Order of Songs on albums

[lockhartgary]

Was there any rhyme or reason as to how the track order on LPs was determined? And there are instances where the track used [[or some variation of a track's title) in the lp's title was not the lead off track on side 1, I wonder why??

I know this question[[s) may not have a definite answer[[s), but I am curious to hear any feedback.

[reese]

I don't think there's a definitive answer. For every album like WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO or HEAT WAVE that has the title tune as the first track, there are other albums like PLEASE MR. POSTMAN or NITTY GRITTY where it isn't.

I read something once where supposedly Billie Jean Brown's department helped with album sequencing. But I don't know if this is true.

[BayouMotownMan]

Usually the positioning of a track on an lp is determined by whether it already went out as a single or was being considered as one. Any position on Side A worked for this, but on Side B it seemed Tracks 1 and 3 were either singles or considered for such

[1382hitsville]

When I started my Motown collection on CD, in the late 80's and early 90's a lot of compilation CDs came out. I started to notice that the opening songs where a hit, album fillers until midway the tracklist, a hit and closing with a hit as well. But that only goes for compilations and maybe I heard something that wasn't intentionally or thought about.

For albums, in the 60's Motown was primarily a singles company. Targeting at the low incomes of the youth and it seems that albums where almost an afterthought. In my opinion that changed when The Supremes [excuse me, maybe this should be mentioned in the other forum..haha] A Go Go, the first Motown album reaching number 1.

Late 60's and early 70's due to the brilliant work of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and others, albums became more a vehicle of "story telling" and comprehensive albums where created.

[paul_nixon]

Motown themselves experimented with running orders and there are several examples of early attempts at an LP which eventually ended up with a different running order for one reason or another