Re: 'sign Of The Cross'
Different World and The Wicker Man are a bit over 4 minutes each (okay, The Wicker Man is 4:36). Wildest Dreams is under that. All of them are the shortest or second shortest songs on the album. I'd say the average pop song is 3-4 minutes, so there's not much difference. Compare this to post-2000s openers: Caught Somewhere in Time 7:26, Where Eagles Dare 6:10, Moonchild 5:41, Sign of the Cross 11:18. If you count The Ides of March and Wrathchild as one opener (I do, since the first seems like an intro instrumental to the second, not a separate song; a bit like The Hellion/Electric Eye), then only Invaders, Be Quick or Be Dead, and Futureal are shorter than any of those. Prowler, Tailgunner, and Aces High come close, but the first two are longer than Wildest Dreams and Aces High is longer than both that and Different World. So overall, in the 2000s they haven't really changed much, and have got actually gotten
shorter (on average) in the openers.
But true, they are longer than your average pop song.
