“Leader of Men” by Nickelback

"Leader of Men" is the song that carried Nickelback onto a bigger stage. Chad Kroeger and Ryan Peake wrote it for the band's second album, The State, in 1998, and once Roadrunner Records signed them and put the album back out, it became the record's first single in 2000. It's post-grunge through and through, heavy, earnest and built for rock radio, recorded and mixed by Myles Mangino.

It did its job: number 8 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, number 21 on the Alternative Songs chart and number 11 on Canada's rock chart. The State actually carries it twice, the full-band version as the third track and an acoustic take closing the album.

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