When you hear Queen’s We Will Rock You on the radio, you know it’s going to be followed by We Are the Champions. The pause between the songs - on the compilation and IIRC, the album - is just the right amount for radio.
Artists get paid (a little) for airplay. Why don’t more of them exploit this? If you were an REM or a U2 - or their record company - why wouldn’t you at least make it possible by the sequencing of songs on your next compilation?
Most radio stations strictly control the length a song can be before they’ll play it, so no extended tracks for new songs.
I would also submit that most current bands (that get airplay, anyway) aren’t creative enough songwriters to makes segues sound like anything but jarring stops/starts anyway.
Really though, it’s never been that common of a practice. There’s the Queen example you mention and the famous segue to the coda of Layla and I really can’t think of that many others. I’d bet it has to do with marketing and sales though. If you have two parts decent enough to be a good two-part song with an interesting segue, why not just make them 2 completely seperate songs and sell twice as many singles?
Isn’t there an INXS song like this?
The second half is the song with all the words that end in -ate.
Somewhat on the same topic:
(Songs that have to be played together)
Van Halen- Eruption must be followed by Girl You Really Got Me Now
Prince- I Would Die 4U must be followed by Baby Your A Star
Pure speculation on my part, but I think the Queen case mentioned above was due to the fact that both songs were released as a “double A” side. (I think Sheer Heart Attack was the flip side. - Don’t really remember, and my 45s are in storage)
Anyways, when the DJs played the We Will Rock You single, they had a choice, they could lift the needle before the next song on the 45 played, or they could let it play. I would guess that most DJs found it easier to let it play, and it eventually became traditional to play them both together.
Again - pure speculation.
That’d be “Need You Tonight”/“Mediate” from Kick.
For my part, I can’t stand that you never hear “We Will Rock You” without “We Are the Champions” on the radio. There’s something so sheep-like about it.
FYI- The two were finally broken up on the Queen Rocks compilation, it being a collection of strictly up-tempo rockers.
It only happened once, but a radio station played Journey’s “Feelin’ That Way” and did not back it up with “Anytime”. It was very odd.
Tool’s “Parabol” and “Parabola” off of its *Lateralus * album are two completely different sounding songs with pretty much the same lyrics and so flawless a segue that on the album, you can’t even tell you’ve moved onto a new track unless you look at the track listing or otherwise know.
Artists have done various segues. However, if they put two songs together, it’s likely to be called “Song A/Song B” and be considered one song for ASCAP/BMI credit.
For instance, there’s the segue of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help from my Friends,” or Traffic’s “Glad/Freedom Rider.”
Led Zeppelin also does this with “Heartbreaker/Living Loving Maid (She’s Just A Woman).”
And don’t forget the Alan Parsons Project’s Sirius/Eye in the Sky. I suspect that a lot of people are unaware that they’re two different songs.
Some more examples:
Judas Priest Hellion/Electric Eye
Van Halen Intruder/Pretty Woman
Crack the Sky Hold On/Surf City
Those are the only ones I can think of at the moment.
There’s a version of Stay which goes
and is the second half of a pair. I don’t remember the first half because the stations I’ve been listening to only play Stay.
Just a Gigolo/Ain’t Got Nobody by David Lee Roth might possibly count, though I guess it’s not so much a segue as a combination.
Jeff Olsen, is the version of Stay you’re thinking of the Jackson Browne one? It comes out of the The Load-out. A good example of a real segue rather than the sequencing artifact I’m wondering about. Stay is a cover of a Maurice Williams song and was also covered by the Four Seasons. I’ve never heard the Browne version played by itself on radio.
I guess
is a fair bit of the answer to my question - it no doubt applies to the David Lee Roth medley GuanoLad mentions (although I’m pretty sure both of them were covers anyway).
I doubt this applied to Queen, since they were always pretty careful with money. My recollection from when I used to record a bit was that if it’s listed as a separate track, it’s counted as a separate track for royalties purposes. In any case, when you’re making your greatest hits album and considering whether to squeeze two tracks fairly close together to encourage DJs to play them together this is no longer an issue.
It’s been a long while since I’ve heard any Alan Parsons Project on the radio, although as it happens I was noodling Eye In the Sky on guitar last weekend.
Thanks! That’s the one. Stations that play soft rock tend to play Stay but not The Load Out. That could be due to their copy of Stay being a live version.
I don’t know if this counts, but Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” segues into the instrumental “Gypsy Queen” on both the album Abraxas and always does so when played on the radio.
I used to think it was all one song with an outro like “Layla” or Guns and Roses’ “November Rain”. I was very disappointed when I got a Santana “Greatest Hits” CD some time ago, “Black Magic Woman” just ended without the ‘outro’.
Pink Floyd
Brain Damage/Eclipse
The Happiest Days of Our Lives (Well, when we grew up and went to school …) /Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2 (We don’t need no education.
We don’t need no thought control …)
Maybe the DJ wants to make sure that the listeners are RAWKIN’ while he heads out for a quick bathroom break. 
IIRC, Louis Prima did the originals the same way.