Everlong

The riff behind "Everlong" began as a happy accident in late 1996, when Dave Grohl was staying at Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, Washington, recording the second Foo Fighters album. Fiddling with his guitar between takes of "Monkey Wrench", he landed on what he called a "Sonic Youth rip off", a phrase that reminded him of that band's song "Schizophrenia". He liked it enough to keep it, and the band jammed out what became the verse. The track went no further before the sessions ended. Around Christmas, Grohl went back to Virginia. His marriage was ending, so he slept on a friend's floor in a sleeping bag, and there he turned the riff into a proper song in 45 minutes. The lyrics drew on his romance with Louise Post of Veruca Salt, about loving someone so completely that singing along with them means harmonizing perfectly.

Grohl cut a demo soon after at a friend's studio near Washington, D.C., playing every instrument himself. Producer Gil Norton heard it at Grandmaster Recorders in Hollywood and was impressed. Nate Mendel and Pat Smear joined for the recording, and Post contributed vocals over two separate telephone lines from Chicago, one carrying her monitor and the other capturing her performance.

Released in August 1997 as the second single from The Colour and the Shape, "Everlong" reached number 3 on the US Billboard Alternative Songs chart and the Canadian RPM Rock/Alternative chart. It was the last song Taylor Hawkins performed live with the band before his death in March 2022.