Gigantic

In 1988, the Pixies were preparing their first full-length studio album, Surfer Rosa, and needed a single to release from it. The American alternative rock band, formed in Boston in 1986, chose "Gigantic", a song co-written by bassist Kim Deal and lead vocalist Black Francis. Deal took lead vocals on the track, which was built around a simple bassline she repeated throughout. It became one of the band's first hits and was often played as the encore at concerts.

Deal said the main inspiration for the song was the film Crimes of the Heart, in which a white married woman falls in love with a black teenager. The lyrics follow a woman watching an attractive black man having sex with another woman, leading into the chorus "Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic / A big, big love". Francis said the word "gigantic" had been in his mind because the chord progression, which he described as very Lou Reed influenced, seemed big to him. The song was credited to Mrs. John Murphy, Deal's pseudonym at the time.

4AD executive Ivo Watts-Russell doubted any track on Surfer Rosa would get radio play, so producer Gil Norton was brought in to re-record "Gigantic" and "River Euphrates". It was Norton's first time recording with the band, and the situation made him nervous because he was a fan. The single came out in the United Kingdom on August 29, 1988, as a 12-inch and CD release, with a live "Vamos" and a cover of "In Heaven" from Eraserhead as B-sides. Norton's work on the re-recording led to him producing the band's next album, Doolittle.