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You are here: Home / Music / We Learned More From a Three Minute Record, Baby Than We Ever Learned in School

We Learned More From a Three Minute Record, Baby Than We Ever Learned in School

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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.

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  3. 3.

    ThresherK

    ELO’s Illusions in G Major, with a fuzz guitar I wish Jeff’d used more.
    The Byrds’ Feel a Whole Lot Better.

  7. 7.

    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.

  8. 8.

    Craig

    Lexicon Devil by Germs covered by Melvin’s. 1:43.

    ETA: BADGE by Cream. Genius song.

  13. 13.

    ThresherK

    How can I forget the perfect little slice of Beatleiania that is XTC’s Earn Enough for Us?

  14. 14.

    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.

  20. 20.

    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.

  24. 24.

    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.

  26. 26.

    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.

  33. 33.

    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 

  40. 40.

    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.”

  42. 42.

    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).

  44. 44.

    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.

  48. 48.

    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.

  49. 49.

    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.

  53. 53.

    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”

  54. 54.

    smintheus

    This will be our year by the Zombies, from an album that dropped after the band had already called it quits.

  55. 55.

    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.

  57. 57.

    laura

    Billy Bragg “Between the Wars”

    X “breathless”

    John Prine “Knocking on my screen door”

  58. 58.

    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.

  59. 59.

    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.

  60. 60.

    The Dangerman

    I like short, hard-driving songs.

    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.

  64. 64.

    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.

  72. 72.

    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

  76. 76.

    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.

  77. 77.

    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.

  85. 85.

    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.

  88. 88.

    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.

  89. 89.

    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.

  91. 91.

    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.

  95. 95.

    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.

  101. 101.

    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

  102. 102.

    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.

  103. 103.

    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.

  104. 104.

    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.

  106. 106.

    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).

  109. 109.

    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.

  110. 110.

    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

  111. 111.

    Elizabelle

    Love this thread!  Look forward to hearing some new music — that will not wear out its welcome.

  122. 122.

    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+.

  125. 125.

    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

  126. 126.

    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.

  128. 128.

    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.

  129. 129.

    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.

  130. 130.

    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.

  131. 131.

    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.

  135. 135.

    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.

  137. 137.

    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.

  142. 142.

    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)

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