OK, so there’s two songs often played in succession (We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions)
one song with two different parts (in Question it starts one way, changes, goes back to the first way; others have one part and then the next, no going back to the first)
medleys – the one I thought of – Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly -Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels,
Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly/cc Rider aka Detroit Medley- Springsteen
What, nobody’s mentioned “Freebird” yet?
Starts off as a southern rock ballad, and ends with a raucous three-part guitar solo that… well, never seems to end.
Seems like Journey had a couple of those pairs-of-songs-smooshed-together but I can’t think of which songs they were right off the top of my head.
Paradise by the Dashboard Light by Meatloaf, maybe?
Opeth’s “Ghost of Perdition” is at least 4 songs in one.
Some of Estradasphere’s songs are so disjointed I lose count of how many songs are really in there.
Actually, on listening to Opeth’s “Ghost of Perdition” I think there are maybe 6 songs in there. In any case, even if you don’t like metal or death metal or whatever, if you like complex and intelligent songwriting, you really are cheating yourself if you don’t listen to “Ghost of Perdition.” The harmoniesthat kick in a couple places are wonderful, the transitions are practically seamless, the song is ten and a half minutes long but never gets monotonous. OK, done being Opeth’s sales whore. Just give it a listen, pretty please?
Irving Berlin said that in ‘Dancing Cheek To Cheek’, the ‘Dance with me, I want my arms about you…’ section in the middle was a fragment from a completely different song. He had a ‘hole’ in the middle of ‘cheek to cheek’, and he hadn’t finished the other song, whatever it might have turned out to be, so he decided to kill two birds with one stone and simply shove the ‘Dance with me…’ segment into Cheek to Cheek. When you know this, it’s clear that they are parts of utterly different songs. But it somehow works.
Nah, I disagree. Freebird really just builds and builds, but is basically the same song. Would you count “Hotel California” and “Stairway to Heaven?” I wouldn’t, but they have the same sort of feel, to me.
And I’m not sure about “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” It truly is one of my very favorite songs, and I thought long and hard about mentioning it. I love the Phil Rizzuto interlude, but I’m not 100% sure that it quite fits. Or maybe it does, I’m not prepared to argue vehemently.
Joe
That reminds me, I haven’t heard Al Stewart’s Nostradamus /World Goes To Riyadh in about a million years.
A classical example is Ave Maria by which incorporates a melody by Gounod and Bach’s first prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier.
Cupid/I’ve Loved You For A Long Time, The Spinners
Superstar/Till You Come Back To Me, Luther Vandross
Good call. Didn’t come to mind, but the version on “Bowie at the Beeb” is just the main song without the homo-erotic poem in the middle.
My contribution: Heavy Duty/Defenders of the Faith – Judas Priest
Glad/Freedom Rider by Traffic
On further reflection, Judas Priest did a lot of this:
The Hellion / Electric Eye
Winter/Deep Freeze/Winter Retreat/Cheater (a rare four-fer)
Let us Prey/Call for the Priest
I’m sure there’s probably more. Ironically, my player chose “Width of a Circle” (previously mentioned) as I’m typing this…
I’m not sure if this counts or not, but the middle interlude of McArthur Park sounds completely different from the opening/closing sections. Also, Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey by Wings sounds like a bunch of songs thrown together, including the odd “Be a gypsy” section.
I recall reading somewhere that Petula Clark’s hit “Don’t Sleep in the Subway” was cobbled together out of two different songs.
Oh, apparently, per Wikipedia, it’s cobbled together from three different songs.