Loser

After its initial release, "Loser" by Beck caught fire on Los Angeles radio almost by accident. College stations KCRW and KXLU were the first to play the single, which had been pressed in a run of only 500 copies on 12-inch vinyl by the independent label Bong Load Custom Records on March 8, 1993. Modern rock station KROQ-FM followed, eventually spinning the song on an almost hourly basis, and by the time stations in New York were requesting copies, Bong Load had completely run out.

The song had been written and recorded during a visit to producer Carl Stephenson's home, where Stephenson looped a brief guitar part from one of Beck's songs on an 8-track, added a drum track sampled from a Johnny Jenkins cover of Dr. John's "I Walk on Guilded Splinters," and layered in his own sitar playing. Beck improvised the vocals in one take, attempting to rap like Public Enemy's Chuck D. When Stephenson played the track back, Beck decided he was the worst rapper in the world and began singing "I'm a loser baby, so why don't ya kill me." The whole thing was largely finished in six and a half hours.

The airplay led to a deal with DGC Records, a Geffen subsidiary, which reissued the single in January 1994. It peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 that April and later appeared on Beck's album Mellow Gold. Stephenson, for his part, came to regret the song's "negative" lyrics, saying he wished he could have been more of a positive influence.