Best Overall Solo Single That Missed the UK Top 20?

Best Overall Solo Single That Missed the UK Top 20?

  • Dagenham Dave (Nobody Loves Us/You Must Please Remember)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    38

Jamie

Bluff, Ardour & Assoc.
Of the 15 Morrissey singles that received a standard UK issue, which one do you feel is the best as a whole? I have included the B-side titles to the 12"/CD edition(s) so you can consider their merits, alone or combined, as well as the quality of the artwork.

I truncated a few of the titles to meet the character limit. Also, the poll limits choices to 15, hence the exclusion of Interlude since it is not billed to Morrissey alone.
 
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This is a great idea for a poll. Wow, I didn't realize that there were so many great Moz songs that didn't make the UK Top 20.


I voted for "Sunny." It's my favorite Morrissey song of all-time, and one of my top ten favorites by anyone. It's such a genuine song, I listened to it four times in a row while driving around yesterday. It's everything that I like in a song, it's sad, thoughtful, caring, beautiful, it's hard to put into words. I can't find the words to convey how much this song means to me. I read, a time or two, that this song is about boxer Sonny Liston. I don't know if that's true. When I listen to this song I think of all the Sunny's in the world, who are losing, or have lost the battle. And I think of the Morrissey's of the world (the first-person Moz that is presented in this song), who actually care, and who will stand with their friends or family members in life, and in death. " I cry, when I see where it's taken you. I'm here I won't move, I'm here I won't move, I'm here I will not move." It's odd, I also love the last few seconds of the song. The seconds after the vocals fade away. I know a song is extra special when it fades out like this, and for some reason, it jolts me back to the past when I felt much more alive and at peace with the world. It's very hard to put into words, but the only time I feel this way is when a wonderful song fades out like this. Alain Whyte, Johnny Marr, and Billy Corgan (of The Smashing Pumpkins, Zwan, solo) are amazing, in the way they often fade their songs out. Glenn Johannson (of Echobelly and calm of zero) is also quite amazing at doing this. It's odd, but when a song fades out like this it takes me back to the dusk of my youth. Those days were better days, and although I had bad moments, some really bad moments, I never remember them. In the quite outros of these beautiful songs, I only remember the good.
 
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It's interesting looking at this list that with a few exceptions, most of these songs have not been played live in YEARS.

I picked "Certain People I Know", which has always been a favorite of mine, and one that I was absolutely thrilled to hear in concert 3 times earlier this year.
 
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I also love both of the "Sunny" b-sides! "Have-A-Go Merchant" is an A+ song all the way. An incredible, blast it out of your car, song! "Whatever Happens, I Love You" has really grown on me over the years. I liked it from the beginning, but now I love it.

Wait...aren't those the b-sides to Boxers?

My vote goes to Sing Your Life, taking all factors into account.
 
Wait...aren't those the b-sides to Boxers?

My vote goes to Sing Your Life, taking all factors into account.


Good catch. Yeah, I messed up. Not long ago I was writing about "Ringleader...," and placed "The World is Full of Crashing Bores" on that album. I don't think things out a lot of times. It's funny, "Boxers" would be my second pick for this poll. "Sing Your Life" would be my third pick.
 
Good catch. Yeah, I messed up. Not long ago I was writing about "Ringleader...," and placed "The World is Full of Crashing Bores" on that album. I don't think things out a lot of times. It's funny, "Boxers" would be my second pick for this poll. "Sing Your Life" would be my third pick.

SYL, Boxers, and Sunny were my three picks as well. :)
 
I agree with what folks have said about "Sunny". It's such a great, touching song and I don't know how it didn't get justice on the charts.

"Sing Your Life" and "All You Need Is Me" also stand out as songs that should have been huge hits.
 
Jamie, when this is done, perhaps you could do a missed the top 10, so placed between 11 and 19, unless that has already been done recently. Cheers for this poll. I do not opine.
 
I took the b-sides into consideration so I voted for Certain People I Know for Jack The Ripper :)
 
I think Sing Your Life should have charted higher. But this is my fave of those listed...

 
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Interestingly, apart from The Never Played Symphonies, his best b-sides are all included here for me - I've Changed My Plea, Jack The Ripper, Lost, Nobody Loves Us and My Dearest Love.
 
yeah they are good. i was gonna suggest a poll asking what b-side should be flipped for the a-side. id say my dearest love
 
My favorite song on this list is actually My Love Life, but I'm not sure it was a good choice for a single. On that basis my vote goes to Sunny.
 
yeah they are good. i was gonna suggest a poll asking what b-side should be flipped for the a-side. id say my dearest love

I think Years of Refusal would have been much better if That's How People Grow Up had been excluded in favor of My Dearest Love. I would have been more open to the notion of re-releasing a B-side rather than a song that had already been a single over a year prior AND had already appeared on a compilation.
 
Jamie, when this is done, perhaps you could do a missed the top 10, so placed between 11 and 19, unless that has already been done recently. Cheers for this poll. I do not opine.

No worries- yes, I could post a follow-up for the woulda-coulda's. I should have taken your approach and recused myself from voting, but alas.

I did vote for Boxers but it edged out Sunny by a hairsbreadth. Since Sunny and the Boxers songs were recorded at the same time, they make for an interesting transitional session between Vauxhall & I and Southpaw Grammar.
 
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