David Bowie’s Cygnet Committee, from his album Space Oddity, at just a little over nine and half minutes.
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed Allman Brothers
Blue Room by The Orb - 17+ minutes
Born Slippy - Underworld - 11+ minutes
Like a Hurricane - Neil Young - 8+
Controversy - Prince 7+
Nope, the regular release of Machine Head.
Particularly for the songs from the 70s and early 80s, odds are that:
- They were never actually released as singles
- If they were, it may well have been as a truncated version (e.g., Yes’s “Roundabout”, which is 8:29, was released as a single version at 3:27)
This was because:
- Many Top-40 radio stations at that time rarely played songs that were longer than 4 to 5 minutes
- 45-rpm singles were limited to about a 5-minute length. “American Pie”'s release as a 45 required it to be split into two sections, each on one side of a 45.
So, many of the long “hits” of that era probably were not hits in the top-40 sense. They probably got most of their radio airplay on album-oriented rock stations.
Going back over this thread, I noticed a lack of TR/Utopia songs. Let me correct that oversight:
Initiation – 7:03
Utopia Theme – 14:31
The Seven Rays – 8:52
Overture: Mountaintop and Sunrise/Communion with the Sun – 7:15
Hmmm, not many of my favorite songs are ‘hits’ But the ones in my iTunes that are, and not yet in the list:
‘No Woman No Cry’ by Bob Marley
‘One’ by Metallica
‘Champagne Supernova’ by Oasis
‘Nights in White Satin’ by the Moody Blues
I’m kinda surprised it took 47 posts for a Tool song to be mentioned. I’ll say *Vicarious *(7:07) and Jambi (7:29) count since both were played extensively on the radio (and both at full length for a few months after the release of that album, at least here in Tucson). Schism (6:48) just missed, and Pushit (9:56) was never a single, but all four are in my top 10 songs ever.
Rock Lobster by The B-52s.
The recorded version of Phish’s “You Enjoy Myself” clocks in at 9:47, and the version I heard at MSG Friday night went a bit past 20 minutes.
Clearly not a commerical hit, but it is the song they’ve played more than any other in their live history, and it’s probably the biggest song among the Phishy faithful.
And just because I want to, I’ll mention Genesis again. “Supper’s Ready” is the gold standard, and “The Musical Box” off of Nursery Crime fits the bill.
Antoher huge radio hit the fits is “Roundabout” by Yes.
“Voodoo Chile” - Jimi Hendrix. Not the “Slight Return” version, mind you. The long one.
Sky Pilot 1 & 2 by the Animals.
Desperado with the refrian by the Eagles