Why is the fourth track the best one…or is it?
November 3rd, 2008
There’s this idea, I think Jack Black mentioned it in the movie, High Fidelity, about the fourth song on a record being a very important song; maybe it’s THE most important song. Maybe it’s the BEST song! Hmm. This was something that I’d never heard of before entering the music business. I can remember getting near the mastering process of the first record I did with producer Mack (Queen, Zeppelin, Stones…) and he asks about the fourth song. I remember being confused about the question. I mean, what happened to the FIRST song? The first song was, of course, important, but the fourth song, now there’s something to think about.
As it was explained to me, the fourth song is where the listener is ready for a bit of a change of pace, and since most bands want their CDs to come out of the gates strong, the fourth song is a place to drop down a bit and show what else the band/musicians can do. Why some people find this to be the best song is still a mystery to me. If people really liked these more down-tempo songs, why not just make the whole album like that? Hmmm. More questions.
Well, I decided to take a look/listen at/to the bands I’ve got on my player right now and sort by the track number. Easy enough in iTunes. Here’s what it looks like….
Maybe this is worth doing with your collection. I made a playlist called Fourth where I placed all the fourth songs. It’s good. Maybe great. I’ll listen for a few days and report back.
here’s a post I found, doing a quick search on the subject…
http://mog.com/trigger/blog/10188
Best,
-Zank
erin Says:
Your 4th track is my fave.