There is Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens. It clocks in at 58 seconds, almost 30 of which is a piano intro.
I loved Wizo back in the day, “Gemein” is a classic! Thanks for reminding me about them.
Mission Impossible (0:52) was mentioned. I hum this when I get an urgent job from my boss or my wife.
The Twilight Zone (0:29) for when the request just doesn’t make sense.
The BBC’s UFO Theme (1:08) just misses, but it’s for starting a fun job.
The Jeopardy Theme (0:16) is for those last minute races.
Alice’s Restaurant (18:31) just doesn’t quite get in under the wire.
The greatest short song of all is…
**I Say Fuck **by the Supersuckers
There’s a karaoke bar near where I live that, in their song list, claims it has Alice’s Restaurant as a selection. An evil part of me REALLY wants to try it out, just to see how long I could get before I get booed off the stage. It has to be an edited version, right? Was there a radio friendly version of Alice’s Restaurant? How could you possibly trim that down to, say 4 minutes?
Give Peace a Chance by John Lenon is 58 seconds.
Seas of Chesse by Primus is always fun at 42 seconds but maybe that’s because I just like saying Sailing the Seas of Cheese.
Barenaked Ladies’ Little Tiny Song: 1:02
“Hey I’m a cow, I’m curious…”
Heck, the Residents put out an album which was nothing other than a series of one minute songs-does that count? Yes I owned it at one point…
If you put together four tracks from S.O.D.'s Speak English or Die – “Anti-Procrastination Song”, “Hey Gordy!”, “Ballad of Jimi Hendrix” and “Diamonds and Rust (Extended Version)” – you get a total track time of 23 seconds.
the whole thing’s good, my favorites are Picnic Boy and The Act of Being Polite
there are lots of good punk rock songs to pick from, The Descendants songs are good choices as is that Supersuckers song. My faves are probably:
Angry Samoans - Lights Out, Time to Fuck
Void - My Rules
Minor Threat - Stand Up
Wire - Field Day for the Sundays
Negative FX - Punch in the Face
Otherwise you guys have my collection pretty well covered already.
If you don’t count the laughing at the end of the track, Happy Trails just makes it.
26 Second Song always brings a smile to my face.
Ironically the Minute Waltz by Chopin is more than a minute long.
Seconded. Although Wikip and my Itunes both have it at 1:01
Others:
Night Scented Stock, Kate Bush - 0:52
Devils and Gods, Tori Amos - 0:53
Love & Kisses, Sam Phillips - 0:56
A New World, Boston - 0:36
and I’ll sneak in Calling… by Lisa Germano, a beautiful violin-piano at 1:01
Tom Paxton The Ballad of Spiro Agnew (also covered by John Denver) – about 15 seconds
Melanie (Safka, but she usually went by just Melanie) Isn’t it a Pity – 31 seconds
And their rock opera - “Premenstrual Princess Blues” clocks in at 1:20, they had no time to mess around.
I actually registered for this forum solely so that I could reply to this thread – I love you all, people, for bringing back so many, many memories! Soooooooo many songs, and artists, that I haven’t listened to, or even thought about, for at least a decade! I have to put my hand up for Her Majesty as well … I’ve loved that little gem since I first heard it, when I was about 7 years old.
But the Beatles aren’t a band that I would be likely to forget … however, all the punk bands, and all the references to King Crimson, and Belew and Eno… wow, took me right back to the 80s (my first exposure to King Crimson was the Discipline album, and my mind was blown).
My partner is making suggestions from across the room: Nutopian International Anthem by The Plastic Ono Band, clocking in at a whopping 7 seconds, and Big Finish by the Osmonds (she’s a massive fan, which slightly distresses me) at 21 seconds.
Anyhow, ramble over – just needed to thank all of you for a really pleasant trip down memory lane and a LOT of suggestions for additions to the LastFM library!
~Shadow~
Band of Horses - “Lamb on the Lam (in the City)” - :51 seconds
Someone else on Page 1 mentioned Napalm Death’s “You Suffer”, and ex- Earache label bandmates Brutal Truth had “Collateral Damage” (which is IIRC the shortest music video ever) but for truly short songs check out record label Slap-A-Ham’s:
Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh (41 band / 64 song 7")
and
Son of Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh (52 band / 69 song 7")
Also (on Earache!) Sore Throat’s “Disgrace to the Corpse of Sid” LP which had 97 tracks on the first side. A friend of mine had a different Sore Throat compilation CD with 113 tracks - my already antique CD ghetto blaster couldn’t skip to the last 14 cause it would only register 99 tracks maximum.
And of course, there’s always Anal Cunt (with three Earache albums too. And they played on “Son of Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh”. I’m detecting a trend!)
Kudos to all the people listing under 60 seconds non-punk, non-hardcore, non-grindcore music. The punk stuff is too easy.
Hrm. Okay, to make this difficult, I’m cutting out everything on my iTunes that’s vaguely punk-ish. Out of what remains, I think the following are worth mentioning here (limited to one song per artist, also cutting artists that I noticed being previously mentioned):
0:10 “Horrible Theme” from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
0:13 “Dig Your Grave” by Modest Mouse
0:14 “Cuss” by John Oswald
0:18 “Track Records” by Petra Haden
0:18 “Intro” by Trocadero (from Roses Are Red Violets Are Blue)
0:23 “Avalanche Rock” by The Avalanches
0:24 “Fifteen Teenage Girls” by James Kochalka Superstar
0:24 “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” by Tom Waits
0:25 “Down Sea” by Buffalo Daughter
0:33 “Audiocard B: Connected Sets” by Tyro
0:36 “Kate Rose” by Richard Buckner"
0:40 “Let’s Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don’t Think They Heard It All The Way Out In Bushnell” by Sufjan Stevens
0:50 “Gumbo” by MF Doom
0:53 “Supervillain Theme (Instrumental)” by Madvillain
0:54 “Exitfare” by Smart Went Crazy
0:55 “Fantasma” by Cornelius
0:57 “Reprise (Don’t Stop Now)” by Timbuk 3
0:58 “Unfolding Fans” by Andrew Bird
0:58 “Instrumentals” 1974 - Vol. 1 - 8" by Arthur Russell
0:59 “The Supine” by Andrew Bird
(Okay, I cheated and listed two Andrew Bird songs.)