Help Me Make a Playlist of Songs with Sax Solos
June 23, 2018 11:29 AM

So far I've only got Julia Holter's Sea Calls Me Home and of course Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side.
posted by boghead to Media & Arts (48 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
Any style?
posted by rhizome at 11:34 AM on June 23, 2018


Off the top of my head..

The Dell Vikings - Come Go With Me
Collective Soul - Better Now
Spring King - Who Are You
Fats Domino - I'm Walking
David Bowie - Young Americans
Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty
Dave Matthews Band - Stay
posted by wats at 11:35 AM on June 23, 2018


@rhizome, if the solo has the same spirit of wild abandon in the 2 songs I cited, that's ideal. But I'll take all ideas.

@wats, I'm sure you're a good person, but I have a moral objection to DMB.
posted by boghead at 11:37 AM on June 23, 2018


Duran Duran - Rio
George Michael - Careless Whisper
One Step Beyond - Madness (plus basically anything by Madness)
posted by Jon Mitchell at 11:59 AM on June 23, 2018


maneater - hall & oates
turn the page - bob seger
born to run - bruce springsteen
who can it be now - men at work
i want a new drug - huey lewis
i still believe - tim capello (from the lost boys soundtrack lol)

and um pretty much anything by morphine or lester young
posted by 20 year lurk at 12:09 PM on June 23, 2018


You could run through the entire discography of Clarence Clemons and you'd be doing just fine.

Oh and Carly Rae Jepsen's "Run Away With Me" duh.
posted by bcwinters at 12:16 PM on June 23, 2018


(that holter song was cool thx)
there are these guys from mefi previouslys:
bendik giske & colin stetson, who may be closer to that song's sound. don't have any particular track at top of mind but seems thievery corporation might go there.

& don't forget stan getz.
posted by 20 year lurk at 12:18 PM on June 23, 2018


The best wild-abandon sax solo I can think of right now is in Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick by Ian Dury.
posted by rd45 at 12:26 PM on June 23, 2018


Money, Us and Them, Wish You Were Here, and the Gunner's Dream, all by Pink Floyd, have sax.

Frankenstein, by Edgar Winter (which is awesome)

Logical Song, and most of anything else, by Supertramp.

My Life is Good, by Randy Newman, has a hilarious sax solo (Bruce Springsteen gets sick of being The Boss and offers the job to Randy, which he accepts.)
posted by melgy at 12:27 PM on June 23, 2018


We All Die Young from The Decemberists' new album, I'll be Your Girl.
posted by miratime at 12:31 PM on June 23, 2018


Rolling Stones - Waiting On A Friend
this was so good that they stopped having sax solos in rock songs after it (well, almost, there was still Men At Work ahead)

....since you're even asking this I'm going to assume you have a high tolerance for 70s music
There was a nice soprano sax solo in "Listen To What The Man Said"
posted by thelonius at 12:31 PM on June 23, 2018


As a Billy Joel fan, I'd be remiss to not mention these sax solos (generally by Richie Cannata):

It's Still Rock and Roll to Me
Just the Way You Are
You May Be Right
Big Shot
Stiletto
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 12:33 PM on June 23, 2018


wild abandon you say?
john coltrane ascension

any fela kuti. try, say, army arrangement, which has some solo starting around 11:38 & probably elsewhere too. the whole song warrants a -- whatever the aural equivalent of a "gander" might be -- as most of his oeuvre.

i love the sax of abdullah ibrahim's original ishmael, one of the songs that first sent me to napster way back when.
posted by 20 year lurk at 12:36 PM on June 23, 2018


I Can't Go For That has two of 'em!
posted by STFUDonnie at 12:40 PM on June 23, 2018


The Motels Only the Lonely.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:42 PM on June 23, 2018


The Cure, A Night Like This.
posted by srednivashtar at 12:45 PM on June 23, 2018


Fela! And Hall & Oates! Embarrassed I didn’t think of them myself.

This is great stuff, friends. Thanks to all of you.
posted by boghead at 12:54 PM on June 23, 2018


Quarterflash - Harden My Heart
posted by rhizome at 1:04 PM on June 23, 2018


Lots of great ones in the Steely Dan oeuvre!

Deacon Blues
Aja
Dirty Work
Babylon Sisters

And there's this.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 1:04 PM on June 23, 2018




Corey Hart - Never Surrender

And seconding Quarterflash - Harden My Heart, as well as their Find Another Fool - both performed by lead singer Rindy Ross. Find Another Fool also includes a violin solo, as well as a violin-saxophone battle! And now I’m down a forgotten-80’s-hard-rock-songs rabbit hole...
posted by MexicanYenta at 1:51 PM on June 23, 2018


Romeo Void - Never Say Never
posted by rhizome at 1:59 PM on June 23, 2018


The Blasters - So Long Baby Goodbye. One of the greatest rock songs ever recorded; I once saw Lee Allen take about two dozen choruses on that sax solo in a performance at (I think) Maxwell's, and the top of my head came off so completely I'm not sure it's ever gotten settled back on there.
posted by languagehat at 2:09 PM on June 23, 2018


Fun House.
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 2:11 PM on June 23, 2018


Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty
posted by evilmomlady at 2:26 PM on June 23, 2018


INXS "The One Thing"

Sting "Fortress Around Your Heart"

INXS "What You Need"
posted by 4ster at 3:05 PM on June 23, 2018


So many 80s songs!
We Don't Need Another Hero
True, by Spandau Ballet
You Belong to the City by Glenn Frey
Too Hot, Kool and the Gang
Caribbean Queen by Billy Ocean
Never Tear Us Apart
posted by O9scar at 3:09 PM on June 23, 2018


If you want something current, my friends have got a sax-heavy punk band called Guttfull.
posted by elsietheeel at 3:58 PM on June 23, 2018


The Plugz, Blue Sofa
posted by ITheCosmos at 5:17 PM on June 23, 2018


My Springsteen pick would be "Bobby Jean," which has been linked in an article above.
posted by Carouselle at 5:44 PM on June 23, 2018


Tim Curry - I Do the Rock

Lots of 70s NYC Rock is going to have this kind of band lineup and sound. Think early SNL. Or current, really.
posted by rhizome at 6:14 PM on June 23, 2018


Even The Police had a couple sax solos back then:

Low Life (sax by Olaf Kubler)
O My God (sax by Sting)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:56 PM on June 23, 2018


Steely Dan - FM
Billy Joel - Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
Huey Lewis & the News - Hip to be Square
Huey Lewis & the News - I Want a New Drug
posted by emelenjr at 7:14 PM on June 23, 2018


The Waterboys A Girl Called Johnny
posted by hiker U. at 7:43 PM on June 23, 2018


Sunstroke Project & Olia Tira - Run Away (Moldova's 2010 Eurovision entry, and the source of the Epic Sax Guy meme).
posted by asperity at 10:01 PM on June 23, 2018


Lily Was Here - Dave Stewart and Candy Dulfer on sax.
posted by Iteki at 1:45 AM on June 24, 2018


Hazel o Connor - Will You? - another iconic 80s sax solo
Spunky Onions - Billy Davis and the Legends - sax player is unleashed about 2 mins in.
Morphine - Candy. - if it need not be a tenor sax.
Save it for Later - The (English) Beat
posted by rongorongo at 2:41 AM on June 24, 2018


Pink Floyd’s Shine On You Crazy Diamond from the album Wish You Were Here (the title song of which has no sax solo, btw.)
posted by The Deej at 5:22 AM on June 24, 2018




The current lineup of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists has a tenor sax player, Adrienne Berry, who rules. Some sax solos here.
posted by clavicle at 12:42 PM on June 24, 2018


The Marc VW Allstars - Heaven featuring Marc Russo on sax
posted by Altomentis at 3:09 PM on June 24, 2018


Nthing Morphine. The guitar is minor and the sax(es) are the strongest voice.
posted by bendy at 8:24 PM on June 24, 2018


Foreigner's Urgent has a surprisingly kick-ass sax solo

Nina Simone - I Put A Spell On You

Couple more Lou Reed tracks, from The Bells: I Want to Boogie With You, Looking for Love
posted by Bron at 8:09 AM on June 25, 2018


Ty Segall - The Main Pretender
George Thorogood and the Destroyers - Bad to the Bone
posted by shakobe at 11:07 AM on June 27, 2018


Oh! Camera Obscura: Honey in the Sun has other horns, but see if it's sax-forward enough for you. If not, Deep in the Night surely will be (Tracyanne is Tracyanne the lead singer from Camera Obscura).
posted by clavicle at 7:58 AM on June 28, 2018


R.E.M., Fireplace
posted by epj at 2:20 PM on July 1, 2018


Love it.

Keep 'em coming.

I'm sax-positive.
posted by boghead at 2:37 PM on July 1, 2018


I've created an Apple Music playlist that includes most of the suggestions here. Enjoy!
posted by boghead at 3:47 PM on July 1, 2018


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