In Your Dreams - the best single potential gets dropped
 

I geuss I don't understand what planet Stevie or her team are on when it comes to their single choices. We have done polls before, so have other places and the consensus was that In Your Dreams was the most radio friendly.

She just dropped it from her set. Guess this means its not a single. Huh?

I dunno about that. I'd say it was a wise decision. I don't find that track particularly alluring, and I don't suspect non-fans would either.

It's good driving music.

haha, yeah you might have a point there. I'm just stepping outside of my Stevie-fandom though and trying to think of how I'd react if that was the first song I heard. Would it make me go... "Oh, I have to buy that record!" I dunno. :shrug:

Here is the thing. I have had to drive a lot of long distances this spring and summer becuase of hospitals. I really fell in love with this album on those trips. This album is like listttening to radio. And it is surprising deep. In Your Dreams is Tom Petty is I ever heard it. It comes off as a really good track.

I've listened to it a lot too... I'm not disputing that your reasons for liking the song aren't valid. I'm talking about why it isn't a good single. ;)

Well, honestly, it's not my favorite. And Im guilty of trying to figure out what would others like, but I think dj's would like this song. There are many songs on the album that would make goood singles but they need cut down.

I think Moonlight is a great single but it takes 90 seconds to get going... :laugh:

Your right about that. It's not the only onee. Italian Summer would make a great sngle too, if they chopped a minute of it. The people I let listen to the album always point that song out but say it's too long. Same with Annabelle Lee. The songs on this album are really good but many are too long including Ghosts are Gone.

Look what radio edit did for For What it is Worth. Much punchiier and too point. Better song.

I don't think Stevie would peform Italian Summer live for some reason but I could see the next single being Annabelle Lee or Moonlight would be another single down the road.

It will interesting what she will sing on Good Morning America in Central Park on Friday Aug.26th. they usually sing a couple of songs on there I think 3 songs if I am right so my guess would be 2 new songs and a classic.

Feh, I'm not that impressed by "Italian Summer" as a single. The repetitive lyrics hardly showcase her songwriting skills,, her voice sounds powerful but not as beautiful as on some other tracks, and I'm sick of her being marketed along the a/c route.

"In Your Dreams" is indeed quite radio-friendly. Because it sounds like a Tom Petty song, I think it could do well. More importantly, unlike many of her other recent rock songs, IYD has a great, solid vocal from start to finish - power, vibrato, timing. Her mature voice tends to sound either flat or strained on at least parts of almost every rock song she has done since the mid-90s. Not on this one. Additionally, the lyrics are distinct enough to be Stevie-esque without being too weird for the general public. Quite a balancing act. But yeah, when this song was dropped from the tour, I figured that meant it would not be a single. Dumb. This one and TISL, of all Stevie's solo title tracks, could have done well on radio, but her people went for a/c singles like "Every Day" and "Secret Love".

As I've said before, "Moonlight" will be fine (or at least more appropriate to radio constraints) if they cut the 1st 40-some seconds out & start with the "She's lonely..." part. If they start editing songs down, I think "Wide Sargasso Sea" could do great without most of the first verse: as I've said, start with the first "Even though they were so in love..." WSS & "New Orleans" are songs I always come back to - I wish the latter could have been a single.

- Jake

Therein lies the problem. A lot of the songs could be better if they were cut. I really like this album. I haven't grown tired or thrown it away like other albums. It's a good album. Bring out the best points of some of the songs by cutting them.

For me the length of the tracks on the album is not a problem at all. I suggest editing only because stations don't play the longer tracks as singles unless the artist is seen as huge/current.
Album-wise I'm more bothered by songs where the vocal could be better (I'm speaking to you, FWIW chorus) or where the emphasis is on instruments rather than vocal - "Ghosts are Gone" is the big offender here. Nothing wrong with it the way it is, but IMO a Stevie solo song should showcase Stevie. You want to showcase the guitar over the vocal, put it on a Mac album. Even Edge, with its great riff, keeps the focus on the vocal. When I listen to GAG, I add lyrics to the guitar riff, especially at the start & then especially when it kicks in near the end: "To track a ghost through the fog, now the ghosts are gone." In my head I hear Sharon & Lori with Stevie.

- Jake

I agree with just about everything you said here, except that WSS is too meandering to be a single. It has a great story, but it's a little too involved to perform well as a single. Secret Love and FWIW display great songwriting and logistically, have the song structure that singles are built upon. And IYD absolutely should be on radio, but for some reason, I have a strong feeling that the 3rd single (if there is one) will be Moonlight or Annabel Lee.