SHOULD’VE BEEN A SINGLE ?(8)

The post-punk/new wave bands were never all that keen to lift too many album tracks as singles. Take The Jam, for example.

Many of their singles were stand-alone efforts – All Around The World, News Of The World, Strange Town, When You’re Young, Going Underground, Funeral Pyre, Absolute Beginners, The Bitterest Pill and Beat Surrender to be precise.

Most of their albums contained just one single – In The City, The Modern World, Setting Sons, Sound Affects and The Gift fall into this category, albeit the latter two did yield two further hits singles via imports.

Which leaves us with All Mod Cons.

It’s a real anomaly in that three of its songs – David Watts, A-Bomb In Wardour Street and Down In the Tube Station at Midnight, were already known to record-buyers prior to the album’s release in November 1978, thanks to the first two being on a double-A side and the latter being released as part of the efforts by Polydor to better market the band.

I recall Paul Weller, while being happy that the band was beginning to enjoy chart success, was miffed that fans were being asked to shell out for songs that were otherwise available.  So there was absolutely no way he would have agreed to this being released as a single:-

mp3: The Jam – Billy Hunt

One of the most immediate songs on All Mod Cons, I have no doubt that the record company execs would have wanted to put this into the shops on 7″ vinyl and relished it going at least Top 20, such was the popularity of the band and the way the song fitted in perfectly to the sounds of early 1979.

Should’ve been a single?   Well, let’s just say it merited such an accolade, but let’s be glad it never came to that.

JC