Tuesday Tunes 197: Intros 6×6

As I still have loads of songs with great intros to play you I thought I’d continue with them for another week. As this is now the sixth time I’ve done this I thought I’d give you a little symmetry with the title, so instead of the usual five songs l’m playing six this week: 6×6. I’m also taking the opportunity to play songs by bands who have already been featured in this series with others of their oeuvre: the only outlier is the first one, which missed out on the original series by having been played the week before.

So, having admitted that I’ve played this before, here is one of the most recognisable intros and riffs of all time, in a new official video that was issued on 1 March, and has already gathered more than 2m views:

Smoke On The Water was the opening track on side two of Deep Purple’s sixth album, Machine Head, which was released in March 1972 and got to #1 in the UK and several other countries, and made #7 in the US. The track has since become one of their most iconic songs, though it has the dubious distinction of being one of those banned in many guitar shops as the owners have heard it too many times: Stairway To Heaven is another member of that club. The lyrics tell a true story: on 4 December 1971 Deep Purple were in Montreux, Switzerland, to record the album using the Rolling Stones’ mobile recording studio, at the entertainment complex that was part of the Montreux Casino (referred to as “the gambling house” in the song lyric). On the eve of the recording session, a concert with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention was held in the casino’s theatre. This was the final concert before the complex closed down for its annual winter renovations, which would allow Deep Purple to record there. A huge fire broke out, and the song tells of the band watching from their hotel across Lake Geneva. The new video gives you the full length album cut of the song, but it was released as a single in May 1973 in a two minutes shorter version, which made #4 in the US and #2 in Canada. It didn’t chart in the UK, but has sold enough copies over the years to have been awarded a Gold Disc in 2022.

Talking of iconic songs and intros, here’s another:

Radio Ga Ga was the opening track on Queen’s eleventh album, The Works, which came out in February 1984 and peaked at #2 in the UK and #23 in the US. The album has sold more than 6m copies worldwide, and went Platinum in the UK. US sales were lower than might have been expected as the band refused to tour there at the time, in retaliation for negative responses to the video for I Want To Break Free – it seems the Yanks had delicate sensibilities and didn’t like seeing the boys in drag! It is still one of my favourite Queen albums, and has a fantastic track listing – it closes with the wonderful Is This The World We Created? which I played for my recent Earth Day post. Radio Ga Ga was released as a single a month ahead of the album, and also peaked at #2 in the UK, while reaching #16 in the US: it went Platinum in both countries.

This next song is, I think, underrated by many in comparison with others by the band, but I’ve always liked it and the video is great fun:

Tusk was the lead single from Fleetwood Mac’s album of the same name, released in September 1979, a couple of weeks before the album. As a single, it made #6 in the UK and #8 in the US. The album was an ambitious effort: a double record, two and a half years after its predecessor, a little something called Rumours. It suffered in comparison, but still reached #1 in the UK (Platinum) and #4 in the US (2x Platinum), and has sold more than 4m copies worldwide. Many bands would kill to have sales figures like those for a comparative failure!

The next recognisable intro is from a band that have been no slouches in sales terms either:

Shiny Happy People appeared on R.E.M.’s seventh album, Out Of Time, released in March 1991. It was the only one of their singles to reach the top ten in both the UK and the US: #6 here and #10 across the pond. Apparently the band hated the song: they have only ever played it live once – on Saturday Night Live – and refused to allow it to appear on their first ‘greatest hits’ album, though it did feature on the second such collection. Maybe they were miffed that it was considered for the title music for the tv series Friends, but was passed over in favour of the Rembrandts? Despite their disapproval I‘ve always rather liked it, and anything with the delightful Kate Pierson (of the B52s) happily bouncing around with a beaming smile has got to be worth watching, right? And over 79m viewers of the video can’t be wrong, can they? I saw in the paper that it was Kate’s birthday this past weekend – she turned 76, and suddenly I’m feeling very old! The album, by the way, topped the charts in both the US and the UK, going 5x Platinum here and 4x Platinum over there, and has sold more than 18m copies worldwide.

I have a whole string of intros on my list by this next band, such that I could have done a whole post on them alone! Maybe some other time. For today, here is a relatively recent video for a song that came out in 1969:

That isn’t the longest intro in this set, but it is still instantly recognisable. The Beatles released Come Together on their Abbey Road album in September 1969. The album went to #1 just about everywhere, and has gone 12x Platinum in the US and 8x Platinum in the UK, as part of worldwide sales of more than 31m copies. I think those numbers speak for themselves. Only one single was released from it, a double A-side of this track and Something, which peaked at #4 in the UK and #1 in the US, and sold a further 2.5m copies worldwide. This animated video was published in June 2018, and has to date achieved more than 130m YouTube views.

I mentioned Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven earlier. That song, of course, has a very recognisable intro, but for today’s bonus sixth tune I’m playing another from that album, to send us off with a rousing finale:

Rock And Roll was, like Stairway, a track on Led Zeppelin’s fourth album, which was officially untitled but has naturally become known as Led Zeppelin IV. This is another with huge sales figures: it was released in November 1971 and is the band’s biggest seller, at more than 37m copies. At the time it was only #1 in the UK and Canada, reaching #2 in the US and several other countries. But the sales are amazing: 24m in the US (24x Platinum) and 1.8m in the UK (6x Platinum). For me, I think Led Zeppelin II remains my favourite album of theirs, but this one runs it a very close second.

That seems to be a good place to end this week. These continue to show me what a great number of songs have come out over the years for which we still recognise their intros. I’m bringing this reprise to a close for now with this set, but may well return to it at some point: I’ll be revisiting another series next week, so stay tuned. Until then, I’ll see you again soon. Be happy 😊