“Adam's Song” by blink-182

"Adam's Song" is the moment blink-182 stopped goofing around. Tucked onto Enema of the State, the band's third album, from 1999, and later sent out as its third and last single, it's credited to Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus, though Hoppus did most of the writing and sings the lead. He drew on how alone he felt out on the road, single while his bandmates had someone waiting at home, and on a teenager's suicide letter he had read in a magazine.

The result is written as a suicide note, dealing in depression and loneliness, with a nod to Nirvana's "Come as You Are" in the words, yet it was meant to leave listeners with hope. It was among the last songs finished for the record and almost didn't make it; Hoppus feared it was too bleak, but the others took to what it had to say.

Jerry Finn produced it and Tom Lord-Alge mixed it, and the band doesn't dress it up: Travis Barker's drums hold back, DeLonge's guitar rings out plainly, and Roger Joseph Manning Jr. brings in a piano for the bridge. Critics heard it as a real change of pace from the trio's jokier singles, it reached number two on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks, and the Liz Friedlander video became an MTV hit.

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