# Favorite ending to a song.. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694 "2009-01-23T19:49:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tattman40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/db5fbb/32.png) [@tattman40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tattman40)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/1 "2009-01-23T19:49:11Z")
Mine has to be the last 30 seconds or so from “November Rain” Guns 'N Roses. Anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![Stauderhorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Stauderhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stauderhorse)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/2 "2009-01-23T20:31:22Z")
The guitar and drum section during the last two minutes of “Hotel California”. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/3 "2009-01-23T21:17:44Z")
Don’t really have a favorite, but the fade-out on the early 1960’s song “Just One Look” is probably the best part of the song. Especially in the original version by Doris Troy. “Just one look…that’s all it took, yeah, just one look…that’s all it took.” The outro only lasts ten seconds or so, but I can’t imagine someone covering the song and omitting it. It’s been pulled from the rest of the song and used (as a loop) in commercials. Here’s the [Hollies covering it.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32VWELcZUMM)They make the rest of the song more interesting so the difference isn’t as great. (Warning… video contains footage of Graham Nash looking like an uber-geeky George Harrison clone.) ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/4 "2009-01-23T21:46:51Z")
Ohh, and apologies for being stuck in the 1960s. The backward keyboard snippet stuck at the end of _Strawberry Fields Forever_ always makes me see Giggling Madness wiggling a beckoning finger my way. (“Hey, when you go out this evening why not leave the clothes at home and take the axe instead…?”) ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/5 "2009-01-23T21:53:29Z")
Gary Hoey - La Rosa Negra Les obscure, Led Zep - Stairway to Heaven ---
**Author:** ![Lilacs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Lilacs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lilacs)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/6 "2009-01-24T00:04:22Z")
Favorite Ending is “You Can’t do That” by The Beatles. I love the little signature at the very end. Also, “Happiness is a Warm Gun.” ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/7 "2009-01-24T00:17:01Z")
The last measure of Elton John’s “Come Down In Time”. It’s a B5 chord. Song is in Dm. ETA: D melodic minor, not D harmonic. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/8 "2009-01-24T00:27:55Z")
I think it’s probably the end of “Night Rally” in Elvis Costello’s my aim is true. The way that it builds and builds and the stops abruptly mid lyric for just long enough to let you know the song is over before “Radio, Radio” starts. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/9 "2009-01-24T00:32:53Z")
> [@Stauderhorse](#): > > The guitar and drum section during the last two minutes of “Hotel California”. I opened this thread intending to post this. ---
**Author:** ![DaveRaver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daveraver/32/1078_2.png) [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/10 "2009-01-24T00:38:12Z")
“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make” -The Beatles “The End” ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/11 "2009-01-24T01:39:45Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > I think it’s probably the end of “Night Rally” in Elvis Costello’s my aim is true. The way that it builds and builds and the stops abruptly mid lyric for just long enough to let you know the song is over before “Radio, Radio” starts. Neither of those songs was on the US version of that album IIRC. I too am partial to the sudden end to a song, especially in a good rave-up - “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by the Clash has some awful lyrics, but everything in that song races to a photo-finish at the end and then it is over. ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/12 "2009-01-24T01:59:20Z")
Well I guess _the Beatles_ were the expert in this realm (among many others) because I came in here to nominate one more. The coda to **Hello / Goodbye** is brilliant. The song could end simply enough with the last sung / spoken “Hello -o -o…” but then an abrupt change of gears and the outro kicks in with the upbeat “Hey-la, Hey, Hey, Hey-la” groove that could easily have served as the structure of a chorus for a different song all together but instead works perfectly when inserted here. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/13 "2009-01-24T03:17:58Z")
The chord that goes on forever at the end of **A Day in the Life**. The bird that tweets at the end of **Layla**. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/14 "2009-01-24T04:19:44Z")
> [@Frostillicus](#): > > The bird that tweets at the end of **Layla**. It’s a guitar, dude. I love both the “endless chord” from the Beatles’ _A Day In The Life_, and also the corresponding satire of it from the Rutles’ [Cheese And Onions](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePaHG6g7uFw) (from the fictitious Album, _Yellow Submarine Sandwich_). Apparently, this song has actually been included on bootleg Beatles compilations by people intentionally or accidentally mistaking the song as a “real” Beatles song 🙂 After all, _you better think twice – at least once more_. Also, the end to U2’s song [Stay (Faraway, So Close!)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=838dPcVq0c4): “Just the bang and the clatter, as an angel hits the ground.” **short, muted cymbal** (The video and its ending don’t really match what I picture the song being about, either…) ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/15 "2009-01-24T04:24:42Z")
The final verse that was, I believe, left off the radio version of _The Thunder Rolls_. It gives the song a much more definitive ending (IMHO). And I’ll third the ending of _Hotel California_ ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/16 "2009-01-24T04:45:08Z")
I’d go with the coda from The Police’s “It’s Alright For You” - from 2:29 to the end. Or the end of XTC’s “Mayor of Simpleton” - 3:10 to the end. Or the end of The Smiths’ “Pretty Girls Make Graves” - 2:28 to the end. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/17 "2009-01-24T04:49:05Z")
Here’s one I just remembered: Jimi Hendrix, _House Burning Down_. One of the best intros AND best endings. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/18 "2009-01-24T04:51:32Z")
The end of [High Speed Dirt](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW1_PGKGpSQ) by Megadeth. A killer little solo followed by the sound of a jumper hitting the ground and turning into mush. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/19 "2009-01-24T09:35:53Z")
The last three minutes of “Supper’s Ready” by Genesis. ---
**Author:** ![Art\_Rock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/art_rock/32/525_2.png) [@Art\_Rock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Art_Rock)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694/20 "2009-01-24T10:37:52Z")
> [@GESancMan](#): > > The last three minutes of “Supper’s Ready” by Genesis. Exquisite choice. The end of Blinded by the night (MMEB) in the album version. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-ending-to-a-song/482694.md?page=2)