10 Bad Opening Songs On Great Rock Music Albums
These albums might be remembered very differently today if they ended after just one song.
It makes sense to put a really good song right at the beginning of album. Human beings are fickle creatures and, if not entertained immediately, there's a danger of them switching off for good.
Most of the time, bands and artists follow this logic and frontload their records with their best stuff. Unfortunately, sometimes this pearl of wisdom falls by the wayside.
This list is an interesting one, because the criteria for judging an opening track is different than for other songs. An opener has to be catchy, engaging, and spell out the grander mission statement of the wider piece.
Some of the following songs might have been alright were they hidden somewhere else, but the fact they were front and centre at the very beginning of their respective records condemned them to this fate. In other cases though, these songs are just bad. Out and out stinkers, the lot of them. It's incredible that they even made it onto an album at all, let alone that they were chosen to lead the charge.
Thankfully, the rest of these albums more than made up for their poor first impressions.
10. Chocolate Cake - Woodface (Crowded House)
Crowded House are easily the world's most popular soft rock band founded in Australia whilst also containing members of New Zealand and American backgrounds. It's a tough category, but they rose straight to the top.
After two strong albums in the 1980s, the group launched their first '90s release in 1991. Woodface - so called because its front cover is some wood that looks like a face - also picked up some healthy reviews and gave the group a hit single in Weather With You.
Unfortunately, the song that kicks it all off is a bit of a dud.
Also released as a single, Chocolate Cake is a part-rock 'n' roll, part-crooner, part-novelty record that takes down modern life, particularly in America. Lines about Andrew Lloyd Webber and Elvis Presley are meant to be shots at fame, but none of them really hit. The music doesn't really sit well either, as nobody was crying out for Crowded House to give us their take on skiffle.
Whilst it could have worked a little later on in the tracklist, Chocolate Cake is just too divisive to be a good opener. Why risk alienating half your audience mere minutes into an album?