As for the criteria: the outro has to take the song in a different direction- but still remain true to the song. It must be catchy in its own right and almost be worthy of being considered a separate song in and of itself. Two immediate examples that come to mind are the outros from Hey Jude (the Beatles of course) and Layla (Derick and the Dominoes, a.k.a. Eric Clapton and company).
But you know what? I find both of these outros a bit repetitive. I mean they’re great and all that- but they fall far short of being dubbed the greatest.
Therefore, I officially and brazenly declare that the greatest all-time outro to a rock song since the history of the universe belongs to…….(I know this will make one poster happy) is ELO’s Mr. Blue Sky.
By itself, the song can stand with the best of them. However, it doesn’t quite bring it home until the outro - where the orchestra kicks in, picks up and then brings it down for a soul-satisfying closure. Were it not for the last minute or so, the song would remain great but not a masterpiece. With the kick-ass ending, it remains one for the ages.
I’ve got a couple, but I don’t know if any of them are as good as the two minlokwat mentioned:
1. “Love is Like Oxygen” by Sweet. An oldies station here in Boston was in the habit of playing this one fairly late at night in its entirety once a week or so. The damn song goes on for like 10 minutes, and just when you think it’s over and a new song has started, you realize it IS the same song.
2. “Little Red Corvette” by The Artist Formerly Known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince. The edit that is often played on top 40 stations is about 3 1/2-4 minutes (going from memory here) but the album version is longer, and IMHO MUCH better. The song doesn’t even really get going until it’s about halfway into it, and the second half could almost stand on its own as a different song, but with the same chorus.
3. I taped the Live Aid concerts (I think) off the radio way back when, and Dire Straits did a kick-ass version of “Sultans of Swing” that ended with a bridge to a long, slow saxophone solo. Then the sax started to pick up, and it and the guitar (Mark Knopfler) were trading riffs back and forth for a good 3-4 minutes. Much better than the studio version, or any other live versions of the song I had ever heard.
Sublime - Free Loop Dub from the album “Robbin’ the Hood”. It’s a heavy Dub-Reggae tune, and at the end they switch into some gangster sounding hip-hop. Bad-Ass. Also. . .
Another Sublime song - DJ’s off the album 40 Oz. to Freedom. They end the song with a riff that the Specials used, but is really from an old reggae tune - “Stop your messin around, time to straighten right out, better think of your future, or you’ll wind up in jail”
The Beatles’ “Lovely Rita”…what was THAT all about? Also,
not quite an outro, but The Beatles’ “Get Back” (album version), where John says “…I hope we passed the audition”
Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla” - the mother of all piano based outros
AC/DC’s “Back in Black”, I like that better than the rest of the song, or any other AC/DC song.
Jimi Hendrix “Angel”, it soars to heaven…
Would the discordant, incessant rising of all the instruments of a modern symphony orchestra, followed by the crash of 50 pianos be considered an outro? If so, the Beatles A Day in the Life must rank among the best.