The third track of an album

Ever notice how 90% of the time an artist's most popular single is the third track of the album?

Why track 3 though?

God damn it. There was a really good article I read once that explained this, but I can't find it, and I can't really remember the main points enough to summarize it.

But I think it was something like the third track is the ideal location to make people buying a CD because they liked the single listen to most of the music, because it's close enough to the beginning that you don't get annoyed from waiting, but far enough away that the two songs you hear before it make you excited for more.

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."

It must be different in Britain: The most popular singles on Gorillaz's Demon Days and The Darkness' Permission to Land, are the fourth tracks.

That's if you don't count "Intro" on Demon Days, of course.

Come sail your ships around me, and burn your bridges down.

-looks at Florence + the Machine-

..."I'm Not Calling You a Liar" isn't even a single.

-looks at Lana Del Rey-

Well, her signature "Video Games" is the fourth track, but "Blue Jeans"...

-looks at Rihanna-

Bingo.

Holy Diver is track 2.

'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'

... The two most popular songs on Number of the Beast are tracks 5 and 6. Track 8's a close third; track 3 is still popular, though.

However, in general, it's because for most bands, two songs isn't that long a time. People will listen through that without skipping. Then they get the song they've already heard and like, so they'll be in a good mood after, and more willing to listen through the rest of the album.

That's the theory, anyway.

"Lock up your girlfriends, lock up your wives, Grim's on the loose so run for your lives." - Pyrite

I always thought it was track 1 and track 2 that are more likely to be singles.

edited 16th Jul '12 8:50:09 AM by pagad

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.

Pink Floyd:

• Dark Side of the Moon: "Time", a relatively popular single, is the third track (that is, if you count "Speak to Me" and "Breathe" as one song.) However, the most popular song on the album, "Money," is the 5th/6th song.
• Wish You Were Here: "Have a Cigar," the only single from the album, is the 3rd track. (Mind you, due to the way the album is arranged, this means it starts the 2nd side.)
• Animals: No singles. The third track, "Pigs," appears not to be especially popular.
• The Wall: Third track is "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1," not especially popular OR a single. The big single shows up two tracks later, with "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2." (But, because of how The Wall is set up, this is basically equivalent to the third track of a lesser album.)

Sorry about the Wall of Text there.

Be polite. Be efficient. Have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

Many of The Beatles' most popular popular singles weren't even on their albums. (At least, in their original albums' forms. Outside the U.K. prior to Sgt. Pepper, however, that was a much different story.)

edited 16th Jul '12 2:31:37 PM by 0dd1

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.

Just looking at my favorite album of all time, Guns 'N' Roses, Appetite for Destruction, I notice track three is "Nightrain"—a badass song that I will always cherish for its depiction of Axl Rose waking up his prostitute at 3:00 in the morning and forcing her to go out and buy a $3 bottle of bum wine with a Mastercard, but not one of the band's most well-known hits from the album.

edited 16th Jul '12 5:27:36 PM by SeanMurrayI

I took a random survey of albums that happen to be on the shelf near my computer desk. There were a bunch of albums this isn't true of, but it works for a good percentage:

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ("Benny And The Jets")
L7 - Bricks Are Heavy ("Pretend That We're Dead")
Joe Jackson - Look Sharp ("Is She Really Going Out With Him")
Devo - Freedom Of Choice ("Whip It")
The Lonely Island - Incredibad ("Jizz In My Pants" *

)
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend ("Girlfriend")
Social Distortion - Social Distortion ("Story Of My Life")

Even on a lot of the albums where the big single isn't track 3, it'll at least be somewhere within the first four tracks, and I could only find a few where the most famous song is actually near the end of the album ("Bohemian Rhapsody" is the second-to-last track of A Night At The Opera, "Layla" is the second-to-last track of Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs - maybe when the most well-known track involves Epic Rocking, putting it near the end is the rule...)

edited 17th Jul '12 1:16:01 PM by MikeK

Earth is the only planet inhabitable by Nicolas Cage.

-Looks at OK Go-
Not for Of The Blue Colour of the Sky it isn't. That's probably either track 2 or track 5.

Gimme yer lunch money, dweeb.

Doesn't seem to ring true for IOSYS' albums. The only ones that might fit the bill are "Convictor Yamaxanadu!" from Touhou Ageha and "This Is Feel-Good Keine" from Touhou Blue Land of Rivers, Visions and Tengu. All the other well-known songs are in other numbers.

Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!

Semi-random selection of albums on my iPod:

• Steely Dan Aja: Third song is "Deacon Blues," which is extremely popular by Dan standards.
• Simon And Garfunkel Bookends: Third song is "America," a single but not an especially popular one.
• The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: Third track is "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," a very popular song but not neccesarily more popular than the rest of the album.

Be polite. Be efficient. Have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

EDM time.

• Skrillex: Lessee here:
  • Bangarang: "Breakn' a Sweat" is one of the more popular tracks on the EP but there's one more that's moreso.
  • Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites: Hmm. "Kill Everybody" seems to have the same situation as "Sweat".
• Deadmau5:
  • 4x4=12: "A City In Florida". Pfft, no.
  • For Lack of a Better Name: "Ghosts 'n Stuff". Wow, that actually is the most popular song on the album.
• David Guetta:
  • Nothing but the Beat: "Turn Me On". Now that is a really popular one. Hmm.
  • One Love: "Memories", a fairly notable cut from the album. There are two more that seem moreso but still.

oh, that's why I need this binary mind // ⌘

For what it's worth, most of The Beatles' popular singles were either the first track or not on their albums at all.

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.

Looking at your posts intrigued me, so I just decided to look at some my favorite singer's albums and compare them here.

• Reba Mc Entire (1978): (There's Nothing Like The Love) Between A Woman And A Man (track 8). Track 3 was a popular song for one of her labelmates (on MCA) after she switched in 1983.
• Feel The Fire (1980): (You Lift Me) Up to Heaven (track 1) her first top 10 hit, track 3 (I Don't Think Love Ought To Be That Way) again was also released to radio.
• Unlimited (1982): You're the First Time I've Thought About Leaving (track 9) and Can't Even Get the Blues (track 10), both making it to #1 (with CEGTB being her first), track 3 (What Do You Know About Heartache?) was just another album cut.
• Have I Got A Deal For You (1985, her 10th album overall): Only in My Mind (track 6), track 3 (The Great Divide) was another album cut (again, surprise surprise)
• The Last One To Know (1987): The Last One To Know (track 1) and Love Will Find It's Way To You (track 9), both # 1's, track 3 (Just Across The Rio Grande) was (once again) an album cut.

edited 8th Mar '13 3:55:47 AM by pikafan

I decided to survey the Weezer discography with this in mind and noticed a somewhat interesting pattern. The first two albums completely avert this - the best-known tracks on The Blue Album and Pinkerton are tracks 4 ("Buddy Holly") and 7 ("El Scorcho"), respectively. But after that, the most popular track on any given album is consistently either track three or track one. The leading cause of Broken Base in the fandom is everything the band did after those first two albums, so draw your own conclusions there.

And I'm also going to try this out for Nirvana as they only have three proper studio albums:

• Bleach: "About A Girl" - Very definitely the most famous song on the album. But the weird thing is it didn't really become famous until five years later, when the MTV Unplugged in New York version was a single. At the time of release the most famous song was probably "Love Buzz", which is track five.
• Nevermind: "Come As You Are" - Well, it's probably the second most famous song on the album, but then obviously there's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as track one. But according to the other wiki, "Teen Spirit" was just the first single because it would appeal to the then niche market of alternative rock fans, while "Come As You Are" was supposed to be the followup single that would break them to a wider audience... So it's kind of interesting that a song that was wrongly predicted to be the most popular is track three.
• In Utero: "Heart Shaped Box" - probably neck and neck with "All Apologies" as the most famous track.

edited 11th Mar '13 6:15:16 PM by MikeK

Earth is the only planet inhabitable by Nicolas Cage.

Let's see, my CD in my car is Bruno Mars Unorthodox Jukebox. Only two singles have been released so far, one being track 2 and the other being track 5. Track 3 is Gorillas. Which is a drugged and drunken and all in all dirty Intercourse with You song. I don't expect that one getting on the charts.

Persona 3 Portable Liveblog

Hmmm.

I'm listening to Muse's Resistance and Undisclosed Desires it track three. It was indeed a popular track.

Too bad it's my least favourite by a pretty big margin. XD

YUUGI WANTS YOU FOR DRINKING BUDDY

Well, with Radiohead's first 5 albums:

1. Pablo Honey - Creep is track 2 (Band's debut single and Black Sheep Hit)
2. The Bends - The Bends is track 2 (Title Track)
3. OK Computer - Paranoid Android is track 2 (Lead single. Charted at no.3 in UK charts.)
4. Kid A - Kid A is track 2 (Title Track)
5. Amnesiac - Pyramid Song is track 2 (Lead single)

There's a pattern here, but not one involving the third track...

I'm so sorry that my avatar doesn't appear fully in the shot, but the cat was threatening the photographer.

Must check...:

Accurate cases in my music:

All American Rejects (Move Along)

The Band Perry (If I Die Young)

LMFAO (party rock anthem) [that's what happens when you share a computer with a younger sibling] -facepalms-

Rihanna: Don't stop the music (uch, sisters music again)

Taylor Swift: Love Story

Note that I go by album, not entire music career

I don’t even know anymore.

In general, my observation is that either the Title Track or the official lead single will be either be the first or second track. It's set up in a way that either the most well-known song will be the first track you hear, or you would hear new material before the most well-known song.

I have a lot of examples in mind. For just the first track, there's the first three Rihanna albums, all three of Lady Gaga's major releases, Hands All Over from Maroon Five, the self-titled album of Evanescence, the American version of Lights from Ellie Goulding (with "Lights" being the lead American single), Love is Dead from Kerli, Vows from Kimbra, the Paradise EP from Lana Del Rey...and more.

Apparently, there's a historical reason behind it, that on records, songs on the outer rings tend to be higher of quality.

I tried to make a trope page for "lead single is first track on album", but the YKTTW was shot down. Feel free to try to push it through yourself if you're interested.

edited 11th Apr '13 8:08:13 PM by chihuahua0

The first single and most popular track of Eminem's Slim Shady LP "Hi my name is" was the second track.

His most famous track on his third album was the eighth. (I think track 3 on the Marshall Mathers LP was "The Real Slim Shady".)

All in all....I really need to dig up my old CD's.

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

• U2 - The Joshua Tree: "With or Without You". Check.
• INXS - X: "The Stairs". Don't think it's the biggest hit, no.
• U2 - Achtung Baby: "One". Definite check.
• Nirvana - Nevermind: "Come as You Are". Can't remember ever hearing that on the radio.
• U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind: "Elevation". Not one of my favourites, but close enough, so what the hell.
• Paramore - brand new eyes: "Playing God". Made it as a single, but still no way on the top.
• Camille Saint-Saens - Carnaval des Animaux: "III Allegro moderato - Presto, Symphony No. 3". Hmm, can't remember hearing anyone say "Man, I'm totally into Saint-Saens' III Allegro moderato - Presto, Symphony No. 3.", so that's a nay I think.

edited 12th Apr '13 7:23:26 AM by betterthanstrawberry

Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.