Song · Green Day
“Nice Guys Finish Last” by Green Day
From the album nimrod. (1997)
“Nice Guys Finish Last” by Green Day appears on 13 radio countdowns from 7 stations between 1998 and 2008. It was first released in 1997 on the album nimrod.. Its best result is #48 on The Buzz Top 99 Songs of 1998. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #117 alternative song of 1998 and #3,427 alternative song of all time.
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"Nice Guys Finish Last" throws open Nimrod, Green Day's fifth album, from 1997, and it's a snotty, sprinting opener with Billie Joe Armstrong snarling his own lyrics and a chorus with barbs in it. The band produced with Rob Cavallo, Ken Allardyce recorded, and Chris Lord-Alge's mix keeps Mike Dirnt's bass and Tré Cool's drums charging hard beneath the guitar, with Dirnt chiming in on vocals.
It ended up as the album's fourth and final single, and the movies gave it a push: a spot in Varsity Blues helped turn it into a hit and earned it an MTV Movie Award nomination for best song from a film in 1999. The video suits the band up as a spoof football team, Green Day standing in for the Green Bay Packers. PopMatters later ranked it the tenth-best song they ever cut.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 75 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1998 | 107 |
| 1998 | 89 | Live 105 San Francisco, CA | Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1998 | 106 |
| 1998 | 99 | WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD | WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1998 | 100 |
| 1998 | 64 | 107.7 The End Seattle, WA | The End Top 107 Songs of 1998 | 107 |
| 1998 | 48 | The Buzz Burlington, VT / Plattsburgh, NY / Montreal, QC | The Buzz Top 99 Songs of 1998 | 100 |
| 1999 | 89 | Triple J Australia (national) | Triple J Hottest 100 of 1999 | 100 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 275 | KROQ | KROQ Top 300 Most Requested Songs of the '90s (Labor Day 1999) | 300 |
| 1999 | 726 | Q101 | Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1017 |
| 1999 | 1018 | 107.7 The End | The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1077 |
| 2004 | 151 | 107.7 The End | The End Original Alternative 500 (May 2004) | 500 |
| 2006 | 400 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 2006) | 500 |
| 2007 | 292 | KROQ | KROQ Top 500 Most Requested Songs of the '90s (Labor Day 2007) | 500 |
| 2008 | 308 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 2008) | 500 |
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