Comments on: The Funk of Forty Thousand Years http://rulefortytwo.com/2009/07/02/the-funk-of-forty-thousand-years/ The Self-Aggrandizing Website of Gavin Edwards Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:43:04 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Chris M. http://rulefortytwo.com/2009/07/02/the-funk-of-forty-thousand-years/#comment-980 Chris M. Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:56:42 +0000 http://rulefortytwo.com/2009/07/02/the-funk-of-forty-thousand-years/#comment-980 Actually -- not disagreeing but amplifying your point -- in the early ’80s it was Standard Operating Procedure to put your first single, or your anticipated big single, at the start of Side B. <i>Thriller</i>, <i>Synchronicity</i>, <i>Seven and the Ragged Tiger</i>, <i>Colour by Numbers</i>, <i>Heartbeat City</i> -- the second side of each was led by the first single, or the biggest single ("Billie Jean" got <i>Thriller</i>'s pimp spot even though "The Girl Is Mine" was the leadoff, auguring its status as <i>the</i> legendary single of that album). What changed this pattern was the CD era, and it's appropriate that we're discussing 1982–83 albums here, because that's the very moment the CD was introduced. By the mid-’80s, it seemed weird for the big hit of an album to be track 6 or 7 on disc, and so leadoff singles pretty universally became track 1 thereafter. Actually — not disagreeing but amplifying your point — in the early ’80s it was Standard Operating Procedure to put your first single, or your anticipated big single, at the start of Side B. Thriller, Synchronicity, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, Colour by Numbers, Heartbeat City — the second side of each was led by the first single, or the biggest single (“Billie Jean” got Thriller‘s pimp spot even though “The Girl Is Mine” was the leadoff, auguring its status as the legendary single of that album).

What changed this pattern was the CD era, and it’s appropriate that we’re discussing 1982–83 albums here, because that’s the very moment the CD was introduced. By the mid-’80s, it seemed weird for the big hit of an album to be track 6 or 7 on disc, and so leadoff singles pretty universally became track 1 thereafter.

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