“Spoonman” by Soundgarden

"Spoonman" was the first single from Superunknown, Soundgarden's fourth album, in 1994, and it's named for a real person: Artis the Spoonman, a Seattle street performer who plays his spoons on the track and turns up in the video too. Chris Cornell wrote it, words and music.

It's a clattering, off-kilter stomp. Cornell and Kim Thayil wrench a riff out of their guitars that lurches like a drunk down a staircase, Matt Cameron holds the rhythm together with a drummer's sleight of hand, and Ben Shepherd's bass rumbles underneath while he adds some vocals of his own. Artis's spoons clatter through it like kitchen-drawer mayhem, and somehow it's the most natural thing in the world. Cornell sings the whole thing with that big, siren-of-a-voice swagger. Michael Beinhorn and Jeff Fura produced it with the band, Jason Corsaro engineered, Adam Kasper assisted, and Brendan O'Brien mixed it for A&M.

It reached No. 3 on Billboard's Album Rock Tracks and No. 9 on Modern Rock Tracks. It later landed on the 1997 greatest-hits set A-Sides and the 2010 compilation Telephantasm, while a Steve Fisk remix turned up on the "Black Hole Sun" and "My Wave" singles.

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