A single is a release of Music that is shorter than an album, LP or EP. Usually, a single will get the most Radio airplay, and will be a band's most recognized work. Singles are usually filmed with music videos. They are also probably the highest quality and most compact of all music. Singles are in a bit of a cycle becoming far more popular with the advent of digital music downloads again as people no longer have to buy a full length album to hear the one or two songs they wanted to hear. Singles tend to be the dramatic beginning or the climactic ending of an album.
Examples:
- The Beatles had dozens of singles
, a product of the early days of Rock & Roll. Among the most notable:
- "Love Me Do"
- "A Hard Day's Night"
- "Nowhere Man"
- "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
- "Helter Skelter"
- Some of Coldplay's singles include "Yellow, "the Scientist", and "Viva la Vida".
- Foster the People had five singles on their album Torches, including "Pumped Up Kicks" and "Houdini".
- Korn:
- Follow the Leader: "All in the family", "Got the Life", "Children of Korn", "B.B.K, "Freak on a leash"
- Lit: Had at least two notable singles during the height of their popularity, both from their album "A Place In The Sun":
- Michael Jackson
- Thriller: The Girl is Mine, Billie Jean, Beat It, Wanna Be Startling Something", "Human Nature","P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" and "Thriller"
- Bad: Taken Up to Eleven cause nearly every song on this album was a single, excluding "Just Good Friends".
- Nirvana's singles included "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Come As You Are", and "Heart-Shaped Box".
- The Rolling Stones have had many in a career on-going since 1962.
- "Not Fade Away"
- Aftermath: "Paint It, Black"
- Their Satanic Majesties Request: "She's a Rainbow"
- Let It Bleed: "You Can't Always Get What You Want"
- Sticky Fingers: "Wild Horses"
- Savatage:
- Gullet Ballet: "Gutter Ballet" and "When the Crowds Are Gone".
- Streets: A Rock Opera: "Jesus Saves"
- Edge Of Thorns: "Edge of Thorns", "Sleep".
- Dead Winter Dead had four, including "Doesn't Matter Anyway", "Dead Winter Dead", and "One Child". "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" was the biggest success the band had, played to this day during the Christmas season, and led to the creation of Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
- The Wake of Magellan: "Turns to Me"
- Poets and Madmen: "Commissar", the band's last single before their 2002 hiatus.
- Slowdive: "Star Roving", "Sugar for the Pill"
- The Smashing Pumpkins:
- Siamese Dream: "Cherub Rock", "Today", "Disarm", "Rocket"
- Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: "Bullet with Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Tonight, Tonight", "Zero", "Thirty-Three"
- Weezer:
- The Blue Album: "Undone-The Sweater Song", "Buddy Holly" and "Say it Ain't So"
