Short But Sweet - The best songs clocking in at less than 1 minute

Cafe Society
1

Naturally punk rock has a distinct advantage, but it is not my #1 song. Here are my top 5 songs, none of which run longer than 59 seconds:

  1. Stiff Little Fingers - Here We Are Nowhere A lot of worthy candidates vying for my #5 slot, the hardest omission was the Robbin the Hood version of Pool Shark by Sublime. This one edged it out by being slightly more fun to hear at a dive bar with dudes singing along with bad teeth and lots of tattoos.

  2. NoFX - Hobophobic A solid classic all the way around. Do you realize we are on year 26 of the NoFX experience? They were old when I was young!

  3. F.Y.P. - Hey Gorby (no link sorry) The Jekyll and Hyde of punk rock - sometimes amazing, sometimes unlistenable - and you know within seconds of the song starting which one you are getting. They do some of their best work in small doses and this is one of their masterpieces.

  4. Screeching Weasel - The American Dream (ditto) Actually had a number of tracks I was considering for this list. Like F.Y.P., they do most of their best work when they don’t elaborate. This one wins because it feels the most like a full length song of any on this list.

  5. The Beatles - Her Majesty The Hemingway-6-Word-Story of music. Never has anyone in pop music done so much with so little.

What are your favorite short-song masterpieces?

2

Wikipedia has it at 1:22, but on my version it comes in at only 33 seconds: Bow Tie Daddy, by Frank Zappa.

3

Black Flag has some winners, including “Fix Me,” “Wasted” and “Revenge.”

All happy songs.

4

Damn, I just discovered that I have 390 iTune tracks shorter than a minute.

“Sodomy” from *Hair. *is 0:52.

Zappa’s “Hot Poop” is 0:29.

The shortest classical piece is Satie’s “Le Piège de Méduse #7” at 0:21.

And the shortest track is “Kangaroo-SFX” from The Carl Stalling Project, at 0:03.

5

Nice one.

My nomination is “Speedfreaks” by Naked City/John Zorn. 0:51 and almoast as many genres covered.

6

Several tracks on Tommy: “Miracle Cure,” “There’s a Doctor,” “Do You Think It’s All Right?” “Tommy’s Holiday Camp,” and “It’s a Boy.”

7

– I don’t remember if this technically breaks the one minute mark but I’ve always been a fan of “Let’s Go Pop” by the Figgs. Sounds like a 2 1/2 minute power pop song but is short and sweet. (And less than 1:10)

– Old Mother Reagan by the Violent Femmes.

8

The Art of Noise - Snapshot (ETA: I do believe this clocks in at just under a minute, but it might be just over.)
Daft Punk - Funk Ad
They Might Be Giants - Minimum Wage

9

Frank Zappa: This Town Is a Sealed Tuna Sandwich (and lots of other tracks from 200 Motels)
Traffic: We’re a Fade, you Missed This
National Health : Phlakaton
Mothers of Invention: Sleeping In a Jar
Mothers of Invention: Igor’s Boogie (either phase)
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love
King Crimson: Peace: A Beginning
Jethro Tull: Grace
Gong: Percolations
Bonzo Dog Band: Kama Sutra
Adrian Belew: Sexy Rhino

10

“Short Blues”, by Neil Innis, on one of Monty Python’s live albums.

Full lyrics:

“I woke up this morning …”
Thank you.

11

Napalm Death’s “You Suffer”.

12

Damn you guys have some eclectic taste in music.
And I honestly mean that in the most complimentary way.

13

Technically, not a separate song, but the tail end of “Paper Sun”; most Traffic compilations these days join it back to the original.

14

As TV shows are getting shorter, so are their theme songs- but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still catchy. Just one listen to the short-but-sweet themes of, say, Two and a Half Men or SpongeBob SquarePants and they’ll be stuck in your head all day.

15

Yeah, I was going to mention tv theme songs - Peter Gunn, Spiderman, Underdog…

16

Not sure about the others, but the Spider-Man theme (if you’re referring to the '60s cartoon “does whatever a spider can” one) is longer than a minute. Just barely, but still over a minute.

I think the king of less-than-a-minute theme songs is the Newshour with Jim Lehrer. Only nine notes long, but unique and instantly recognizable. (Either that or John Williams’ theme for the NBC Nightly News, which is eight notes long.)

And thinking of John Williams reminded me of his logo themes for Dreamworks and Universal, as well as the king of them all, Alfred Newman’s Fox fanfare. Short, but instantly recognizable as belonging to their specific studios.

Does “by Mennen” count?

17

Weird Al’s “Harvey the Wonder Hamster” is easily under a minute, and his theme song for The Weird Al Show almost but not quite makes the cut.

A couple of tracks on Trip Shakespeare’s masterpiece Lulu are well under 60 seconds in length.

But the winner is They Might Be Giants’ “Fingertips”: a collection of about 20 songs, each only a few seconds long. (Here’s a live version.)

18

This might be a bit esoteric even for die-hard bluegrass fans, but on Allen Shelton’s Shelton Special, there is a 0:35 second banjo tune called “Sourwood Mountain.” A deceptively simple song even for a poor banjo player like me to get through, but Shelton turns it into an explosive little masterpiece of economic and hard-driving picking.

19

The Ataris- The Radio Still Sucks. 33 seconds.

20

The Carpenters Intermission. Twenty-six seconds of beauty.