“Monkey Wrench” by Foo Fighters

"Monkey Wrench" kicked off the campaign for The Colour and the Shape, the second Foo Fighters album, arriving as its lead single in 1997, and it's the sound of Dave Grohl writing his way out of a marriage in real time: the lyrics trace the collapse that year of his four-year marriage to Jennifer Youngblood.

You'd hardly guess it was a breakup song from the way it barrels. Grohl sits behind the kit himself and plays guitar alongside Pat Smear, Nate Mendel's bass pushes hard, and the song runs at a breathless gallop, all stop-start jolts and a chorus that tears straight up the middle, with Grohl's voice shredding itself on the way out. Grohl, Mendel and Smear share the writing credit. Gil Norton produced it for Capitol, and Chris Sheldon's mix keeps it bright and sharp instead of murky, post-grunge with the lights turned on.

It climbed to number 9 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and 12 in the UK, and it picked up a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance.

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