The Best Song Shouldn't Always Open the Album

Dave’s favorite song on Steve Miller Band’s Book of Dreams is “Jungle Love.” But he still would not move it to Track One. In Episode 39 of Dave’s Side One, Dave begins Seven Musical Arguments by asking what an opening track is actually supposed to accomplish. The album begins with “Threshold” leading into “Jet Airliner,” an opening sequence that Dave sees as a doorway into the record. The episode also includes a personal memory: in the summer of 1978, Dave loaned his first copy of Book of Dreams to a friend who left it in his car, where the heat warped the record beyond use. Dave also introduces The Side One Test—listen to the entire first side without skipping or shuffling and ask whether those songs belong together in exactly that order. Today’s Side One Spin: What album contains your favorite song somewhere other than Track One—and would moving it improve or damage the experience?