard those songs on the radio in a long time.
I can’t forget about The Dark Side of the Moon and the last two songs off of the album, which have always been played together. How could you not play Brain Damage and Eclipse together? They are in the same key and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were recorded together at the same time.
Finally, here’s another odd one from a band you would not expect and I certainly had no idea that they could do that. The album Stampede by The Doobie Brothers went off in other directions and the singleI Cheat the Hangman was sometimes played back to back with the next track entitled Precis. I get it, because I’m guessing that a previous remaster to the one in 2016, had the two songs as one track. Then in 2016, they were separated and to be honest, I like it the other way even though it’s wrong. I wonder, if I can find a compilation with the two songs on it as they are, without being separated as two tracks. Anyway, that’s a weird one which I heard on the radio in 1991, with Andy Frost and his show called Overnight, which was broadcast across Canada starting in June of that year with Q107 as the flagship station.
There may be more from the classic FM rock era, but I can’t think of them offhand. However, there is one I could consider from more recent years and by a more recent band I had done in The Show Must Go On, back in December. Tool actually have two sets of songs like that which (if they were to be played on Radio) could be played back to back and it wouldn’t raise a fuss. On the 2006 album 10,000 Days we have: Wings for Marie, Pt. 1 and 10,000 Days (Wings, Pt. 2) as they are in the same key and have a very similar ending. Together, if it was one track it would be 17 minutes long. The second example is also from 10,000 Days and in this case, the first track leads into the second track in this two track series. If you have the album, listen to the whole thing and especially check out the tracksLost Keys (Blame Hofmann) and Rosetta Stoned. In the case of Tool, neither example was played on the radio in full, but in the case of Wings for Marie, Pt. 1 and 10,000 Days (Wings, Pt. 2) I found a video on YouTube with both songs together. I haven’t found the other pair of songs as yet.
With pairs of songs like these listed here and others, it’s a pain when listening to music on shuffle, as it’s random and you hear either one, or the other and the chances of hearing the two songs together, is probably quite rare. That’s where creating a playlist comes in handy, as you have control over what music goes into the body of the list. Also, these are only songs which have been played on the radio together and not linked songs, just because they happen to be linked. That’s where Queen II comes in and I will do a post on the album on March 8th.