Quickest classics, beamed from WOMR

Exploring a trove of tunes less than three minutes long, and why they exist

Sitting in the swank WOMR broadcast studio in Provincetown, Mike Fee at the helm of his super-cool Thursday morning program “Road Trippin’,” the focus was on a concept, a conceit:

Play only inspiring, influential tunes that were laid down in less than three minutes.

Rolling through this nugget-form genre that dominated modern music for so long, a thought accompanied:

Isn’t it great we still have a community radio station where local DJs can spin, share, preach, brainstorm, be idiosyncratic, float content into the ether of a peninsula (and world, streaming on the web)? Many things define Cape Cod as special, even unique; OMR in its funky way is one of them.

And I hear OMR aficionados signifying, Amen!

Now back to the show:

There are multiple reasons why three-and-under tunes became crucial and ubiquitous in American culture beginning in the 1950s:

A musical delivery form emerged in 1949 and became big-time popular, known as the 45 — because it spun around the turntable at 45 revolutions per minute. Seven inches across, with a big hole in the middle, one side could hold three minutes. Flipped over was a ‘B’ side of similar length.

Teenagers could walk into a record store with a dollar and leave with two tunes (‘A’ side the real attraction) on a single 45, with nickels and dimes still in pocket. People carried lunch boxes full of them, ready to spin wherever a needle could drop on a turntable.

Meanwhile, powerful AM radio stations were beaming fledgling rock and roll, Motown, R&B across broad swaths of the country, introducing millions to new sounds. Kids wanted to hear tunes they “dug” (and could buy), while DJs liked how a punctuated fast turnaround created many breaks for bopping banter.

Third, station managers wanted to sprinkle as many slots as possible for advertisers to pay the bills.

So record producers (who controlled the scene) told musicians flat out: Don’t come in here looking to record anything longer than three minutes, it ain’t happening.

Many tunes created in this pressurized environment are so embedded in our collective psyche it’s hard to believe they play this short. They feel like lengthy anthems, deep cultural statements. But the stopwatch proves otherwise (far as time goes anyway).

As “popular” music diversified, the three-minute barrier came to be seen as an arbitrary Establishment inhibition, a “straight” restriction artists came to disdain. Masters of three minutes began creating longer poems, stories, ballads, sometimes political, sometimes abstract and looping. They took advantage of “albums,” long playing (LP) records spinning at 33 rpm that held more than 20 minutes a side. “Counter culture” attitudes, pot and psychedelics, played parts in this breakout.

To offer rebellious flexibility, FM “underground” stations surfaced, WOMR being a great example: The station launched 42 years ago with a guarantee never to give a damn about a three-minute, invisible commercial barrier. If the Grateful Dead wanted to take Buddy Holly’s classic “Not Fade Away” (a mere 2:20) and turn it into a tripping 25-minute ride, hey, drop the needle and kick back.

Big AM “bangers” became dinosaurs, soon shifting to talk radio.

Nevertheless, this haiku form (more like sonnets really) embodied the greatest music of multiple decades and genres, as “Road Trippin’” celebrated. For good company, here’s a link to the show:

Road Trippin' 3-minute songs with Mike Fee

And here’s a whimsical playlist, overlapping but different from what aired, loosely arranged by genre to make it easy to download your own three-minute tracks while time-traveling through summer:

Seminal Soul/R&B/Motown:

Dock of the Bay (Otis Redding)

Respect (Aretha Franklin)

Please Please Please (James Brown)

Green Onions, (Booker T and the MGs)

Nothing Like the Real Thing (Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell)

Something’s Got a Hold on Me (Etta James)

Walk on By (Dionne Warwick)

Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone (Bill Withers)

Shadows of Love (Four Tops)

The Letter (Boxtops)

Sunny (Bobby Hebb)

Stand by Me (Ben E King)

Stop in the Name of Love (The Supremes)

Dylan (who broke through 3 mins bigtime and early):

One Too Many Mornings

If Not for You

Heaven’s Door

I’ll be Your Baby

The Beatles (no band mastered 3 mins better, got more famous doing so, then smashed it harder):

I Saw Her Standing There

Day Tripper

Help

Hide Your Love Away

Blackbird

Yesterday

Rocky-bluesy players, various times and places:

White Rabbit (Gracie Slick, Jefferson Airplane)

People are Strange (The Doors, amazingly enough 2:15)

After Midnight (JJ Cale)

Not Fade Away (Buddy Holly’s 2:20, The Rolling Stones’ cover a crazy 1:47)

Johnny B Goode (Chuck Berry)

For What It’s Worth (Buffalo Springfield)

A Different Drummer (Linda Ronstadt, The Stone Poneys)

Paint It Black (Stones)

These Boots are Made for Walkin’ (Nancy Sinatra)

Daydream (Loving Spoonful)

California Dreaming (Mamas and Papas)

Bad Moon Rising (Credence Clearwater)

Crazy Love (Van Morrison)

Mexico (James Taylor)

Heart of Gold (Neil Young)

And grudgingly I’ll admit: Old Cape Cod (Patti Page)

Two recent great hits are seconds longer than 3, but hat-tip to the genre beautifully so if you want to stretch just a little:

Love on the Brain (Rhianna)

Out of the Shallows (Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper)

And now, for an extra 10 points: What does the acronym “OMR” stand for?

(Answer: OuterMostRadio)

Haven’t subscribed yet? With all due respect, why not? Make it possible to see a Voice and support good reporting, strong perspectives, unique Cape Cod takes every week. All that for far less than a cup of coffee. Please subscribe:

https://sethrolbein.substack.com/welcome

And if you are into Instagram, want to see some additional material, maybe share the work, here you go:

Cape Cod Voice Instagram