Mr. Jones

The drums on "Mr. Jones" almost belonged to someone else. When Counting Crows recorded the song for their debut album August and Everything After, drummer Steve Bowman refused to play it properly, telling Adam Duritz he hated the track because he had not signed up to play country music. Bowman played it that way and, in Duritz's words, ruined it over and over again. Producer T-Bone Burnett brought in Denny Fongheiser, who nailed the song in two takes, and his drumming appears on the released version. It remains the only song on the album without Bowman behind the kit.

Duritz had his own struggles, singing the song perhaps a hundred times across multiple studios before capturing a good take. Written with guitarist David Bryson, the song grew out of a night Duritz spent drinking with his friend Marty Jones after watching Jones's father, the flamenco guitarist David Serva, perform in San Francisco. At a bar called the New Amsterdam, they spotted Kenney Dale Johnson, Chris Isaak's longtime drummer, sitting with three women. Duritz and Jones could not manage to talk to girls, and Duritz figured being rock stars would make it easier. He went home and wrote the song.

Released in December 1993 by Geffen Records, "Mr. Jones" became the band's first radio hit, reaching number five on the US Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart and topping the chart in Canada. Duritz later recanted the values in its lyrics, and on the live album Across a Wire he changed the words about wanting to be big stars to having second thoughts about it.