“Snow (Hey Oh)” by Red Hot Chili Peppers

"Snow (Hey Oh)" comes off Stadium Arcadium, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' sprawling 2006 double album, and it followed "Tell Me Baby" out as a single that same year. It's built on a guitar figure that never stops moving, a fast, glittering spiral of notes that tumbles over itself like flurries in a streetlight, while the rhythm section keeps a light, steady trot underneath and Anthony Kiedis sings with unusual warmth and patience.

Kiedis, who wrote the words, has said the song is about survival and a clean start: you've wrecked things, and now you get a fresh white page, a field of snow, and the chance to begin again. That's exactly how it feels, bright and cold and hopeful. All four members share the writing credit. Rick Rubin produced, Ryan Hewitt, Mark Linett and Andrew Scheps recorded it, and Scheps mixed.

It went to number one on Billboard's Modern Rock chart and stayed there five weeks, the band's third chart-topper there in a row and their 11th overall, a record for that chart that they later pushed to 13.

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