“Fade” by Staind

"Fade" came off Staind's Break the Cycle in 2001 as the record's third single, but its bones are older than that. Mike Mushok wrote the guitar riff in the late '90s for a sprawling six-minute epic the band was working up before Dysfunction, their 1999 major-label debut; it didn't make that album and sat untouched for three or four years. Mushok never let go of it, mostly because he liked the melodies Aaron Lewis had put over it, and during the Break the Cycle sessions he rewrote and rearranged it.

What came out is tighter and meaner, Mushok's riff churning while Lewis coils up and then lets go, with Josh Abraham producing and the whole band, Johnny April and Jon Wysocki included, sharing the writing credit. Mushok later called it the best playing he'd ever put on a record. Billboard's rock charts agreed it was a keeper: number three on Mainstream Rock, four on Modern Rock.

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