Shortest And Longest Tracks In Music
For decades musicians and bands have broken the mould of what length a song is typically accepted to be. Breaking loose of the neatly packaged three minute radio friendly pop song, to experiment musically. Many songs that pushed the boundaries of length, have gone on to become classics that still get full unedited radio play to this day. Those songs you put on the jukebox to get your money's worth, or to annoy the hell out of others in the drinking establishment of your choice. Stairway To Heaven (1971) at 8 minutes 2 seconds, Bohemian Rhapsody (1975) at 5 minutes and 55 seconds, and Bat Out Of Hell (1977) at a storming 9 minutes and 53 seconds. All songs that spring to mind, as jukebox plays that certainly get you your money's worth. Then there's the songs that leave you feeling a bit cheated, as they scrape under 3 minutes. Harry Nilsson's classic Everybody's Talkin' (1968) comes in at 2 minutes 45 seconds, while Brit-Pop band Blur only just make 2 minutes with Song 2 (1996) at 2 minutes and just 2 seconds. However there are songs out there, that have taken length to the extreme. From the shortest to the longest we bring you the songs that are more famous for their timings than their, well anything else!
Shortest...
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And the prize for the shortest song in history goes to British grindcore band Napalm Death, with their song You Suffer, from their debut album, Scum (1987). At precisely 1.316 seconds long, it has gained a place in the Guinness Book of Records. In 1989 the song was released as a single, issued on a 7" single given away free with copies of a compilation album entitled Grindcrusher. The flip-side of the single featured a track called Mega-Armageddon Death Part 3 by the Electro Hippies, that lasts approximately one second. Thus becoming the shortest 7" single ever released. Each track only filling the very outer edge of the vinyl, with the massive run-off space left filled with etched scribbles and cartoons. Justin Broadrick of Napalm Death said of the song, "You Suffer was largely a comedy thing, one-second song. Utterly retarded. It's ridiculous, but it was hilarious."
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When Earache Records celebrated their 25th anniversary, they decided to release the World's Shortest Album. They'd already scored with the world's shortest song, the aforementioned You Suffer. They had also gained another record in 1992, with the world's shortest music video for Brutal Truth's Collateral Damage at 7.3 seconds. The album aptly titled Earache: World's Shortest Album gave us a 13 track album, lasting a whole 87 seconds. The album was released on s 5" vinyl, presented in a 12" sleeve. Beating the Canadian dance outfit Chromeo, who brought out a 121 second album in 2011 in a limited edition of 40 copies.
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Listen to the intro to Elastica's Connection, otherwise known as Three Girl Rhumba by Wire.
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Other notably short songs, On Abbey Road (1969) by The Beatles, Her Majesty, a 23 second track not listed on the Abbey Road album sleeve. Considered rock music's first hidden track. On their debut album Pink Flag, the British post-punk band Wire brought in a 21 song album at just over 35 minutes, with a short track with a well known riff Three Girl Rhumba at 84 seconds. The Brit-Pop band Elastica ripped-off the riff in their 1995 hit song Connection. Queen, they of mini opera Bohemian Rhapsody on the 1975 album A Night At The Opera also had the track Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon on the same album, coming in at 1 minute and 8 seconds. The song even manges to sneak in a 15 second guitar solo by Brian May. Finally an odd little gem of a political spoken-word album from 1961 by Ronald Reagan, called Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine, the title is almost longer than the whole album at only 10 minutes and 6 seconds.
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Track Listing
Side A: 01. Napalm Death – You Suffer (1.9s) 02. Napalm Death – Dead (2.7s) 03. Napalm Death – Your Achievement (4.2s) 04. Wormrot – False Grind Sodomy (2.5s) 05. Wormrot – You Suffer But Why Is It My Problem (4.0s) 06. Brutal Truth – Collateral Damage (4.0s) 07. A.C. – Howard Wulkan’s Bald (4.0s) Side B: 01. Lawnmower Deth – Be Scene Not Heard (4.7s) 02. Painkiller – Trailmarker (6.0s) 03. Brutal Truth – Blockhead (7.3s) 04. Morbid Angel – Bil Ur-Sag #2 Lava (6.9s) 05. A.C. – Windchimes Are Gay (9.5s) 06. Insect Warfare – Street Sweeper (13.5s) |
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Longest...
Officially (according to the Guinness Book of Records and they are the "official" people for records after all) the longest officially released song is Zwei Jahre by Germany band Phrasenmäher, coming in at 1 hour 30 minutes 10 seconds. The song was released through the digital platforms iTunes, Amazon and Spotify on January 10th 2014. But unlike the shortest song record, we're ignoring this one. There are much much longer songs out there to be heard, if you have the time. Or with one particular track, if you have a thousand years spare.
Now let's start with the shortest longest song, or at least one of the shortest longest songs. Prog Rock bands have notched up some over-blown walls of sound over years, after all one of the cornerstones of the musical genre is long tracks on long concept albums. The one to represent the genre is from Jethro Tull the Folk Rock / Prog Rock band, with their single song album Thick As A Brick from 1972 coming in at 43 minutes and 50 seconds. Let's now jump forward in time and length, with the 2011 release from The Flaming Lips, who recorded a 24 hour long song called 7 Skies H3. There are only two possible ways of listening to the whole track, either by streaming or by buying a special edition of the song that comes on hard drive encased in a human skull for a mere $5000.
Now let's start with the shortest longest song, or at least one of the shortest longest songs. Prog Rock bands have notched up some over-blown walls of sound over years, after all one of the cornerstones of the musical genre is long tracks on long concept albums. The one to represent the genre is from Jethro Tull the Folk Rock / Prog Rock band, with their single song album Thick As A Brick from 1972 coming in at 43 minutes and 50 seconds. Let's now jump forward in time and length, with the 2011 release from The Flaming Lips, who recorded a 24 hour long song called 7 Skies H3. There are only two possible ways of listening to the whole track, either by streaming or by buying a special edition of the song that comes on hard drive encased in a human skull for a mere $5000.
Crazy avant-garde artists Bull Of Heaven, Clayton Counts and Neil Keener
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There are tracks out there that use loops and computer algorithms to produce single pieces of work, for example the currently in production Longplayer. It started to play on January 1st, 2000 and has been playing ever since, not scheduled to stop until December 31st, 2999. With a run-time of a thousand years you can listen to what there is so far at longplayer.org. However we can discount Longplayer, as it is still being made. The longest recorded song used to be 118: The Chosen Priest And Apostle Of Infinite Space (2009) by Bull of Heaven, at more than 2 months long. However the band have gone on to produce longer and longer tracks. Year on year, their tracks have reached near mind-boggling length and complexity. In July 2014, they released 310: ΩΣPx0(2^18×5^18)p*k*k*k which is their longest release so far, and lasts for 3.343 quindecillion years. Now get your head around that one!
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