Long Songs

While idly flipping through the car radio not too long ago, I happened across a station playing the Chamber's Brother's "Time Has Come Today" (YouTube link), a great pop-psych hit from 1968. After listening for a few minutes, I realized that this wasn't the single edit, but the full 11 minute version. I checked the dial carefully and, yeah, this really was one of those classic rock pre-programmed Clear Channel stations. I quickly put aside my thought that the DJ may have played the long version by mistake - for their music computers never make mistakes. A little research when I got home lead me to realize that the actual hit version of the song was not the mid-faded single edit, but the full-length version. What a delightful rarity.

And that lead me down another path of wonder: what are the longest pop songs? Of course there are tons of songs that break the three minute rule if you listen to psych-rock, dinosaur rock, funk, disco mixes, free jazz, experimental, metal sludge, krautrock, electronica, and pretty much anything Zappa or Parliament or Sun Ra. Not to mention Klaus Schulze, who often hit the 60 minute mark without breaking a sweat. But what I'm really interested in are those pop songs (including those once-edgy numbers that have since taken on classic rock status) that actually made it big on the radio despite their length - and still pop up on the mainstream stations today.

I googled my brains out looking for a good list, but to no avail. There are plenty of pop music lists, but nothing I could find specifically focusing on length. And so I put the call out to you, WFMU listeners and readers, to help me put together a list of the longest pop songs. There are no rules, and certainly no Billboard lists to reference. I'm not interested in official Top 40s or anything, just songs that have entered the larger lexicon that exceed the seven minute mark.

After the jump are a few songs to get you started. For the sake of this list I went with the original length of the song, even if an edited version was available, assuming that along the way someone must have been playing the full-length version. Help me fill this internet void by listing others I missed in the comments.

Long Songs - a not at all complete list of pop songs over 7 minutes

48:53 - Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells
20:44 - Vangelis, Chariots of Fire
17:10 - Iron Butterfly, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
17:26 - Velvet Underground, Sister Ray
13:54 - Peter Frampton, Do You Feel Like We Do
11:48 - The Floaters, Float On
11:35 - The Doors, The End
11:22 - Bob Dylan, Desolation Row
11:19 - Bob Dylan, Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands
11:06 - Chambers Brothers, Time Has Come Today
10:40 - Black Sabbath, War Pigs
10:38 - Television, Marquee Moon
10:36 - Yes, Heart Of The Sunrise
9:53 - Stone Roses, Fools Gold
9:38 - The Temptations, Run Away Child Running Wild
9:11 - The Who, A Quick One While He's Away
9:07 - Lynyrd Skynyrd, Freebird
8:58 - Guns N Roses, November Rain
8:40 - Prince, Purple Rain
8:34 - Don McLean, American Pie
8:29 - Led Zeppelin, Kashmir
8:28 - Meatloaf, Paradise By the Dashboard Light
8:26 - Dire Straits, Money For Nothing
8:02 - Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven
7:58 - Barry White, Never Never Gonna Give You Up
7:49 - The Doors, L.A. Woman
7:37 - Billy Joel, Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
7:31 - Rolling Stones, You Can't Always Get What You Want
7:25 - Nico, Chelsea Girls
7:11 - The Doors, Riders on the Storm
7:08 - The Beatles, Hey Jude
7:01 - Bruce Springsteen, Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

Some long song links:

Probably the longest song ever goes to Mark Mallman's Marathon 2, which topped out at 52.4 hours (topping Marathon 1's 26 hours).

The Guinness Book record holder for the highly subjective category of Longest Song (circa 1997) goes to The Devil Glitch, by Hoboken resident Chris Butler

The Longest Jam Session, from The Royal College of Music in Stockholm

Longest Songs in Metal - hardly complete, but a good starting point

5 Long Songs and how they relate to Neil Young

Unboundedly Long songs - ie, songs that can go on forever

Mongolian Long-Songs

Lists of Songs - every variety except LONG - on Wikipedia

Comments

[el depresso]

"Welcome to the Pleasuredome" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood tops thirteen oleaginously poppy minutes.

[Richard III]

While I was in college in the mid 80s, I had a radio show on the campus station. One of my features was the "Long Song" which I defined as any rock/folk song originally written to be at least 15 minutes or longer; no live versions. A lot of the songs that I played have been mentioned here including those from Yes, Iron Butterfly, Jethro Tull and others. There were, however, at least 2 songs I played that I didn't see listed:

Pink, Dogs - 17:03
Jeff Wayne, War of the Worlds ??:??

Any more?

rjwiii

[Richard III]

The above was supposed to be:

Pink Floyd, Dogs - 17:03

oops

rjwiii

[lee]

um.. 'RAPPERS DELIGHT' sugarhill gang - ??:?? MACARTHUR PARK- richard thomas 7,223,145:59. i had hoped i would never read the words pink floyd or led zepellin on this website. ow!

[lee]

oops. richard harris i mean. anyone remember this richard thomas /waltons based game from 1975 elementary school: you stick a magic marker tip into someone's cheek and twist and then say ''it's a john boy!''. remember? good times

[vincent]

Hey, hello from paris
I guess that any live version of any song would be pointless on the long songs list, as much as we dont either pickup any jazz hits or performance...

so here is my small contribution :

Hurricane - bob dylan - 8:33
Like a hurricane - Neil Young - 8:16
Mac Arthur Park - donna summer - 17:34
Release - Pearl jam - 9:03
After the flood - talk talk - 9:41
The rainbow - talk talk - 8:04
dogwood rust - comets on fire - 7:48
peace and love - neil youg - 7:02
Inside job - pearl jam - 7:02
willie dead wilder - cat power - 18:18
crystal ball - prince - 10:28
Do i do - stevie wonder - 10:28
Knight in white satin - moody blues - 7:38
White lines - grandmaster flash - 7:26
TNT - tortoise - 7:32
ball and biscuits - the white stripes - 7:19
controversy - prince - 7:16
will to love - neil young - 7:11
just another story - jamiroquai - 8:48

yep
vincent

[lee]

ALICE'S RESTAURANT arlo g. ??:??. i am thinking mr James Brown has something. Sly as well? tim buckley songs are pretty long. i'm too lazy now. you check it out. i think arthur lee and love deserve credit for their 1966 'DA CAPO' [sic] LP. the second side is one song ''revelations'' at 17+ minutes. ever played? sandy bull had one song per side lps much earlier than that as well, but i doubt they were ever aired. maybe we need a sub-catagory of 'who was/were the earliest rock/pop/r&b musician[s] to fill a side with one song.

[lee]

i challenge you to sit through the entire ''tobacco road'' on the Edgar Winter band live LP [full side]. it will make your guests go home. sample lyrics: ''woodallywoodallywoodallywoodally''. i would imagine a disgruntled/confused DJ must have played the whole thing at some point. ??:??.

[Ace]

I'm not going to reference the obvious track that came up in my mind, which is the epic hour+ long dopesmoker. Damn, that song is amazing. Also, I'll omit kraftwerk and neu! from this discussion too.

Sonic Youth- The Diamond Sea (19.36) - I first encountered this song on MTV and it's sonic youth.

Jay-Z- Blueprint (12.06)- Everyone owns the blueprint. That should count, should it not?

Diana Ross- Love Hangover (7+ minutes)

[highlifer]

Our college radio station go to was Peter Gabriel's Biko at 7:28. It was also funny as it was the code song for "I had to go to the bathroom." and other djs could hear it and laugh.

[Bernie]

Rare Earth, Get Ready 21:30

[Craig]

Pretty Much anything ever written by Jim Steinman.
Think "Total Eclipse of the Heart", "I'd do Anything for Love" or "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." I think those all count as "pop songs that pass the seven minute mark."

[Will]

So, here's one you guys didn't get that was never edited down from 7:37 and was a top 40 hit. Take Your Time by the S.O.S. Band.

[John Babu]

"Chameleon" - Herbie Hancock

[john]

ELO "Roll Over Beethoven" 7:01
Jandek "One Last Chance" 29:21 (obviously you'll never hear that one on the radio)

[Thierry Côté]

Oasis's "All Around the World" was, at 9:20, probably one of the longest charting singles (Number 2 in the U.K., Top 15 Modern Rock in the U.S.) of the 1990s. "D'You Know What I Mean?", the lead (and UK #1) single from Be Here Now, also easily passed the 7-minute mark (7:42), "Champagne Supernova" is 7:28.

Also in the Britpop category, Suede's "Stay Together" is 8:29.

[Richard]

Google is your friend.

A group in Halberstadt, Germany, began playing "As Slow As Possible" by John Cage in 2003. Swedish composer and organist Hans-Ola Ericsson has arranged it for the organ; the piece is expected to take 639 *years* to perform. (http://www.john-cage.halberstadt.de/)

If you allow the use of computers, then you can go with "Longplayer" (http://longplayer.org/) by Jem Finer. Based on samples of Tibetan singing bowls and gongs, it has been playing for over 2500 days and is intended to take 1000 years to complete.

Richard

[Andy]

i will be so thrilled the day a radio station decides to play John Hodgman (of the Daily Show, and "Areas of My Expertise") and Jonathan Coulton's "Hobo Names" - in all its 53:49 of glory.

[cheerios]

Kraftwerk - Autobahn - 22 minutes of goodness.
Goldie - Timeless - 21 minutes

pop sucks

[ecnalg1]

Suprised no-one has mentioned O Superman by Laurie Anderson which was released as a single and lasted over 8 minutes. It was #2 in the UK hit parade for a while and was regularly played for its full length. Not sure what happened to the rest of the show - presumably that was at least 5 minutes tacked on to the usual length.

[Greg]

Dick Hyman's "The Minotaur" was 8:26 on both the single (which went top 40!) and on the album MOOG. The cover of MOOG claimed that the album contained the full-length version of "The Minotaur," but it looks like there was never anything BUT a full-length version of "The Minotaur."

[notafood]

Joe Walsh - Life's Been Good... A "classic rock" radio staple, clocks in around 9 mins.

[eBay Wendy]

David Bowie - Station to Station (10:13)
Patti Smith Group - Gloria (9:27)
Soft Cell - Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go (8:59)
The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again (8:34)
Metallica - Back to the Front (8:13)
Black Sabbath - War Pigs/Luke's Wall (7:58)

And that's my contribution. Nice idea!

-W

[Jeff Van]

Genesis' Home by the Sea is 11 minutes, and Domino is just over 10 minutes, 2 of my favorites.

[Brian C.]

I thought it was longer, doggonitall, but clocking in at a mere 5:55, "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Maybe it gets points for being a No. 1?