Best Three-in-a-Row Track Listing from Original Album Source

The title is a bit clunky.

I mean what is the best back-to-back-to-back song listing on an original album. This doesn’t include greatest hits compilations or the like.

As one of the board’s resident (Steely) Danophiles, I’d be inclined to go with the opening one-two-three punch from Aja. It leads in with Black Cow then to **Aja **and then Deacon Blues.

Sergeant Pepper’s opening of the title track to With a Little Help from My Friends and Lucy in the Sky is great as well.

But I don’t think anything can top Michael Jackson’s **Thriller **which is great beginning to end (if you discount his duet with Sir Paul, namely, the Girl is Mine). **Thriller **leads to Beat It which leads to Billie Jean (and then Human Nature for that matter). Any one of them could be considered the best track on the album to have them follow in succession is what puts **Thriller **in a class of its own.

Side One of Led Zeppelin IV consists of Black Dog, Rock and Roll, The Battle of Evermore and Stairway to Heaven. That’s a 1-2-3 or a 2-3-4 that’s hard to beat.

The final three songs on Who’s Next are Going Mobile, Behind Blue Eyes and Won’t Get Fooled Again. That might be the best 1-2-3 punch to close an album.

Queen’s News of the World opens with We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions and Sheer Heart Attack.

For a more recent album how about songs 2-3-4 from R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People: Try Not to Breathe, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite and Everybody Hurts.

Too many to pick from, but More Than A Feeling/Peace of Mind/Long Time from Boston has got to be on the list.

I’ll go with the last three songs on “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” by David Bowie:

Ziggy Stardust
Suffragette City
Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide

The first 3 songs on A Trick of the Tail:
Dance on a Volcano
Entangled
Squonk

All 3 are Genesis classics.

From “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” by Wilco:
Ashes of American Flags
Heavy Metal Drummer
I’m The Man Who Loves You

More obscure answer – from “The Grand Theatre Vol I” by Old 97s:
Every Night Is Friday Night (Without You)
The Magician
You Were Born To Be In Battle

Totally joke answer – “Close To The Edge” by Yes:
Close To The Edge
And You And I
Siberian Khatru

Queen Jane Approximately
Highway 61 Revisited
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues

Dead-serious answer-- “Relayer” by Yes:
The Gates Of Delirium
Sound Chaser
To Be Over

“Queen II” side White – “Procession” into “Father to Son” into “White Queen.” 15 non-stop Queen-a-licious minutes.

My pick is the same album, but

Entangled
Squonk
Mad man moon

Montrose:
Rock The Nation
Bad Motor Scooter
Space Station #5

Fleetwood Mac Rumours side one:
Don’t Stop
Go Your Own Way
Songbird

This side also includes:
Second Hand News
Dreams
Never Going Back Again


Billy Joel The Stranger side two:
Vienna
Only The Good Die Young
She’s Always A Woman

The Who, Quadrophenia Side 4:
Dr. Jimmy
The Rock
Love, Reign O’er Me

Peter Gabriel, So, your choice of:
A) Red Rain
Sledgehammer
Don’t Give Up

B)In Your Eyes
Mercy Street
Big Time

You pick em. Either the first three or the last three on side 2 of Purple Rain:

“When Doves Cry”
“I Would Die 4 U”
“Baby I’m a Star”
“Purple Rain”

The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus has several.

“Prelude/Nothing to Hide”
“Natures Way”
“Animal Zoo”
then
“Love Has Found a Way”
“Why Can’t I Be Free?”
“Mr. Skin.”
And on the second side:
“Life has Just Begun”
“Morning Will Come”
“Soldier.”

Van Morrison’s Moondance
“Moondance”
“Crazy Love”
“Caravan”

It’s a Beautiful Day from the group of the same name
“White Bird”
“Hot Summer Day”
“Wasted Union Blues”
Then it continues with
“Girl with No Eyes”
(side 2)
“Bombay Calling”
“Bulgaria”
And, of course “Time Is”

And, of course, Emitt Rhodes (Pick any three).
“With My Face on the Floor”
“Somebody Made for Me”
“She’s Such a Beauty”
“Long Time No See”
“Lullabye”
“Fresh as a Daisy”
“Live Till You Die”
“Promises I’ve Made”
“You Take the Dark out of the Night”
“You Should Be Ashamed”
“Ever Find Yourself Running”
“You Must Have”

Rod Stewart’s Every Picture Tells a Story
“Maggie May”
“Mandolin Wind”
“(I Know) I’m Losing You”
“Reason to Believe”

On the theme of Prince. the First three tracks of 1999 are

  1. 1999
  2. Little Red Corvette
  3. Delirious

Hey ho, let’s go! hey ho, let’s go!

Blitzkrieg Bop
Beat on the Brat
Judy Is a Punk

Ramones Ramones

I am loving these - firing off sequential neurons in my brain.

It’s funny, I don’t think of sequences of songs, even though my brain always starts playing the next song on the album ahead of time.

The only run of songs that comes to mind isn’t even sequential - there’s a meh song in the middle - but it’s the one where I just shake my head as it goes from song to sing and I hear the powerpop goodness:

Big Star, Radio City:

  • Mod Lang
  • Back of a Car
  • Daisy Glaze (meh)
  • She’s a Mover
  • September Gurls

Stones, Sticky Fingers:

Brown Sugar, Sway, Wild Horses

Jethro Tull, Aqualung:

Aqualung, Cross-Eyed Mary, Mother Goose (or am I forgetting one of the short acoustic songs?)

Radiohead, OK Computer:

No Surprises, Lucky, The Tourist