Disclaimer: This week’s Now Playing is NOT about mums. Instead, we thought we’d do a little twist with a ‘secret songs’ playlist, chosen by you dear listener.
Hidden tracks, subliminal messages in songs, noises in the run-out grooves, uncredited appearances by artists, backmasking (the practice of recording secret messages in songs using backwards lyrics), hidden meanings in artwork and generally clandestine morsels planted by artists for fans to discover.
What is the definition of a hidden track? Well, generally it’s a track that is present on the album or song, but not listed in the packaging. It could suddenly pop-up at the end of an album, or even appear as a cheeky interlude between tracks.
Probably the earliest of such ilk is The Beatles’ ‘Her Majesty’, which appears unannounced at the end of ‘Abbey Road’ (or it did in early album pressings). Other bands that “did a Beatles” include Nirvana, Coldplay (who are on record as saying they wanted to ensure their albums have “value for money”), Radiohead, Green Day, Bloc Party, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dr Dre, Kings of Leon, Lauryn Hill and The Clash.
Some of these secret songs even became favourites – especially during live sets. If you knew the secret song then that meant you were a REAL fan, not just a passive listener. “Oh you’ve never heard ‘Sick Party’ at the end of Ash’s ‘1977’? Call yourself a fan?” etc.
So we want YOUR examples of incognito treats from artists, albums and packaging. We think we’ve nailed the obvious ones, but we need you to give us the sneakiest, most intriguing and the best stories.
You pick the music, so get your secrets-inspired suggestions to Tom via the hashtag #MumsTheWord6Music to help create a playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.
