1.Angie
2.Wild Horses
3.Ruby Tuesday
4.Time Is On My Side
5.Almost Hear You Sigh
6.Out Of Tears
7.As Tears Go By
8.Beast Of Burden
9.Thru & Thru
10.Sleep Tonight
11.Love In Vain
12.Through The Lonely Nights
13.No Expectations
14.Till The Next Goodbye
15.Memory Motel
16.Let It Loose
17.Moonlight Mile
18.You Can't Always Get What You Want (shortened version 1968-71 singles)
19.Little Red Rooster
20.Worried About You



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-06-29 00:56 by GimmieChris.

Now it's 20? Ha ha!

Number one ballad would probably be the C*cksucker Blues/Angie medley my band used to play. Those two go together seamlessly.

Loving Cup is a ballad to me and is up there in my Top 5, never mind top ballads.

Also Memory Motel? Ballad?

Quote
squando
C'mon fellas. Get yr back into it. Once you start you'll find it's a bit of fun and a little more difficult than you think.
Jamesfdouglas why has thou forsaken me?

Hey man, there's a LOT of cool & chill songs on other people's lists that I just honestly put into the "ballad" category. For me, a slower tempo doesn't necessarilty constitue a 'ballad'.

[thepowergoats.com]

Down in the Hole!

If you really want to be my friend is a nice one too

Twenty is a bit more refined so...

20 If You Really Want To Be My Friend
19 Till The Next Goodbye
18 Tops
17 I Got The Blues
16 She's A Rainbow
15 You Got The Silver
14 Waiting On A Friend
13 Wild Horses
12 No Expectations
11 Moonlight Mile
10 Out Of Tears
9 Memory Motel
8 Through The Lonely Nights
7 Worried About You
6 Loving Cup
5 Almost Hear You Sigh
4 All About You
3 Coming Down Again
2 Laugh, I Nearly Died
1 Wild Horses

It seems I have a different perception of what a ballad is than most of you. Uptempo punk cover versions of soul tunes (Imagination) or funky Mayfield-esque midtempo pop songs (Beast Of Burden) are not ballads, imo.

1 Moonlight Mile
2 Wild Horses
3 Angie
4 Memory Motel
5 You Got The Silver
6 Let It Loose
7 Backstreet Girl/The Worst
8 How Can I Stop
9 Almost Hear You Sigh
10 I Got The Blues
11 Following The River
12 All About You
13 Play With Fire
14 Lady Jane
15 Worried About You
16 This Place Is Empty
17 Coming Down Again
18 Sleep Tonight
19 You Can´t Always Get What You Want
20 Love In Vain
21 Fool To Cry
22 Time Waits For No One
23 Slipping Away
24 Till The Next Goodbye
25 Any Way You Look At It
26 Always Suffering
27 Streets Of Love
28 In Another Land
29 Already Over Me
30 Losing My Touch
31 Out Of Tears
32 Blinded By Rainbows

I agree that Beast of Burden and Just My Imagination are not ballads.

I wonder if we could agree on a top five.

Angie is a ballad. How can you think it's not a ballad? So is Beast Of Burden. Just because it's not sappy and maudlin doesn't mean it's not a ballad!

I think everybody agrees on Angie being a ballad Beast Of Burden, however, is a more tricky one. It´s faster and more like a midtempo pop song, imo. A ballad is slow, tender, but could also have a wide range of dynamics. Anyway, to claim Imagination´s "run away, run away"-theme a typical ballad is stretching it a bit too far, imo.

I'm not sure Time Waits For No One is a ballad. Winter is a more likely candidate for being a ballad. Back Street Girl is one of the Stones very best.

Yeah, Winter! I forgot that one.

used to be a time when a ballad was a song that told a story...somewhere along the way the meaning was morphed to any slow song; never understood that.

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StonesTod
used to be a time when a ballad was a song that told a story...somewhere along the way the meaning was morphed to any slow song; never understood that.

I hear ya. I use the term to mean 'slow songs' to most people, but you're right.
A 'ballad' is a narrative story set to music, plain and simple. Obvious example - The Ballad of John & Yoko, it tells the story of the running around they had to do to get married. And it has 'Ballad' in the title. And it's up-tempo. Plus, I think the song is performed entirely by John & Paul, isn't it?

[thepowergoats.com]

Quote
jamesfdouglas

Quote
StonesTod
used to be a time when a ballad was a song that told a story...somewhere along the way the meaning was morphed to any slow song; never understood that.

I hear ya. I use the term to mean 'slow songs' to most people, but you're right.
A 'ballad' is a narrative story set to music, plain and simple. Obvious example - The Ballad of John & Yoko, it tells the story of the running around they had to do to get married. And it has 'Ballad' in the title. And it's up-tempo. Plus, I think the song is performed entirely by John & Paul, isn't it?

yes. i just wish we could get our story straight about ballads v. slow songs. what's wrong with just calling slow songs slow songs? fast songs, like john & yoko, sometimes tell stories, but it's confusing calling those ballads cos they're not slow, so we have to actually put the "ballad of" in the title to indicate to the listener that it's a ballad even though it's not slow. so frustrating.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-07-01 01:32 by StonesTod.

IMHO it's very difficult to pick only 20! Here you have the complete(?) list of ballads, slowtempo, midtempo and a little more, listen to them and decide for yourself.

In alphabetical order (my favorites *):

1 (Walkin' Thru The) Spleepy City
2 All About You
3 Allways Suffering
4 Almost Hear You Sigh
5 Already Over Me
6 Angie*
7 Any Way You Look At It
8 Anybody Seen My Baby?
9 As Tears Go By
10 Back On My Hand
11 Back Street Girl
12 Beast Of Burden*
13 Blinded By Love
14 Blinded By Rainbows
15 Blue Turns To Grey
16 Child Of The Moon*
17 Citadel
18 Coming Down Again
19 Congratulations
20 Cry To Me
21 Dandelion
22 Dear Doctor
23 Down Home Girl
24 Down In The Hole*
25 Each And Every Day Of The Year
26 Faraway Eyes*
27 Feel On Baby*
28 Following The River
29 Fool To Cry (Sucking in the Seventies version)*
30 Good Times, Bad Times
31 Gotta Get Away
32 Heart Of Stone*
33 Heaven
34 Hide Your Love
35 How Can I Stop
36 I Am Waiting
37 I Don't Know Why
38 I Got The Blues*
39 I Just Want To See His Face
40 I'd Much Rather Be With The Boys
41 If You Need Me*
42 If You Really Want To Be My Friend
43 In Another Land
44 Indian Girl
45 I've Been Loving You To Long
46 Just My Imagination - Still Life*
47 Lady Jane
48 Laugh, I Nearly Died
49 Little Red Rooster
50 Long Long While*
51 Losing My Touch
52 Love In Vain (Ya Ya's)*
53 Loving Cup
54 Melody
55 Memory Motel*
56 Moon Is Up
57 Moonlight Mile*
58 My Girl
59 No Expectations
60 No Use In Crying
61 Out Of Tears
62 Out Of Time*
63 Pain In My Heart
64 Play With Fire*
65 Prodigal Son
66 Ride On Baby
67 Ruby Tuesday
68 Salt Of The Earth
69 She Smiled Sweetly
70 She's A Rainbow*
71 Sitting On The Fence
72 Sleep Tonight
73 Sleeping Away
74 Something Just Stick In Your Mind
75 Streets Of Love
76 Sweet Black Angel
77 Sweet Virginia
78 Take It Or Leave It
79 Tell Me
80 That’s How Strong My Love Is*
81 The Place Is Empty
82 The Singer Not The Song
83 The Spider And The Fly
84 The Worst
85 Thief In The Night
86 This Place Is Empty
87 Till The Next Goodbye
88 Time Is On My Side (Studio Version Guitar Introduction & Still Life)*
89 Time Waits For No One
90 Tops*
91 Waiting On A Friend
92 We're Wasting Time
93 What To Do
94 Wild Horses*
95 Winter*
96 Worried About You*
97 You Better Move On*
98 You Can't Always Get What You Want (Single Version & Love You Live)

Good luck!
Alex

No shit, totally missed Winter. Damn.

Quote
StonesTod
used to be a time when a ballad was a song that told a story...somewhere along the way the meaning was morphed to any slow song; never understood that.

That was back in the ancient times, way, way before pop music