“I'll Stick Around” by Foo Fighters

"I'll Stick Around" came from Foo Fighters' self-titled 1995 debut and went out as its second single, and it's the sound of Dave Grohl coming back swinging. He wrote it in 1994, after the death of his old Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain, and cut it that October with the rest of the album, playing every part himself: guitar, bass, drums and vocals.

Barrett Jones produced, Steve Culp engineered, and Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf mixed it, and they leave the thing loud and rough around the edges. It's a grinding, stop-start riff that coils up in the verses and then detonates, with Grohl pounding his own drums like he's got something to prove and screaming the chorus until his throat must have given out.

For a one-man recording, it hits like a gang. There's a fury in it that makes it one of the toughest things on that record.

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