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

[Jeff]

Around this time of year, Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie is quite popular on radio and it clocks in at 18:36.

Here are a few others you hear on mainstream radio from time to time:
Heroin by Lou Reed (13:12)
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (I-V) by Pink Floyd (13:32)
Rock 'n' Roll by Lou Reed (10:21)
Maggot Brain by Funkadelic (10:19)
Cowgirl in the Sand by Neil Young (10:06)
New York City Serenade by Bruce Springsteen (9:55)
Jungleland by Bruce (9:33)
Down by the River by Neil (9:16)
A Quick One While He's Away by the Who (8:41)
Won't Get Fooled Again by the Who (8:33)
Welcome to the Machine by Pink Floyd (7:33)
Cold Sweat by James Brown (7:26)
Time by Pink Floyd (7:06)
Layla by Derek & the Dominoes (7:05)

[eio]

Argh. Jeff already said what I was about to say. and much more. nevermind :)

[Balshazar]

How about Metal Machine Music ? Argualbly 4 sides of the same "song"
Also
Crown of Creation Jefferson Airplane
Interstellar Overdrive Pink Floyd
Revelation Love
Space Hymn Lothar and the Hand People
Dark Star Grateful Dead (live version)

Not to mention the works of Acid Mothers Temple and many of the "Krautrock" guys.

[Jim H]

Edgar Winters Group - Frankenstein

[Nick The Bard]

Actually, Wikipedia DID have a list of long songs back around June, they must've gotten tired of it being there and got rid of it. Lord knows a list of songs that mention Hennessy or a list of InuYasha songs are more important.

[JimRob]

Trying to keep it within the Larger Lexicon:

'La Femme D'Argent' by Air (7:11)
'Out of Control' by the Chemical Brothers (7:19)
'Born Slippy' by Underworld (7:34)
'Tender' by Blur (7:40)
'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' by the Beatles (7:47)
'Being a Girl' by Mansun (7:59)
'The Width of a Circle' by David Bowie (8:08)
'Eric the Gardener' by the Divine Comedy (8:26)
'Roundabout' by Yes (8:32)
'Starship Trooper' by Yes (9:26)
'Babe, I'm On Fire' by Nick Cave (14:45)

I'd love to include 'Refractions in the Plastic Pulse' by Stereolab (17:32) and 'The Sun' by the Microphones (17:11), both of which are certainly songs, but neither of which will ever be played on the radio.

[steve57]

Where's this 10.40 version of War Pigs? I have 8.49 on vinyl and 7.56 on the greatest hits CD...

how about 1:03:01 for Dopesmoker by Sleep - must have been played on stonerrock.com at some point?

[FRIENDLY ENHANCER]

More long songs by Led Zeppelin:
"No Quarter" (7:01)
"When The Levee Breaks" (7:07)
"Since I've Been Loving You" (7:24)
"The Rain Song" (7:39)
"In The Light" (8:46)
"Achilles Last Stand" (10:23)
"In My Time Of Dying" (11:05)

Don't forget "Hallowed Be Thy Name" by Iron Maiden (7:10)

[protogenes]

What about Yes's Tales of Topographical Oceans? Is that one song on 4 LP sides, or 4 songs?

[Jack Flack]

I didn't see it listed up there, but it's one of my favorites: Echoes, by Pink Floyd which clocks at 23:28, the entire side of their Meddle album.

[tim]

U2 "Bad" (live)(7:59): radio programmers often played the 8 minute live version off of Wide Awake in America instead of the album version. Especially in Boston.

[Guest]

How about back to back albums that were each 2 sides of one long song?

Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick & A Passion Play

[XNet]

Faithless - Salva Mea (10:47)
Faithless - Insomnia (8:39)
Donna Summer - I Feel Love (8:15)
The KLF - Justified & Ancient (7:49)
Daft Punk - Around The World (7:09)

[Fatherflot]

On a related note, I bought the Sony CD collection (Time Has Come Today: The Best of The Chambers Brothers) just for that song and was not disappointed, as the disc contains both the edit and the full-length version.

What I was not prepared for however, was how DAMN good the rest of it was. I was expecting a lot of hit-or-miss dated flower child stuff. No way: it's pretty much all great, gospel and Stax/Volt drenched hard soul, sort of like the Temptations "Ball of Confusion"-era sound with some very sweet soulful moments right out of the Impressions. I love every cut on this collection. My absolute favorite is their version of "People Get Ready," which I consider the best ever.

Get it, you won't regret it!

[just john]

A side project might be to track down songs that got longer in the bands' live albums.

The best example I can think of is "Nantucket Sleighride" by Mountain. It was maybe six or seven minutes on the album of the same name, then it took up one side of a live elpee, and later, TWO sides of a later live album.

(I'm glad people have already mentioned Neil Young and Jethro Tull.)

[brian]

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (7:22)

[ResidentClinton]

Hell yeah, Fatherflot, that whole Chambers Brothers album really does, if you'll pardon the vernacular, kick ass. My favorite song is Uptown, which is not only a great tribute Harlem, but is the first song from Betty "Nasty Gal" Davis, written years before her recording career (and marriage to Miles) began.

Thanks for all the other songs so far. Keep the suggestions coming and I'll have an updated list posted next week.

[Mike]

The Coldcut remix of Eric B. & Rakim's "Paid In Full," titled "Seven Minutes of Madness," is 7:09.

I know I've heard the version of "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed" (13:06) from The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East on the radio before. I think the stations draw the line at the 22:44 version of "Whipping Post" or the 33:58 "Mountain Jam."

The "single" edit of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" by Isaac Hayes stretched to 7:03, though that's dwarfed by the album version of 18:45. The same album (Hot Buttered Soul) featured his epic 12:04 "Walk On By" as well.

David Porter, sometime collaborator with Hayes, released his "Victim of the Joke?: An Opera" in 1971, and I believe a number of stations spun the 9:41 "The Masquerade Is Over" on the air.

Good call on Maggot Brain - Cleveland's WMMS used to play it every Friday at midnight.

[Ian]

Curtis Mayfield - "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go"
New Order - "Blue Monday"
Apollo Four Forty - "Carrera Rapida" (kept off the British Top 40 due to its 8-minute length!)

[Hell's Donut House]

"Supper's Ready" by Genesis: 22:58

[bthirsch]

Ah, yet another useful feature of iTunes:
(some of these are not purely "pop")

(30:26) Black Spider 2- Mogwai
(28:11) Days of Vapors- Comets on Fire
(19:46) Elegy for all the dead rock stars- Thurston Moore
(18:03) Like a possum- Lou Reed (yeah, this song SUCKS)
(17:42) Night falls on Hoboken- Yo La Tengo
(14:56) Little Johnny Jewel- Television
(14:11) World of Blue- Spain
(14:00) Reoccuring Dreams- Husker Du
(11:55) The Everyday world of Bodies- Rodan
(11:48) The story of Yo La Tango- Yo La Tengo
(11:43) When will you die..- Polvo
(10:59) Street Hassle- Lou Reed
(10:57) Truckers Atlas- Modest Mouse
(10:46) Pass the Hatchet- YLT
(10:40) Spec Bebop- YLT
(10:38) Albatross- PiL
(10:38) Silver Solace- Antietam
(10:35) Evil that men do- YLT

[dspald]

How about this pair?
(23:28) Pink Floyd - Echoes
(21:17) Birdman - McDonald and Giles

[iceberger]

We were flying along and hit something in the air...
(8:30) Bloodrock - D.O.A.

[Norton Zenger]

I gotta say I'm a little bit unclear on the criteria here, mostly because of "Sister Ray". I mean, sure, it's a well-known song, but does it really ever get played on the radio? I've certainly never heard it on the radio.

I think to be a prog-rock band you're contractually required to do at least one twenty-minute song. So anything by a prog rock band that gets played on the radio is going to make the cut. This includes Jethro Tull, Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and Pink Floyd. I think the album version of "Hocus Pocus" by Focus (man, I feel like a dork just typing that) is long enough to qualify, too.

The other main practitioners of the "long song" were pretty much any disco act. Donna Summer's "Love To Love You Baby", for instance, clocks in at 16:51.

Stackridge's "Slark" occasionally gets radio play. It's 14:07.

The Orb's "Blue Room" single version tops 40 minutes. One could perhaps accuse it of being at least slightly padded.

I think the conclusion here is that there are a whole lot of songs that are _really long_.

[Richard]

Does Classical Music count?

The Bach cantata "I am content in myself" (BWV 204) clocks in at over 35 minutes, and "He Was Despised" from Handel's "Messiah" can be over ten minutes long, depending on the conductor.

Richard