Song · The Bluetones
“Slight Return” by The Bluetones
From the album Expecting to Fly (1996)
“Slight Return” by The Bluetones appears on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1995 and 2025. It was first released in 1996 on the album Expecting to Fly. Its best result is #21 on the John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1995. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #190 alternative song of 1995.
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"Slight Return" first surfaced in February 1995 as the Bluetones' debut single, a blue seven-inch pressed in a run of just 2000 for the faithful and sold by mail order and at shows on their tour with Supergrass. The title was only ever a placeholder, lifted from the subtitle of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", but Mark Morriss never found anything better, so it stuck.
Reissued in 1996 as the second single from the debut album Expecting to Fly, it went to number two in Britain, the highest any Bluetones single ever climbed. Hugh Jones produced and mixed it, and it's all chime and lope: Adam Devlin's 12-string and acoustic guitars ringing over Scott Morriss's bass and Eds Chesters' drums, with Mark Morriss's wry vocal drifting on top. Listen for the ad-lib he slipped in midway, sure that nobody would notice.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 21 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1995 | 50 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 24 | Absolute Radio | Absolute Radio 100 Ultimate Britpop Anthems | 100 |
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