Splendid Short Songs AKA Terrific <2s

[LemonMelon]

I've always believed there was a real artform to crafting a really brilliant, memorable song without going over the two minute mark, so this thread is here to highlight a few of the best examples.

Some of my favorites:

Big Star - I'm In Love With A Girl
Bob Dylan - Oxford Town
David Bowie - Breaking Glass
Elvis Costello - Welcome To The Working Week
Guided By Voices - The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory
Jefferson Airplane - Embryonic Journey
M83 - I Guess I'm Floating
Madvillain - Accordion
Modest Mouse - Wild Packs Of Family Dogs
Nick Drake - Harvest Breed
Paul McCartney - Junk
Pavement - Zurich Is Stained
Simon & Garfunkel - April Come She Will
The Beatles - I'll Follow The Sun
The La's - Feelin'
Tom Waits - Johnsburg, Illinois

 

[corianderstem]

Guided By Voices - Teenage FBI
The Pixies - Allison
The Beatles - I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
White Stripes - Fell In Love With a Girl
The Smiths - Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
Teenage Fanclub - What You Do To Me


Oh, and ...

Terrence and Philip - Uncle Fucka

 

[lazarus]

Guided By Voices - Teenage FBI

One of the greatest, catchiest pop songs ever written.

 

[lazarus]

Guided By Voices - Teenage FBI

One of the greatest, catchiest pop songs ever written.

YouTube - Guided By Voices - Teenage FBI

 

[lazarus]

double.

 

[powerhour24]

YouTube - puncture repair

 

[bono_212]

Is it one of the greatest, catchiest pop songs ever written?

 

[u2popmofo]

One of the greatest, catchiest pop songs ever written.

Third-ed.

I forget how many punk records I have until I look on iTunes at all the tracks I have under 2 minutes. Far more than I ever would have expected! List is on the way.

 

[lazarus]

Is it one of the greatest, catchiest pop songs ever written?

I'd be concerned about LM starting a thread which tries hard to prove how awesome two minutes can be.

 

[bono_212]

I'd be concerned about LM starting a thread which tries hard to prove how awesome two minutes can be.

I had to piece that together, took a few minutes. Now I'm on the verge of tears trying to not LOL in class. Thank you, Laz. Thank you.

 

[LemonMelon]

I'd be concerned about LM starting a thread which tries hard to prove how awesome two minutes can be.

Scumbo seemed to be right on board with it too, as Utahn Justice only permits two minutes a lifetime.

 

[u2popmofo]

Scumbo seemed to be right on board with it too, as Utahn Justice only permits two minutes a lifetime.

You have to be wearing your special undies during those two minutes as well, or you're going STRAIGHT TO HELL.

 

[lazarus]

 

[agentorange]

Besides what's been mentioned, I think these are pretty stinkin' infectious:

the beatles - and your bird can sing
the police - miss gradenko
guided by voices - gold star for robot boy
los campesinos - my year in lists

 

[Jive Turkey]

Is it cheating to name all the songs from the Mean Mr Mustard -> Carry That Weight run?

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

I'm a big fan of brevity in popular music.

The first thing that comes to mind obviously is punk/hardcore. I don't think Minor Threat ever recorded a song that was over 2 minutes. (A slight exaggeration, but not far off.)

Ummm, trying to think of other stuff off the top of my head. Eddie's Into The Wild soundtrack has a handful of lovely songs on there under 2 minutes, and with every year that record's been around, the more I think it's better than any of the studio albums Pearl Jam's put out in the last decade. (The movie sucked, though.)

The Beatles, of course, (and assorted other 60s British Invasion style bands) had great short songs.

But, yeah, cool thread idea.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Speaking of Pearl Jam, I think Soon Forget is one of their best

YouTube - Pearl Jam - Soon Forget

 

[Jive Turkey]

Also

Pixies - Tame
The Clash - White Riot
Cori already mentioned the Smiths
and a handful of Hives songs

It would be fun to make a CD of only < 2 minute songs.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Soon Forget is fun. And I love how it's such a blatant rip off of The Who's Blue, Red and Grey. Eddie drunkenly admitted it at a show back in '03, and I was lucky enough to be in attendance.

YouTube - The Who - Blue, Red and Grey

Lukin is another fun PJ song under 2 minutes.

YouTube - Pearl Jam - Lukin (motion graphics)

 

[Jive Turkey]

Soon Forget is fun. And I love how it's such a blatant rip off of The Who's Blue, Red and Grey. Eddie drunkenly admitted it at a show back in '03, and I was lucky enough to be in attendance.

hahaha, I was blissfully unaware of this.

 

[Imperor]

No mention of "Spunk Lickin'/Americock," huh?

 

[corianderstem]

Gaf, I'm all dismayed and junk that you thought into the wild sucked.

 

[beegee]

I love the Into the Wild soundtrack.

My first choice would be Rise, but it has so much wonderful mandolin that it clocks in at thirty-six seconds too long for this thread.

I'll go with No Ceiling (1:34) instead.

 

[The Sad Punk]

The first ones I thought of were Never Talking To You Again by Husker Du and Suzy Creamcheese by Frank Zappa. May make list later, also had a soft spot for shorter tracks.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

GAF stole all of my suggestions, which consisted of nothing but pearl jam/vedder references

so to counter that, i plugged the iPod in and sorted by time and looked only at songs 2 minutes or shorter...

all shook up - elvis
teddy bear - elvis
the 59th street bridge song - simon & garfunkel
not fade away - rolling stones
i will - the beatles
from me to you - the beatles
emenius sleepus - green day
arc - pearl jam

honorary mention to yesterday, norwegian wood, i can't explain, rockaway beach and does this bus stop at 82nd street for clocking in at 2:05

 

[phanan]

Springsteen - Held Up Without A Gun

Others that came to mind were already mentioned.

 

[Dalton]

inagaddadavida - iron butterfly

 

[Hewson]

YouTube - Simpsons (the) - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Iron Butterfly cover)

 

[Catman]

YouTube - Harlan T. Bobo - "Hamster in a Cage" - (Sucker LP)

In love with this song at the moment...

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

How about this little ditty:

YouTube - Blur - "Song 2"

There's also some Nick Lowe songs that I know clock in at around 2 minutes or so...will go through at some point and get the exact ones and share them. I'm always fascinated by how people can get a point across so quickly in songs that short-rather neat.

Angela