The majesty of a great 7+ minute song is fine, but sometimes economy is good, too. What are the best songs under two minutes?

Here are twelve to get started with…according to my iTunes folder, are all under 2:00.

Jerry Lee Lewis, “Great Balls of Fire”
Buddy Holly, “Rave On”
Chuck Berry, “Come On”
The Rolling Stones, “Not Fade Away”
The Beatles, “Polythene Pam”
Ramones, “California Sun”
The Clash, “White Riot”
Elvis Costello, “Welcome to the Working Week”
Blur, “Bank Holiday”
Elastica, “Annie”
The Hives, “A Get Together to Tear It Apart”
The White Stripes, “Fell in Love With a Girl”

PS - If we get 36 of these, you could burn them all onto one CD!

PSS – Of course, you’d need to take an Advil and lie down for a bit afterwards…

Every single track on Wire's PINK FLAG except "Reuters", "Ex Lion Tamer", "Lowdown", "Pink Flag", "Strange" and "Mannequin" (the 6 out of 21 which exceed 2:00).
"Fall on You", "Naked, If I Want To", "Ain't No Use", and "Lazy Me", all from MOBY GRAPE.
The Byrds, "It Won't Be Wrong", "Renaissance Fair", "Old John Robertson"
Husker Du, "Something I Learned Today", "Never Talking to You Again", "The Biggest Lie", "Folk Lore"

Someone else can try to list the best Minutemen songs.

Tori Amos - Mr Zebra 1.06
DeVotchKa - First Push 1.06
Clinic - Hippy Death Suite 1.18
Jonathan Richamn - Let Her Go Into The Darkness 1.19
Promal Scream - Velocity Girl 1.21
Meat Puppets - Magic Toy Missing 1.24
Ramones - R.a.m.o.n.e.s. 1.24
Pixies - Palace Of The Brine 1.34
Cockney Rejects - Flares N' Slippers 1.36
Misfits - Bullet 1.37
Alison Krauss - Little Liza Jane 1.43
Frank Zappa Oh No 1.45
Crass - Punk Is Dead 1.48
White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl 1.52
Beach Boys - This Whole World 1.54
Young Marble Giants - Include Me Out 1.56
Judee Sill - The Pearl 1.57

Good Idea, I am one who considers the Abbey Road medleys just two big song suites. Though the songs are listed as seperate, so I will pick these songs. You would be hard pressed to approve on the melodies or the vocal harmonies of these songs that run into each other.

"Polythene Pam" – 1:12
Lead vocals: Lennon
"She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" – 1:57
Lead vocals: McCartney
"Golden Slumbers" – 1:31
Lead vocals: McCartney
"Carry That Weight" – 1:36

Guided By Voices have a ton of them. A Salty Salute, 14 Cheerleader Coldfront, Things I Will Keep and a bunch more that are just over 2 minutes.

But my favorite is Three Girl Rhumba by Wire.

PJ Harvey, Snake

I nominate almost every song on Minutemen - Double Nickles on the Dime, but how about "Viet Nam," "Shit From An Old Notebook," and "Nature Without Man" to start.

Also "18000 Lira" by Art Brut, "Communist Daughter" by Neutral Milk Hotel, "Career Opportunities" by The Clash and I've always liked "Her Majesty" by The Bealtes at a ripe ole 23 seconds

Guided by Voices! Of course. 4 of the first 5 tracks on BEE THOUSAND ("Hardcore UFOs", "Buzzards and Dreadful Crows", "The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory", and "Hot Freaks") are under 2:00, and they all kick ass. They're topped, though, by the wondrous "Kicker of Elves" later on the album, which manages to cram an intro, two verses, a coda and three complete title refrains into 64 seconds. And it's not even that fast of a song.

The Beatles : every micro-song at the end of Abbey road
Neil Young : Till The Morning Comes
Leadbelly : There's a Man Going Around Taking Names
Georges Brassens : Philistins
Big Star : I'm In love with a girl
Tom Waits : Frank's theme
The Divine Comedy : Geronimo
Elvis Presley : That's allright Mama
Eddie Cochran : Summertime Blues
Eddie Cochran : C'mon Everybody
Georges Brassens : Hécatombe
Serge Gainsbourg : Meurtre à l'extincteur
John Lennon : My Mummy's dead
Tom Waits : Johnsburg, Illinois
Compay Segundo : Virgen Del Pino

Don't forget the Castaways "Liar, Liar" from the Nuggets box set. 1:58 I think.

There are a couple of great Rancid song, especially Antennas.
Beastie Boys - Flute Loop (1:54)
Bobby Lapointe - L'hélicon (1:50)
Death From Above 1979 - Pull Out (1:50)
Didier Super - Y'en a marre des pauvres (1:54)
Mano Negra - King Kong Five (1:55)
Many Sebadoh songs too - Kath (1:52), Sickles and Hammers (0:50) and my favourite God Told Me (1:09)
Puppetmastaz - We Back (1:54)
Queens of the Stone Age - Quick and to the Pointless (1:42) and Six Shooter (1:19)
Sibylle Baier - Give me a smile
Suicide Machine - New Girl (1:50), chears me up at any time !
System of a Down - Bubbles (1:56) and Shimmy (1:53)
The Clash - White Riot (1:59)
The Hives - Abra Cadaver (1:33), one the greatest beginning of album I've ever heard
The Magnetic Fields - 69 love songs has lots of songs shorter than 2 minutes, my favourite might be Washington D.C. (1:53) but I don't know this album much yet
The Rakes - 22 Grand Job (1:46) : I'm quite surprised that it's the only song under 2 minutes in capture/release
The Streets - Who got the Funk ? (1:50)
Vitalic - Polkamatic (1:52)

And my favourite one :
DJ Shadow - Organ Donor (1:56)

Here's my top ten songs under 2:00 (according to iTunes playcount):

THE BOX TOPS - The Letter
NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL - The Fool
THE BEATLES - Golden Slumbers
BENOIT PIOULARD - Moth Wings
THE WHITE STRIPES - Fell In Love With a Girl
NICK DRAKE - Horn
THE BEATLES - Carry That Weight
RADIOHEAD - Fitter Happier
THE WHITE STRIPES - Now Mary
THE OFFSPRING - All I Want (what the hell...?)

nicolas - your Abbey Road comment rings true here.

The 1995 album by Guided By Voices,Alien Lane - 28 tracks in 41 minutes.
Teenage Fanclub - Hardcore/Ballad
Big Star - St 100/6
I just worked out I have at least one song for every possible time from 0:54 all the way to 7:27

Anthony
"Horn" is a great song I almost included

"Don't forget the Castaways "Liar, Liar" from the Nuggets box set. 1:58 I think."

A Minnesota band also!