The best sax solo ever
🎷People tend to either love or hate sax solos. They can make or break a song. But a well-played sax solo, during a great song, in the right genre is hard to beat.
There are so many mainstream songs with saxophone — some people think too many — so it’s hard to pick *the* best sax solo of all time.
I’ve narrowed it down to two. Spotify links: Baker Street and Careless Whisper. If you don’t have Spotify, the YouTube videos are below.
You can listen (again) to the songs and decide which one you like, or just scroll down to see my definitive answer. 🎷
It’s a virtual tie, but the winner is…Careless Whisper. Why? I broke it down into three categories:
🎷The solo by itself: Baker Street is better.
It’s more powerful and catchier. It’s in your face, in a good way. If you played just the sax solos on their own, I’d say Baker Street is the winner.
I really like the Careless Whisper solo, too. Maybe it’s because it’s more mellow. It’s a little too easy to just let it play in the background.
🎷The solo in the context of the song it’s in: Careless Whisper.
The sax solo in Careless Whisper is an integral part of the song. It “fits.” It’s hard to imagine the song without the solo. The rest of the song is great, especially the music and words in the refrain, but with the solo it’s excellent.
Baker Street has the solo, but then you have the other part of the song that seems like it’s just filling up time until you finally get back to the solo again. The “you used to think that it was so easy” part seems like it’s a different song, and the overall meaning of the song is less clear.
So I would say that the best sax solo (played by itself) is the one in Baker Street, but the best song with a sax solo is Careless Whisper.
So it’s basically a tie, right? What breaks the tie is this.
🎷Sexy Sax Man viral video: Careless Whisper. If you haven’t yet, check it out.
🎷48 million views, probably 100 of them are just from me. I don’t know why, but It’s hilarious.
This is more than enough to break the tie. If Sexy Saxophone Man had gone viral with Baker Street instead, the world would be a much different place.
So the definitive answer to the question: What’s the best sax solo ever? is Careless Whisper. The sax solo that George Michael wrote on a bus. 🚌
🎷Do you disagree? Have another song that beats these two? Leave your comments below and try to convince us!
Once the pandemic eases up more, it might be good to go sleeveless or shirtless, take public transportation, and bring a sax with you so you can go viral with the next great sax solo. 🎷
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🚨 Voting is over for May’s $50 donation from eclecticmisc.org! UPDATE: I will announce the winner on this site and on Twitter the Monday after the vote ends (since the vote ended on Monday, May 31, I’ll announce it on here by Monday, June 7 and the poll for June will open that day).
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