Was any song on that album ever consider popular?
Was anything on there ever considered a song?
Neil Young’s “Arc” is close. It’s a 35 minutes compound of guitar feedback from his 1990 tour with Crazy Horse. If you listen carefully, there’s a real sense of composition in this piece though (done by editing in the studio).
Good point.
I’ve listened to both these albums and at least Arc has parts I would call “musical”. Metal Machine Music…not so much.
I was unable to find a chart position but this is Utah Phillip’s most popular “song”(spoken actually) and it involves shit eating(no mention of grinning).
I congratulate your adventurousness, I couldn’t listen to the whole of Metal Machine Music other than in snippets, that convinced me that it’s unhearable. I even OWN a copy of Arc, and at least listened twice, and yes you’re right, it still has a resemblance to music. But I love both guys, bless 'em even for their “experiments”. At least they gave us some peculiarities to talk about on message boards.
And it has an interesting history. The Strange Story Of 'Convoy': How A Trucker's Protest Anthem Became A '70s Hit : NPR
and
“Convoy” Creators Chip Davis and William Fries Roll On To Success
are fun reads.
And note that one of the two dudes founded Mannheim Steamroller, which is about as far as you can get from Convoy.
I have fond memories of hearing that song as a young teen!
It was the first 45 RPM record that I ever bought, and I played it so often (on such cheap equipment) that it’s now full of pops and scratches – yes, I still have that 45.
I might’ve fast-forwarded MMM a bit 
I also love both artists and also own Arc and have listened to it a few times(came with the Arc Weld set and I do like Weld). I nearly always try albums a few times and sometimes I find that I love them after I come to “understand” them. That didn’t happen with Arc. Another Young album I had to listen to multiple times but I did come around to: Trans. I love that version of Mr. Soul!
Mr. Young released an electronic album called “Trans” a decade earlier. This had an official video, although I didn’t find one.
I’d love to Be #1 in Sweden. For just about anything.
Okay. I could maaaaybe see somehow not recognizing Foreplay. It’s a long instrumental intro that an expert could maaaaaybe confuse with various other prog* organ noodlings. But no WAY this guy didn’t recognize Long Time.
.
*I don’t necessarily consider Boston to be prog but the quotee mentioned this guy is into prog rock so he’s likely got a lot of organ noodling stuck in his head.
That song always seemed to me to reek of pedophilia. Maybe it was just the whole grown man singing a duet with a little boy thing. But also playgrounds and buying candy and shit.
Just creepy as all fuck to me.
“Rock On,” by David Essex, from 1973:
It made number 3 in the UK, number 1 in Canada, and number 5 in the USA.
But just what was it? Wikipedia calls it “glam rock,” but it’s not at all like what other glam rockers were putting out. It sure wasn’t “singer-songwriter with a guitar.” It wasn’t a story song, or early disco, or bubblegum. It was … just different.
“One Night in Bangkok” – Murray Head (1984)
And then Michael Damian’s cover made #1 on the Hot 100 sixteen years later.
REM’s song Losing My Religion still perplexes me. And it is over thirty years old. (Here is the official video and here are the lyrics.)
It seems totally nonsensical, from beginning to end. But it has to have some meaning, if only to the artist.
And BTW the artist, Michael Stipe, has long maintained that it is NOT about religion (even though oddly that is still the dominant theme of the video).
I think the song is a bit easier when you understand that “losing my religion” is an expression meaning you’re losing your temper or otherwise becoming disjointed. I had never heard that expression before 1991, but the lyrics make a lot more sense when you know what that means.
The video is mostly animated versions of religious art.
I’d consider this an unlikely hit, and it was one of their first.
Prisencolinensinainciusol was a big Italian hit song in the 70s. The lyrics are gibberish meant to sound English to Italian ears.