# Do you own any albums on which you only like 1 song? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [April 8, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799 "2025-04-08T18:10:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/41 "2025-04-09T14:04:06Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > The _Emotional Rescue_ album by The Rolling Stones has one good song on it, but that one song is probably my favorite song of theirs, period. > > The one good song is [She’s So Cold](https://youtu.be/jo34VhfcetU?si=X9rP6TnXks7F85UG). I’m with the folks who regard the Big Four (_Beggars Banquet_, _Let It Bleed_, _Exile_, and _Sticky Fingers_) as their peak. They had matured by then but still had their youthful energy. (I remember listening to _Voodoo Lounge_ for the first time and hearing, in “Brand New Car,” the lyric “I want to check if her oil smells good, mm, smells like caviar” and thinking, "Wow, this sure isn’t the Mick Jagger of “Satisfaction.” I guess I shouldn’t have expected it to be, thirty years later, give or take, but still.) Throw in _Some Girls_ as their last great album (in my opinion), and you have the Essential Stones Collection in those five titles. Anyway, to address the actual topic, all their later ones are, to my ear, pretty “meh,” with maybe one standout track. I like “Saint of Me” on _Bridges to Babylon_ quite a bit. I like “Rock and a Hard Place” on _Steel Wheels_. But if I’m in the mood for a whole Rolling Stones album, I’m going to go with one of the aforementioned essentials. For me, they’re the ones that deliver the goods. That said, they’re still in the small group of artists whose new releases I’ll buy automatically without the need to hear anything first (although at this point, there may not be any more new Stones releases.). But I put them in that group (mumble mumble) years ago. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/42 "2025-04-09T14:05:07Z")
I used to own albums with no songs I liked. Anyone else ever owned Brain Salad Surgery? ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/43 "2025-04-09T14:07:14Z")
And now I (and probably a few others) am going to be listening to the song with headphones trying to find the three-syllable word: “One word is made up of three syllables and they come from three different takes.” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/44 "2025-04-09T14:15:26Z")
I’m guessing “candlestick.” ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/45 "2025-04-09T14:15:37Z")
Way back when I bought Blues Traveller’s album _four_ because I liked the song “Run Around” so much, and I thought the rest of the album would be like that. Actually the rest of the album is mediocre bluesy pop. Not bad music, but nothing to write home about either. ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/46 "2025-04-09T14:17:43Z")
Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression—Part 2 is pretty special. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/cc6ymS4NGxg/maxresdefault.jpg "Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Karn Evil 9 1st Impression Part 2 (Official Audio)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc6ymS4NGxg) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/47 "2025-04-09T14:19:20Z")
I guess you’d be disappointed if you bought it for the song “Brain Salad Surgery.” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/48 "2025-04-09T14:19:36Z")
Talking about the Stones, I remembered I like One Hit (to the Body) but nothing else off Dirty Work. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/49 "2025-04-09T14:20:05Z")
or ‘carnation’ ? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/50 "2025-04-09T14:24:39Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Talking about the Stones, I remembered I like One Hit (to the Body) but nothing else off Dirty Work. Yeah, probably their weakest album, but their cover of “Harlem Shuffle” also was quite decent. ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/51 "2025-04-09T15:45:14Z")
I bought the Randy Newman album _Land of Dreams_ on the strength of the song “It’s Money That Matters”. That’s the only song on the album that sounds like that… maybe because Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits played guitar on it? Perhaps, if I got it back out and listened to it again as an adult, I would feel differently, but I did not care for anything else on that album. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/52 "2025-04-09T17:28:23Z")
Len’s “Steal My Sunshine” was a complete outlier on You Can’t Stop the Bum Rush album. I think that was the last time that I rushed out and bought a whole album based on one song (in the days before streaming). ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/53 "2025-04-09T17:53:18Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > I’m guessing “candlestick.” > [@zimaane](#): > > or ‘carnation’ ? Not sure. I’m leaning toward “Candlestick” Just for fun, here’s what they look like in Audacity, undoubtedly compressed and limited and EQ’d and rerecorded so much that all seams have been erased: [“Carnation”](https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-5NVVZhp/0/K8LBDzdrbmkHL4MmTfKTjPVQzpfPxbhdBkkJwghw2/4K/i-5NVVZhp-4K.png) [“Candlestick”](https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-NfkQC7N/0/NQXSX46QkhJBrx57Ws6vW8f7XV6SHTJGpGhhT62Nm/4K/i-NfkQC7N-4K.png) ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/54 "2025-04-09T22:04:25Z")
The way I heard it was: when asked the meaning of American Pie, Don McLean said “it means I never have to work another day in my life.” ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/55 "2025-04-09T23:10:37Z")
Stories floated for years that he refused to pay that song in concert and “hated it.” Not long ago he was asked about that and said “Why should I hate that song? It made me a millionaire overnight.” ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/56 "2025-04-09T23:29:06Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > Most prominent is **“The Crazy World of Arthur Brown,”** released on **Pete Townshend’s Track Records** label in 1968. It contains Brown’s megahit **“Fire,”** which I have on a 45 rpm single. I found the album in the dollar bin at Woolworth’s one day in 1970 or 71, bought it and for some reason, have never gotten around to playing it. I come across it occasionally, and briefly consider throwing it on the turntable. And then I think, “Nah. Not today.” > > Never heard “Fire?” Look it up. It was quite outrageous in its day. I still can’t believe it got played on Top 40 radio. Way, WAY back in the day, I ran out and bought **Crazy World** after seeing Brown perform “Fire” on Ed Sullivan (or Smothers Brothers, I can’t quite recall). I would highly recommend listening to at least “The Great Spontaneous Apple Creation” just to learn where the “crazy” comes from… ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/57 "2025-04-10T01:22:32Z")
I’m sure I must own a number of albums where I like only one song. Certainly back in the 1980s, I didn’t hesitate to buy an LP at a used record store where the LPs were just a buck or two, just to get the one song on the record that I knew I liked. But my collection is large enough that the records like that gather dust, and I have no idea whether I’d like any of the other songs on the LP if I listened to it now. > [@aceplace57](#): > > Blondie’s album _Parallel Lines_. I had heard and liked _Heart of Glass_ on the radio. This was the first time I realized music was shifting away from what I liked. Punk wasn’t my jam. It wasn’t theirs either. They straddled the worlds of pop, disco, and New Wave, but New Wave wasn’t punk by any means, and Blondie was nowhere close to punk. Hard for me to imagine liking pop music and not liking _Parallel Lines_’ opening combo of “Hanging on the Telephone” and “One Way or Another.” ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/58 "2025-04-10T01:30:34Z")
Not just one song on the album, one in the entire oeuvre! **Donna Summer** ’s version of _State of Independence_ is better than the original, but I cannot stand anything else she’s ever done. **New Radicals** _You Get What You Give_. **Buffalo Tom** _Taillights Fade_. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/59 "2025-04-10T01:40:02Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > It wasn’t theirs either. They straddled the worlds of pop, disco, and New Wave, but New Wave wasn’t punk by any means, and Blondie was nowhere close to punk. > > Hard for me to imagine liking pop music and not liking _Parallel Lines_’ opening combo of “Hanging on the Telephone” and “One Way or Another I forgot One Way was on that album. I’ve always liked it. I always selected the songs I liked and recorded them to a cassette hits tape. The albums I bought had some value even if it was only for a couple songs. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799/60 "2025-04-10T15:12:24Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I had heard and liked _Heart of Glass_ on the radio. This was the first time I realized music was shifting away from what I liked. Punk wasn’t my jam. It wasn’t theirs either. They straddled the worlds of pop, disco, and New Wave, but New Wave wasn’t punk by any means, and Blondie was nowhere close to punk. [/quote] Very true. A lot of bands around that era got labelled as ‘punk’ because it was the buzzword of the moment. But I was in London when actual _punk_ got started, and let me tell you, the ‘real thing’ was absolute rubbish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-any-albums-on-which-you-only-like-1-song/1016799.md?page=4)