“The Pretender” by Foo Fighters

"The Pretender" kicked the door in for Foo Fighters' 2007 album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace as its first single, and it doesn't stay polite for long. It opens with a hush that's clearly a trap, then the whole band charges in at full gallop and barely lets up until the last chord.

This is a band song down to the credits, with all four members sharing the writing: Dave Grohl on lead vocals and guitar, Chris Shiflett on guitar, Nate Mendel on bass and Taylor Hawkins on drums. Hawkins drives it like he's late for something, the two guitars pile up into a wall, and Grohl's voice goes from coiled to shredded. Gil Norton produced, Adrian Bushby engineered and Rich Costey mixed, keeping all that fury sharp and loud without sanding off the edges.

It won the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2008 and was nominated for Record of the Year the same year. It also climbed to 37 on the Hot 100, a mark that only "Learn to Fly" and "Best of You" have bettered among the band's singles.

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