Simple, well played, appropriate.
I suppose if the solos were shorter we’d have to hear more of the lead singer’s voice…
About as memorable as the song is.
This cheesy song NEEDED a cheesy sax solo to really be complete. If I hadn’t caught the (obvious) sexual allusions throughout the “rap” parts of this song, the sax part would have driven it home.
I can’t believe I never noticed this solo, having listened to this song hundreds of times. The weird thing about this one is that it is maybe not even a solo – it’s mostly in the background. It really is a perfect fit though. It would definitely have an A if it hadn’t annoyed me with the slow fade out.
Another solo I somehow never consciously noticed, though I’ve heard the song many times. Probably because it never ruined my day.
The only problem with this solo is the very long sax buildup to the actual sax solo. Just when you think you’ve gotten the required saxophone out of the way, the actual solo begins. It’s not bad though, and not very long.
The absolute worst, and the inspiration for this page. I really think they auditioned a bunch of people for the part, and chose the most horrible player. *Update* – I’m told this is not actually a sax player, just a keyboard. I wouldn’t be surprised.
One of the worst. I didn’t even know where to pull the solos from, they were so dense in this song. I ended up going with two: (1) the ridiculously “dark” beginning and (2) the end, where the sax sounds like a woman being murdered.
This one fits in so nicely with the rest of the song, it slipped right by me until it was pointed out by someone. I can almost overlook the long sax fadeout. But not quite.
Just plain overdone. The solo needs to complement the song, not try to improve it.
This was a happy song, until the sax player did a little too much crack.
Call it “Appropriate Blaring”, but I actually think it works.
A sax solo is extra lame when it is just one in a run of many different instrument solos.
INXS loves the saxophone. When this one comes in, I almost cringe it’s so ridiculously dramatic.
The singer and saxophonist were definitely recorded in different rooms.
You can tell this guy’s talent was wasted on this terrible solo. The little run at the end was him saying “Hey! I’m actually a pretty good sax player!”
I’m not really that into the barking of the dogs of war I guess.
It’s kind of weird to make the sound level of your sax solo so much lower than the rest of the song. It’s like they became suddenly regretful of including this solo but didn’t want to hurt the player’s feelings.
Here’s what I think happened here: the sax player was late and walked in right when the song (which was totally unmemorable) was completely over. He then busted out his most intense solo, pulling all the other musicians back into the music for a mini-encore. The solo is pretty rad, but I have to dock it a bit for excessive vibrato and persisting into the fade.
Short: Long:
I really don’t care that the playing is good. You can’t save a pop song by continuing to add more and more saxophone. If you have to add 3+ minutes of saxophone solos to compensate, then you should probably just go back to the drawing board. What about more cowbell instead? Since I really couldn’t decide what sax parts to remove to make this fit in a reasonable amount of time, I’m posting two versions – the “short” one is just the most solo-like part, and the “long” is all the saxophone parts, including the vocal/saxophone callbacks. Enjoy.
A bit shocking – it starts so suddenly and then scales down to about the level of the vocals. I’m glad they left it at this though.
This solo started before the song really started. So the mood that is broken is one of optimism, like “I hope this is a great song!”
I’m still shaking from this one.
Doesn’t really add much to the song (except another shot at that refrain after), but a pretty good solo nonetheless.
Ah, relaxing on the beach….wait I’m suddenly in a stadium with some sax player!
The first theme to Alf had pretty high production values for a TV theme, with lots of synth instruments. In 1988, someone decided that the synth was dead, but that sax would live forever. They were a little late on this fad, but I can’t say I’m upset about it – this theme is pretty freaking catchy.
When the knowledge that Roseanne was coming on wasn’t enough to compel me to turn off the TV, this theme song certainly helped.
Pretty solid.
I’m *almost* on my feet.
Much better than her Thunderdome sax solos. Tina Turner really got the formula down by 1989.
I have to say, I feel very conflicted about this one. For one thing, I totally did not expect a very smooth saxophone to start up right when the song seemed to be winding down. And just when that solo seemed to be winding down, I really didn’t expect it to end up kicking it up a notch. Nick, the guy who emailed me about this solo, put it best: “It really is quite something as just when you think it’s over the sax finds another gear and rockets off into the distance.” All that said, there really wasn’t much to complain about in the solo.