“Waltz #2 (Xo)” by Elliott Smith

"Waltz #2 (XO)" was the first single from XO, Elliott Smith's fourth album, out on DreamWorks in 1998. Smith wrote it alone and recorded and mixed it with Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf, and true to its title it sways like the last slow dance before the lights come up.

The scene is a karaoke bar, where a man and a woman pick songs, "Cathy's Clown" for her and "You're No Good" for him, that barely paper over the war between them; Pitchfork read the pair as possible stand-ins for Smith's mother, Bunny, and his stepfather, Charlie. It missed the American charts but gave him his best UK placement, number 52, and Slate later called it the finest song he ever wrote.

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