The 10 Best Foo Fighters Songs

10 – ‘All My LIfe’ – (Released as a Single / ‘One By One’ / 2002)

Released as the first single from their fourth album, ‘One by One’, the song ‘was originally an instrumental and it went through a few different versions. At first it was really dissonant and noisy.’ According to Dave Grohl.

The song won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance, and spent ten straight weeks at #1 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart and it peaked at #3 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. In March 2005, Q magazine placed ‘All My Life’ at number 94 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.

9 – ‘Rope’ – (Released as a Single / ‘Wasting Light’ / 2011)

The first single from the seventh studio album ‘Wasting Light’ , was officially released on March 1, 2011, although ‘Rope’ had its origins during the ‘Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace’ world tour, as frontman Dave Grohl played an acoustic guitar while waiting for the soundchecks or to fly to the next city.

The music video, directed by Dave Grohl himself, was shot entirely in VHS, and shows the Foo Fighters performing inside a white cube set built inside a soundstage in Los Angeles.

8 – ‘My Hero’ – (Released as a Single / ‘The Colour and the Shape’ / 1998)

My Hero has been played live sinve 1995 but only in 1998 it turned to be the third single from ‘The Colour and the Shape’. Again the music video for the song was written by Dave Grohl and it features a man running into a burning building to rescue a woman’s baby, another woman’s dog, and finally a picture frame of the first woman.

In 2008, the Foo Fighters criticized the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain for using their song at rallies without their permission. Foo Fighters responded to the incident saying: ‘It’s frustrating and infuriating that someone who claims to speak for the American people would repeatedly show such little respect for creativity and intellectual property. . . The saddest thing about this is that ‘My Hero’ was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song.’

7 – ‘Monkey Wrench’ – (Released as a Single / ‘Foo Fighters’ / 1997)

‘Monkey Wrench’ is the first single released from the second Foo Fighters album, ‘The Colour and the Shape’. The song is instantly appealing and sets the pace for the rest of the album. About the lyrics, the song covers the disintegration of Dave Grohl’s four-year marriage to Jennifer Youngblood.

The music video for the song was directed by Dave Grohl and feature for the first time Taylor Hawkins on drums, although the actual drum track is performed by Grohl.

6 – ‘I’ll Stick Around’ – ( Released as a Single / ‘Foo Fighters’ / 1995)

‘I’ll Stick Around’ is the second major single released by the Foo Fighters from their 1995 self titled debut album ‘Foo Fighters.’ The song was written by Dave Grohl after Cobain’s death , and you can heard a Nirvana legacy here: the formula of soft/loud dynamic chorus.

From its release, the song was believed to have been written about Kurt Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love. The lyrics included: ‘How could it be I’m the only one who sees your rehearsed insanity,’ a line many assumed was directed at Love, though Grohl denied it.

5 – ‘Times Like These’ – ( Released as a Single / ‘One By One’ / 2003)

‘One by One’ is a partial return to the attitude and force of ‘The Colour and the Shape’. ‘Times Like These’ , the second single released is about the future of the band, during the three-month hiatus the Foo Fighters entered following the tense and unsatisfying first recording sessions for ‘One by One’.

A solo acoustic version of the song performed by Grohl was released and had some success on radio but generally it enjoyed great success on rock and alternative radio just like the original electric version.

4 – ‘Best Of You!’ – ( Released as a Single / ‘In Your Honor‘ / 2005)

The first single released from the band’s fifth studio album, ‘In Your Honor’. The music video was directed by Mark Pellington, best known for his work on the video for ‘Jeremy’ by Pearl Jam. He was inspired by the death of his wife a few months prior to the shoot, and was drawn to the song’s notion of dealing with pain in life.

To date, it is the band’s only single to reach Platinum status in the US. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song and won the Kerrang! Award for Best Single. It also topped Billboard’s Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for four weeks and Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart for seven weeks.

3 – ‘The Pretender’ – ( Released as a Single / ‘Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace’ / 2007)

It was the first single from the group’s 2007 album ‘Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace’ and one of Foo Fighters‘ most successful songs; peaking at #37 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 (making it their third Top 40 single).

‘The Pretender,’ is simpler than many songs from the band , though clearly one of their best. Grohl later admitted the song was subconsciously inspired by the Sesame Street song “One of These Things is Not Like the Other.”

2 – ‘Everlong’ – ( Released as a Single / ‘The Colour and the Shape’ / 1997)

By the time of band’s second album ‘The Clolour and the Shape‘ , Foo Fighters have established themselves as a great band. Grohl’s songwriting talent has grown as ‘Everlong’ single demonstrates – written against the background of the break-up of Dave Grohl’s first marriage.

Another great video for this single that was nominated for Best Rock Video at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards.

1 – ‘Learn To Fly‘ – ( Released as a Single / ‘There Is Nothing Left To Lose’ / 1999)

The lead-off single of ‘There Is Nothing Left To Loose’ became a hit and its way better than the rest of the production and songwriting of the album. ‘Learn To Fly’ would became known as well for the music video, which takes place on an commercial airliner, parodying the movie Airplane!.

It was the band’s first #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, the second highest charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 at #19, as well as becoming their first Top 40 single in the USA, while being their highest charting on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart along with the 1996 hit “Big Me”, reaching #13.

Tags: foo fighters, Hard Rock, misc

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AlexandreG. Is just a guy who got tired of bothering his friends talking about music, and decided to create a blog to write about what he loves the most.