“What I Got” by Sublime

"What I Got" comes off Sublime's self-titled third album from 1996, and it reached radio after singer Bradley Nowell had already died of a heroin overdose that year, which lends its easygoing grin an ache it never asked for. It's a song built from borrowed parts and made entirely their own: the chorus is lifted from the reggae artist Half Pint's "Loving", with Half Pint credited as a co-writer, and the verses follow the melody and pacing of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna" note for note.

Nowell wrote the words, and the music is credited to him, Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson. David Kahne produced and mixed it and added organ, Eddie Ashworth engineered, Miguel Happoldt strums acoustic guitar and Marshall Goodman works the turntables, and the whole thing lopes along like a lazy afternoon, part reggae, part hip-hop, part campfire singalong.

Radio took to it in a big way: it topped Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart and reaching 29 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, and it climbed to number two on Canada's RPM Alternative 30. In 2008 Rolling Stone ranked it 83 among the 100 greatest guitar songs of all time.

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