Tusk singles

[drzubritsky]

Originally Posted by MacShadowsBall

So when they were making Tusk, did they think about what hit singles could be on the album? With a double-album you would think there would be room for more that just Tusk and Sara.

As indicated by the other responses, the general answer would be "no", the album wasn't crafted with hit singles in mind. There's the oft-repeated story about the initial listening session with the suits at WB and the executives watching their bonuses fly out the window.

I'm sure they must have been getting pressure from the label as well as within the band to include a few more radio-oriented tracks yet the final results demonstrate that they stayed the course, for better or worse. The only track that sounds like an obvious attempt at something commercial would be "Think About Me", but that could just as well be due to Christine's natural tendency to compose in a more conventional, pop-oriented manner. Even then, "Think About Me" was only a modest chart hit.

"Sara" is a rather curious case in that it doesn't appear to have the ingredients of a hit on the face of it (too long, unconventional no-chorus structure, cryptic lyrics). The winning factors were likely the sheer beauty of the melody, pent-up demand for a Stevie Nicks song, and that it was edited for single release.

A couple of folks mentioned "Save Me A Place" but there is absolutely no way that would have ever been considered for single release. I like SMAP quite well myself and those thick, odd-sounding harmonies can be hypnotic. But that song would have been ratings suicide for a Top 40 station in 1980.