There is a bit of irony in the fact that “No Surrender”, the song containing the lyric in the title of this post, clocks in at 4:02. God knows how long it would last if the Boss did it in concert – at least 10 minutes, I’d guess.
But we’ll leave the Springsteen to Chris Christie. Let’s talk three minute songs. As a kid who grew up on bands like the Clash and the Sex Pistols, I like short, hard-driving songs. As someone who appreciates brevity, I think a good short pop song is an underrated and difficult art form. So let me name a few three minute songs that are from the last 10 years or so. None of them are masterpieces. I think they’re all pretty good. And, shit, they’re under three minutes long — it’s not like you’re making a major investment in time listening to them.
I’ll start with Cuffing Season by Beach Bunny (2:58 on the album, the YouTube version has a few seconds of silent padding). It’s the song that made me think of this post. It also introduced me to the concept of cuffing season, and the lyrics are a great commentary on the ambivalence of an affair that may be just be a convenience to ward off the cold. I also really like the phrasing.
Strawberry Blond from the cleverly titled album “Retired from Sad, New Career in Business” by Mitski is a fun little song, and at 1:58 is under two minutes of your precious life. What a beautiful voice she has, and this little piece showcases it.
I’ll finish up with a live version of the song “Love Doesn’t Just Stop” (2:41) from a group called Standard Fare, long dissolved, performed in a studio in Austin when they were there for South by Southwest ten years ago. You can feel the band’s excitement, the lyrics are simple but smart, and the lead singer, Emma Kupa, just belts it out (her delivery makes the song, in my view). That drummer is having the time of his life.
(Another track from the same lead singer that’s longer that 3 minutes but still fun is Boy Look at What You Can’t Have Now (3:42). It’s about a girl who broke up with her boyfriend, “put a stone on her hips became size 12” and makes sure her ex knows how hot she is, and that he can’t have her. )
Drop your favorite 3 minute or less song in the comments.
brendancalling
This was the very first Dead Kennedys song I ever heard, and it changed my life FOREVER.
https://youtu.be/ZBa6YMs-AbY
download my app in the app store mistermix
@brendancalling: Now that’s the right idea! 1:07
ThresherK
ELO’s Illusions in G Major, with a fuzz guitar I wish Jeff’d used more.
The Byrds’ Feel a Whole Lot Better.
Amir Khalid
I Wanna Be Your Man — the Stones’ version goes like a rocket!
johnnybuck
Kids don’t follow 2:18
debbie
The songs that most affected me are closer to five minutes (Gloria, Patti Smith), but with the way the world is going, I’ll take this 2:30 moment of brilliance. The Ramones saved rock and roll!
download my app in the app store mistermix
@ThresherK: I’m a sucker for a jangly guitar.
@Amir Khalid: Aren’t you a big Springsteen fan? Night, Born to Run, 3 minutes exactly. That’s a great song
@debbie: Perfect song for the Trump era.
Craig
Lexicon Devil by Germs covered by Melvin’s. 1:43.
ETA: BADGE by Cream. Genius song.
Amir Khalid
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
Night is a great song, but it doesn’t go like a rocket.
ETA: Because I’m a pedant, the line from Springsteen’s ode to kids in their first band goes, “We learned more from a three-minute record than we ever learned in school.” We, not I.
Cameron
Sorry – this is longer than 3 minutes, so please skip by if so inclined.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJzgzoEV1kg
hells littlest angel
The Red Aunts, “I Can’t Do Anything Right,” 51 seconds, perfect rock n roll:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye23jB9I8mk
germy
I really like Tierra Whack. Back in 2018 she released an album of one minute songs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOTebhPy04g
A great video to go with each song, too.
(And ten years ago she was homeless. A real success story.)
ThresherK
How can I forget the perfect little slice of Beatleiania that is XTC’s Earn Enough for Us?
frosty
Don’t know the actual time by the clock but I’ll throw out Black Is Black (I want my baby back) by Los Bravos. It’s got one of my all-time favorite bass lines.
Sure Lurkalot
Walk Away Renee. Under three minutes. Original Left Bank and a few fine covers.
TPO
Breakdown
Craig
@hells littlest angel: they were awesome.
MomSense
My Babe, Little Walter.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=duRp_avXtMM
debbie
@Sure Lurkalot:
I’ll see your Left Banke and raise you the Troggs.
Lefty McLefterson
@ThresherK: That’s a masterpiece. But I can’t lie I’ve jammed to the XTC tunes ‘Are You Receiving Me?’ or ‘Red’ way more often.
cleek
Blur, Song #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSbBvKaM6sk
shit, Big Star has like half a dozen on their first two records that should be on any list, from In The Street to September Gurls.
jeffreyw
I do like a nice boogie.
Benw
West coast: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L7-zRWai5yY
East coast: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypkmp6D90KU
download my app in the app store mistermix
@Amir Khalid: Thanks, corrected to what lyricsfind says. Someday I’ll learn the lesson of never trusting my memory, however I find it difficult to remember to do so.
@Sure Lurkalot: That’s a good song. I just looked it up and there are a lot of covers. The Left Banke version is 2:42. Rickie Lee Jones covered it and hers is 4:28. That made sense to me.
@cleek: Another good one (Blur). Jeez, you’re right about Big Star. The first four top played on Google Play Music are all under 3.
Amir Khalid
@Amir Khalid:
Correction: Night does go like a rocket, but the Stones’ I wanna Be Your Man goes even faster.
ThresherK
@Lefty McLefterson: Andy P. himself has remarked on how the band have gone “Beatles backwards” from triangular new wavey items like AYRM and This is Pop, to songs on Skylarking, Oranges&Lemons, and Nonesuch which resembled the Fab Fours’ earlier efforts.
Craig
@cleek: Song #2, and September Gurls are perfect.
download my app in the app store mistermix
@Benw:
Best Coast (Only Place, 2:59): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJW00gx4wvE
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Mike E
Bill Withers, Ain’t No Sunshine… barely 2 minutes of pop perfection
PaulWartenberg
DAMMIT
Plimsouls’ “Million Miles Away” clocks in at 3:35.
It’s still great.
A Ghost To Most
Don’t Bogart That Joint
Fraternity Of Man/Little Feat
MomSense
@jeffreyw:
Good song!
MoxieM
favorite? I’d be here all day. For some reason Black Tongue by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs popped into my mind. Clocks in at 2.59. Perfect! linky
jeffreyw
I Put A Spell On You
Great song, lots of covers. I like this one for an under 3:00 version.
Craig
Everything I know about sex I learned from KISS- Hickey 1:37
https://youtu.be/YLj-Cmwq9Xg
johnnybuck
Radio Free Europe 3:11
jeffreyw
Two greats on this cover of The Weight.
MoxieM
@cleek: speaking of Big Star, the ‘Mats song Alex Chilton is a classic. linky As are many Replacements songs, of course.
jeffreyw
Billie Holiday – Summertime
EthylEster
Red Rubber Ball 2:18 pure pop co-written by Paul Simon
3 verses plus a chorus
“I think it’s gonna be alright. Yeah, the worst is over now.”
James E Powell
The Beatles had many great songs under 3:00 that they probably deserve a post of their own.
Three non-Beatle stand outs:
Queen doing everything Queen does well in 2:17
The Box Tops with one of the greatest AM radio songs in 1:54
Jefferson Airplane’s (arguably) greatest single in 2:33
Nicole
I’m a sucker for Cat Stevens’ “The Wind.”
I think a lot of early rock singles were expected to be under 3 minutes long, for easier insertion of commercials on the radio. The Beatles were one of the pioneers in pushing longer hit singles onto radio (and yet, of course, with “Yesterday,” writing one of the finest short pop songs ever).
delk
Shoes Tomorrow Night
2:57
A Ghost To Most
“Buttholeville” from Town Burned Down, by Adam’s House Cat, is 3 minutes of driving, lost classic rock n roll, circa 1990.
Benw
@download my app in the app store mistermix: lol LA rocks! Him jumping into the pool with that lovely Fender, yowch
DigitalAmish
Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit (2:33) Only to be played at full volume.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnJM_jC7j_4
DigitalAmish
@James E Powell: Damn it! I’m always late with these things.
Zeecube
“Poor Little Critter on the Road” by X. Great hangover song. Also excellent back in the day for use of the space at the end of a cassette tape.
MuckJagger
Only ‘cuz I haven’t seen any of them mentioned yet, I’m gonna give a shout-out to Ramones, The Blasters and Nick Lowe. So many terrific songs in their catalogues, and there are literally dozens that clock in under 3:00.
PIGL
Lucky Guy, The Muffs
that is all.
DigitalAmish
Since @James E Powell beat me to the punch with White Rabbit I’ll go with just about anything from a Buddy Holly playlist.
For example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2L84dvoag
Ronno2018
“Starting with the affirmation of man I work my way backwards using cynicism The time monitor, the space measurer”
https://youtu.be/dSsGEfi6Nu4
RIP D. Boon
cintibud
Billy Joel – Piano man. The version “they cut it down to 3:05″ LOL (Complaint from BJ song ” I am the entertainer”) “If you want to have a hit you got to make it quick”
smintheus
This will be our year by the Zombies, from an album that dropped after the band had already called it quits.
PsiFighter37
“The Kids Aren’t Alright” by The Offspring is a solid entry from my generation / time growing up. Right at 3 minutes on the dot.
piratedan
just saying a big ty to delk (power-pop represents!) and johnnybuck (for that lesser known REM fave)
and in the spirit of this thread, a power-pop never was and at 2:40 is an awesome example of what I consider an awesome example of audible bliss, naturally ymmv…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk-PtE6PIOk
and something else that just kinds of fits…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amGkjEZMdsE
laura
Billy Bragg “Between the Wars”
X “breathless”
John Prine “Knocking on my screen door”
Mike J
The Letter is 1:52
Twenty Two Seconds by the Goo Goo Dolls is :40
Rabbit by the Lemonheads is 1:17 (ETA: 1:44 on the album Lick, 1:17 on Hate your Friends)
And of course the band the Minutemen were famous for short songs.
Steeplejack
Favorite? Oh, hell, ’mix, for anyone who grew up in the ’60s—as a large percentage of your elderly shut-in readers did—everything was under three minutes. Any longer than that and the program director would be sneering, “What is this, some kind of pot-smoking hippie album track?”
I also hesitated to get into this because everything from my formative musical salad days is old, old, old. But here are two that immediately came to mind when I read this and hold up pretty well on a sunny Sunday morning.
Unit 4 + 2, “Concrete and Clay.” 2:17. Quirky little gem. Never got the attention it deserved, possibly hampered by the weakest acoustic guitar solo in history. Retro-validated by inclusion in a Wes Anderson soundtrack. (See “quirky little gem” above.)
The Tremeloes, “Here Comes My Baby.” The most goddamn upbeat song ever about being dumped by a girlfriend. Clocks in at 2:59 even with a leisurely intro and a fade at the end. Written by Cat Stevens, whose version was also retro-validated in a Wes Anderson soundtrack.
Love, “Seven and Seven Is . . .” 2:19. A little paleo-punk to uncloy the mix.
Okay, making an effort to come up with something from this century: Durand Jones and the Indications, “Sea Gets Hotter.” 3:17. Just over the line, but close enough. I thought it was a lot longer. This was my theme song last summer.
Les Sabler, “In the Light.” Okay, 3:56, but that’s pretty crisp in the world of smooth jazz. Great guitar and a kicking horn section. Didn’t mean to include it here, but I couldn’t resist it as I tumbled down the YouTube hole.
The Dangerman
You must like Black Betty by Ram Jam (which, BTW, is NOT about a woman named Betty). Clocks in at 2:32.
If that is too long for you, the original clocks in at 1:55.
miserybob
@PIGL: The Muffs, sooo good. That whole album is fantastic.
WereBear
Here you go, teen love, rock singing, backbeat that won’t quit and a jukebox mention!
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll • TopPop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5ecqUhec-s
miserybob
Beastie Boys have some great sub-3 minute songs. The album version of Sabotage clocks in at 2:58. Fun video, too!
Jager
Capitol Records had a service for radio stations called “short cuts”. They edited songs to under 2 minutes. Imagine “Cry Me a River” by Julie London chopped to 1:54. Sinatra, when he was with Capitol, told them to piss off and wouldn’t allow it.
When I started in radio, we didn’t do commercials by the number of minutes, we did it by interruptions. Nobody knows or cares how long a commercial is, they just know they hear it. We had the highest-rated top 10 market A/C in the country, we ran 12 interruptions an hour and made a ton of money. My first FM rocker ran 8 and we made money.
Sure Lurkalot
@debbie: Love that one too!
Ruckus
This y tube is longer because there is more than one song in it and it’s a live version.
But the first song starts at about 30 seconds in and runs about 3 minutes.
Leon Russell “Will the circle be unbroken?”
phein60
@MuckJagger: Elvis Costello Mystery Dance. Lots of early Elvis is short, powerful, driven.
ruemara
I don’t really have faves, because I love a lot of music. here’s one to start the day that I adore. Vitals, by Mutemath, remixed with vocals by Flint Eastwood.
Benw
@PsiFighter37: that was just on the radio yesterday – great driving song! Other faves from that time: She/Green Day and American Jesus/Bad Religion
lumpkin
Bizarre Love Triangle, Frente. I think this is the best treatment of the song I’ve heard.
https://youtu.be/b3AemDaZoEc
Mike P
PJ Harvey – Who the F*ck (2:18 Minutes of glorious energy)
JoeyJoeJoe
Separation of Church and Skate by NoFX is one of mine, and I think a bunch of System of a Down songs are under 3 minutes
Steeplejack
@Cameron:
Eight minutes of John McLaughlin?! You just shat the bed there, buddy. But well played.
jeffreyw
@The Dangerman:
piratedan
@phein60: agreed, both No Dancing and Pump it Up fit the bill exactly…
Amir Khalid
I’m just listening to Jungleland. The Big Man’s legendary sax solo, a kind of song within the song, clocks in at 2:30 minutes, about as long as many songs named here. It certainly does not lack musical substance compared to any of them.
kindness
Back when the Beatles & the Stones started, radio wouldn’t play a song if it was over 3 minutes. That ‘rule’ wasn’t really broken till Album Orientated Radio became a thing.
frosty
OMG all of these are great!
WereBear
@kindness: Wasn’t Inna Gadda Da Vida the one that broke the time barrier?
Craig
Between the Bars- Elliott Smith. perfect 2:30 pop song
https://youtu.be/74j0Hs9OkOo
Ruckus
Too long for y’all but it’s a great song for the time.
John Prine – That’s How Every Empire Falls
Kathleen
Green Onions, Booker T & the MG’s (Booker T was 17 when this record was made)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bpS-cOBK6Q
Kathleen
@download my app in the app store mistermix: Walk Away Renee by the Four Tops
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu5ynjOlnOg
Ruckus
Another just a bit too long but also timely.
Fuck All The Perfect People – Chip Taylor The New Ukrainians
Steeplejack
@WereBear:
“In-a-Gadda-da-Vida” never got much AM air play. “MacArthur Park” did, and it came out a little earlier in 1968. Seven-plus minutes of treacly sludge. The one I remember pushing the time boundary was “Light My Fire” in 1967. There was “radio cut” around three minutes, but there was a lot of interest in the long version.
Jager
@kindness:
Dylan changed it with “Like a Rolling Stone”.
Aleta
(3:15) Nora Jones, Sunrise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd02pGJx0s0
scottinnj
Here is a vote for the absolute masters of < 3 minutes songs (indeed I think substantially all of the songs in their catalog are under 3 minutes) – The Ramones.
For a favorite I will go with “Teenage Lobotomy” – not only a great song clocking in at 2:01, in that very short time frame you get classic lyrics like:
Now I guess I’ll have to tell ’em
That I got no cerebellum
To the best of my knowledge this is the only song that includes the mention of the word cerebellum, and it is part of a rhyme as well.
BGinCHI
First two songs on Parquet Courts’ first record, Light Up Gold:
“Master of My Craft”
and
“Borrowed Time”
I almost wrecked my car when I first heard these songs, and I wasn’t even driving.
Bighorn Ordovician Dolomite
One of my favorites based on song length
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIw7oeZKpZc
Although to be fair maybe I have missed the point a bit!
BGinCHI
@Mike J: There are almost no Lemonheads songs over 3:00, in the early stuff.
I saw them 6 or 8 times the summer I lived in Boston (1988), at TT the Bears.
Amir Khalid
Chuck Berry, The Promised Land, 2:23.
WereBear
@Steeplejack: I forgot about “MacArthur Park” but then I always try to!
piratedan
@Amir Khalid:
afaik… the best cover of that awesome tune… Dave Edmunds take
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN5hVveuleI
Petesh
The Beatles Twist and Shout changed my life. I was not quite 14, and I knew immediately that (1) such noise was not proper, and (2) I LOVED it. My first genuinely personal aesthetic decision. Ruined my life, fortunately.
Amir Khalid
@WereBear:
Why? It’s Albus Dumbledore’s biggest hit.
PIGL
@miserybob: I discovered them only very recently. Lucky guy has the best five words in rock and roll.
Gravenstone
You Keep Me Hangin On
The Vanilla Fudge version also had a 3:00 edit, to keep with the theme.
DropKicker1
Waiting Room by Fugazi deserves mention. I hereby mention it!
Steeplejack (phone)
@WereBear:
As well you should!
PIGL
Here’s one none of you have ever heard of… And I’m talking to you mistermix.
The Modernettes: Barbara & Rebel Kind
They’re on uTube
Ivan X
I remember as a kid buying Devo’s Freedom Of Choice LP and noting that ten of its twelve songs are under three minutes. Whip It is a perfect example, at 2:37. Efficient, succinct, effective.
The Descendents probably will forever own the definitive short song, All — just the word “all,” one second long.
i’m going to take a moment to self-promote, since it seems like a good moment to do so — I spent the last year embracing a one-minute-max, at-least-one-per-week ethic and wrote 70 songs. Some work within the constraint, a few do end up sounding like incomplete intros. They’re not for everybody, but if you’d like to hear them they are on Instagram (with videos) and SoundCloud, if you search for ivanxnyc at either place.
Citizen Alan
@WereBear: I always loved MacArthur Park, but it was because the first version I ever heard was an instrumental jazz version by Maynard Ferguson. It wasn’t until many years later that I even learned the song had lyrics, let alone hilariously bad lyrics.
Ivan X
@lumpkin: this triggered a thought exercise as to whether New Order ever laid down a song under three minutes. I know their catalog very well (at least their 80’s output) and off the top of my head I can’t think of any.
Aleta
Breaking form (trans-genre I guess):
Instrumental (1.53) Rhiannon Giddens – Following the North Star
I Won’t Back Down (song lasts about 3.15) arranged/sung by Rhiannon Giddens, Dirk Powell & studio-recording friends
(2:28) Rhiannon Giddens – Wayfaring Stranger
trollhattan
@scottinnj:
My Ramones intro was “Beat on the Brat,” which floored me then had me in stitches.
The added enjoyment was it being played on “Your mother won’t like it” a show that featured a listener spinning records for a couple of hours on Sunday evening, on a Seattle commercial “FM Rock” station.
Guaranteed auto-recoil will result from reviewing this Billboard Top 100 from 1976, the year that gave us the Ramones. They helped save music (unless Captain & Tennille and Starland Vocal Band and Donnie and Marie are your thang).
trollhattan
@Citizen Alan:
That damn cake in the damn rain. Will nobody save the poor cake?!?
Steeplejack (phone)
@trollhattan:
And we’ll never find the recipe again!
Jack Canuck
@PIGL: You are so mistaken that none of us have ever heard of the Modernettes! Got some of their stuff on vinyl, and picked up the Zulu and Sudden Death compilation CDs as they came out. Awesome band, great songs.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
I can give you an entire album. Practically every son on Get Happy by Elvis Costello & The Attractions clocks in under 3:00 and that album is strong start to finish. Also Strict Time by them is great too
Elizabelle
Love this thread! Look forward to hearing some new music — that will not wear out its welcome.
Sister Golden Bear
Xs cover of “Breathless”
p.a.
This is old.
This is short.
This is great.
https://youtu.be/WWolUsgO_to
RSA
Checking out my playlist for songs within 5 seconds of 3:00, I find a few favorites:
Cage The Elephant – Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKtsdZs9LJo
U2 – Desire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8rQ575DWD8
Green Day – Basket Case https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUTGr5t3MoY
They all capture the spirit of a 3-minute song, for me, but in different ways.
Ruckus
Have a question.
Life isn’t 3 minutes long, why should songs be?
2liberal
hard driving pete townshend song jools and jim 2:36
Utube Link
NickM
Orgasm Addict by The Buzzcocks. Gets the job done in about 2 minutes.
BGinCHI
@NickM: Joke here somewhere.
Steeplejack (phone)
@BGinCHI:
“That’s what she said.”
ThresherK
@NickM: “Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone)”, at 2’40”, and not an extraneous second, suggests a trend.
BGinCHI
@ThresherK: The Buzzcocks and The Undertones produced a very long list of amazing 3 minute gems.
I love The Undertones.
FlipYrWhig
Squeeze, Another Nail in My Heart, is 2:55.
i was hoping the Black Keys, Lonely Boy, would work, but it’s 3:00+.
piratedan
@BGinCHI:
Teenage kicks is an absolute classic
@FlipYrWhig:
imho their best effort (although Messed Around is pretty close)
this comes pretty close at 3:08
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXVhh7TKgcA
Kathleen
@jeffreyw: Robert Randolph resurrected this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inqLkhPd8LU
Bruuuuce
Wow. No Fans of The La’s? The entirety of their eponymous album clocks in at three minutes and under (except for a few seconds here and there). Here’s Doledrum
Shana
@2liberal: I took a History of Rock and Roll class my senior year of college (’80-81) and The Boy Looked at Johnny by Julie (Jools) was one of our required texts.
RSA
Does it count if I’m a huge fan of There She Goes?
Bruuuuce
@RSA: Sure. I was just a bit surprised not to see them at all in the thread. Then again, it took 49 comments to get to The Ramones, whose concerts clocked in at 38 songs in 90 or 100 minutes.
suezboo
Chopin’s Minute Waltz clocks in at about 2 minutes. Never trust a Pole in Paris.
Have you heard Streisand’s version? Quite droll.
RSA
@Bruuuuce: I’m also surprised (though I haven’t read carefully) not to have come across mention of Creedence Clearwater Revival, whose reputation a generation earlier (in rock and roll years :-) was built almost entirely on tight short songs.
Bruuuuce
@RSA: Yes. Just looking at the Best of CCR album, we see (excluding a number of 3:00-3:15 songs), “Bad Moon Rising”, “Up Around the Bend”, “Good Golly Miss Molly”, “Commotion”, “Who’ll Stop the Rain”, ‘Green River”, “Lookin’ OUt My Backdoor”, and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” — and that’s just Disc 1 (of 2). Definitely in the sweet spot for the AM Top 40 3:00 mandates of their time.
RSA
@Bruuuuce: I have that album, on cd, but I haven’t ripped it to my computer! Thanks for the reminder.
billcinsd
@Bruuuuce: well, it took 49 comments if you ignore debbie at #6
billcinsd
Some unmentioned goodies
No Place Like Home — The Neighborhoods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nppopfNt3ks
Bigger Stones by The Beat Farmers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92T6skSf_6g
and a longer one — 1 time, 2 times, devastated by the DM3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99JwwTNkXLY
Bruuuuce
@billcinsd: I plead youth and innocence and long and faithful service, all of which derive from eyes awaiting cataract surgery. Thanks for correcting me.
mad citizen
Come on man, between this and the Noir thread, too many cool things on BJ tonight! I’m sure I could think of 100 if I put some time in, but my first thought went to the Feelies, who have many. How about Fa Ce La, clocking in at two minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv0HcnTkO54
Or, heard this one arriving at work one day last week, clocking in at 1:16, Bruce with Held Up Without a Gun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxBhIeTARBE
The Minutemen…
mad citizen
@RSA: Desire is one of my favorite U2 songs. Bo Diddley would have been the first music billionaire if he had got paid from all the songs using his beat.
Lee M Meade
(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
Elvis Costello
BigJimSlade
Dooooods!!!! (please take that as a full-spectrum of gender possibilities ‘dude’)
Lots of great stuff listed above, but Wire’s first album, “Pink Flag” has 23 songs and only 2 of them are over 3 minutes (if you forgive 4 seconds over on another) – and it’s awesome!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wi94-JGrtc
@download my app in the app store mistermix – you know this one, right? I mean, you gotta!
cope
Just over 2 minutes on YT, poetic story in the lyrics and wonderful guitar work, “Wasn’t Born to Follow” by the Byrds is my choice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hEfcawx6Fc
PIGL
@Jack Canuck: I see that I have flushed another Canadian of a certain age.
I could’ve mentioned Cub: Main and Broadway.
JWR
Dead thread? Oh well, here’s a shout out for Spot 1019, a Santa Cruz – SF bay area based band (c. 1986 – 1996), who’s guitarist was my BFF starting in grammar school, was the bassist in all of our bands together, and remains a great friend to this day.
Here’s a cut from their second album, “This World Owes Me A Buzz” (from back when they were label-mates and best buds w/ Camper Van Beethoven), and it’s called Peace War (2:08)
Mike G
Depeche Mode – I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead (2:18)
(an upbeat song with a totally random title)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De6si7sgEx4
Jack Canuck
@PIGL: Dead thread, but just in case – yes, you have. And I’ll add to your Modernettes with DSK: Cementhead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-D1Se-zBa4
oldpunk
How about under 30 seconds?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhc4m2zPHI0