Ohio Players: SkinTight
Yes - “Heart of the Sunrise.” Mesmerizing.
I taught myself two of my favorite basslines.
Bach’s Cello Suite, and the afore mentioned Barney Miller Theme song.
I personally would throw in a Getty Lee song, but I don’t want to pick only one. YYZ maybe, maybe Spirit of the Radio.
The Pretenders, Ohio
Also, check out Edgar Meyer, and look into Klaus Voorman’s work with Nillsson (Jump Into The Fire, for example.)
“I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5 - a rare example of an upbeat dance record with a descending bass line
and
“Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye - and both parts are played by the same guy, Wilton Felder.
not sure if this is what you have in mind for “fun” but Tool’s Undertow is pretty much a bass driven album with the guitar playing rhythm and accents while the bass takes a very very strong role. still one of my favorite albums.
All of the bass playing on Abbey Road is amazing, particularly in the “medley.” They’re not really even bass lines, they’re lead melodies that happen to be played by a bass.
Some other favorites of mine (I play bass by the way)
She is Staggering by Polaris (from the soundtrack to The Adventures of Pete and Pete.)
Swimmers by Broken Social Scene.
Jamaica Say You Will by Jackson Browne (Leland Sklar on the bass)
Introduction and Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is by Chicago
Watching the Detectives by Elvis Costello
The Rezillos, *Flying Saucer Attack *and No just kick ass with a steel toed shoe.
the Jefferson Airplane cover version of Fred Neil’s “the Other Side of This Life.”
White Boys and Heroes, The 1930s Rust and We Take Mystery To Bed, all by Gary Numan from his I, Assassin album. He had discovered the fretless bass, and played around with New Wavy Funk. He found Pino Palladino and had him play the bass lines on the album. White Boys and Heroes is just amazing to me.
Vlad/Igor
It sounds challenging to me but from the musical Hair, the song Black Boys White Boys, during the “White Boys” part.
Soul to Squeeze, Aeroplane - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Rio - Duran Duran
Ruby Soho, Timebomb - Rancid
Is this it? - The Strokes
The Beer Song - Reel Big Fish
Jenny was a friend of mine - The Killers
In the Meantime - Spacehog
“Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)” - Incubus
For the Love of Money - O’Jays, simple but a classic bassline
Although Victor Wooten is beyond a lot of people many of his basslines with the Flecktones are very easy to play…Reflections of Lucy, Half Moon Bay, Sunset Road
As far as songs that taught me techniques:
Portrait of Tracy - Jaco Pastorius pretty much teaches you everything harmonics
Victor Wooten songs helped me learn the double thumb technique, which I’m still perfecting.
Primus and Wooten both have a lot of good slap and two hand tap bass parts.
“Slow Ride” - Foghat
“Cinderella Man” - Rush
“Cowboy Song” - Thin Lizzy
Lately–as a goof–my stuck a chunk of “In-a-gadda-da-vida” into the middle of “Sunshine of your Love”.
I came in here to post something about Jamerson, one of the greatest bass players ever. He played extensively for The Funk Brothers, who were the studio group for all of the top acts from Motown.
“You’re the first, the last, my Everything”, Barry White
You know, another of the all-time great bass lines is on The Stones, “Miss You.”
“Let The Sunshine In” from Hair as done by The Fifth Dimension.
As seen in this quite remarkable video starting at 2:22.
“Strapped For Cash” by Fountains of Wayne. Adam is the perfect bassist for the band, I think. I sometimes hear Macca’s influence when he plays live.
I’ve been really getting into Japanese music lately, and I recently came across this old '80s song, “Vanity Angel”, by a group called “Rebecca”. I’m completely hooked on the bass line, though I haven’t tried to learn it yet:
(Also, for that video somebody posted the best comment I’ve ever seen on YouTube: “And thus I have found the very last music video in which a black man is smiling.” )
Another Japanese band called Zone had a song called Hanabi with a freaking awesome bass line:
It’s even cooler when you know that Maiko Sakae, the bass player, was maybe 16 or 17 years old when the song was recorded. And yes, the girls in this band really played their own instruments. (They were all students at a performing arts high school, similar to the one portrayed in the movie Fame.)