“Whipping Post” by Allman Brothers Band

"Whipping Post" first turned up on The Allman Brothers Band, the group's 1969 debut, as a five-minute studio track written by Gregg Allman. Even squeezed down to that size it's a monster: Berry Oakley's bass prowls underneath, Jai Johanny Johanson and Butch Trucks double up on drums, Duane Allman's slide cuts through the murk, and Gregg, on organ and vocal, sings like a man at the very end of his rope.

Onstage it became a launching pad for much longer, more ferocious jams. The version on 1971's double live At Fillmore East runs 22 minutes and 40 seconds and fills the whole last side, and that marathon take is what earned the song its places in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The magazine even argued the long version is the one to hear.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.