Many musicians have a natural inclination to close out albums or concerts with their biggest number (see: Purple Rain), but these ten artists did just the opposite, by placing the shortest track on the album at the very end.
1. Cream - Disraeli Gears (1967)
After about 32 minutes of psychedelic blues, Cream closes out their classic Disraeli Gears LP with a brief rendition of the traditional music hall tune "Mother's Lament," with all three members of the band singing in (possibly) exaggerated Cockney accents.
2. The Beatles - Abbey Road (1969)
Though "Her Majesty" was originally meant to be included in the song suite on side two of Abbey Road, the song was discarded when Paul McCartney decided it didn't fit. However, when a studio engineer accidentally left the song at the end of the master tape, it became Abbey Road's abrupt, 23-second closer.
3. John Lennon - John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)
About a year after Abbey Road, John Lennon's solo debut John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band recycled the "short closer" trick with the mournful lo-fi ballad "My Mummy's Dead," which comes in at just 49 seconds.
4. Big Star - #1 Record (1972)
The sequencing of Big Star's #1 Record is highly unusual in that it finishes out with four acoustic tracks in a row, including the CSN-esque minute-long closer "ST 100/6."
5. Patti Smith - Horses (1975)
Patti Smith may be the godmother of punk, but she doesn't exactly follow the "short songs" rule of punk rock. Two songs on her debut album Horses stretch past nine minutes, though the album's piano-driven closer "Elegie" comes in at just under three.
6. Misfits - Walk Among Us (1982)
The Misfits' debut full-length Walk Among Us is just 25 minutes long, with half of the tracks coming in at under 2 minutes, including the scrappy 58-second closer "Braineaters."
7. The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow (1984)
Though the Smiths' Hatful of Hollow is a compilation and not a studio album, the decision to place the sub-two minute ballad "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" is still brilliant, ending the album on an ellipsis rather than a period.
8. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand (1994)
On an album stuffed with extremely short tracks, Guided By Voices closes out Bee Thousand with the shortest of them all: the 33-second piano ballad "You're Not An Airplane."
9. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See A Darkness (1999)
Though the solo acoustic ballad "Black" seems like it would have been an appropriate closing track, Will Oldham tacks on one more full-band at the end of I See A Darkness: the 1:53 "Raining In Darling."
10. Joanna Newsom - Ys (2006)
The final track on Joanna Newsom's Ys is the seven-minute "Cosmia," and though seven minutes definitely doesn't seem short, the album's other four songs average at 12 minutes in length, making "Cosmia" a breeze by comparison.
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