“I Will Dare” by The Replacements

"I Will Dare" kicks off the Replacements' Let It Be, but it reached the world a few months ahead of the album, out as a single on the independent Twin/Tone label in July 1984 before the LP followed that October. Paul Westerberg wrote it, and it's the sound of a punk band discovering it's allowed to be sweet: a bouncing, bright pop tune with Westerberg on 12-string guitar and mandolin, grinning his way through a song about being game for absolutely anything.

The guest in the room is Peter Buck of R.E.M., who takes the guitar solo, a jangling, sunny aside that fits right in. Bob Stinson adds guitar, Tommy Stinson rolls along on bass, and Chris Mars keeps it all skipping with drums and tambourine. Westerberg produced it with Peter Jesperson and Steve Fjelstad, who also engineered.

It marked a turn away from the band's punk beginnings, and critics have since counted it among the best things the Replacements ever did.

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