“Dead Skunk” by Loudon Wainwright Iii

Columbia sent Loudon Wainwright III's "Dead Skunk" out as a single in November 1972, a novelty number lifted from Album III, and it's about exactly what it says. Over plain, barnyard folk, banjo out front with guitar, drums and fiddle trotting behind, Wainwright sings about a skunk lying dead in the middle of the road and the stench it leaves for every car that rolls past. Thomas Jefferson Kaye produced.

He has said it came from a real mishap: somebody else had already done the killing, he just ran the thing over, and he knocked the song out in 15 minutes. Radio dragged its feet, and only well into 1973 did stations warm to it, pushing it up to 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. Nothing else he ever released made the charts.

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