“Ana Ng” by They Might Be Giants

"Ana Ng" was the lead single from Lincoln, They Might Be Giants' 1988 album, and it's the duo's brainy, jittery pop at full tilt. John Linnell sings lead and stacks his own backing vocals, racing through a melody packed with more words than seems possible, while John Flansburgh's electric guitar chugs and chimes around him. Linnell also brings accordion and autoharp, hardly standard rock-band issue, and Lisa Klapp adds a spoken part.

Both Johns share the writing credit. Bill Krauss produced it and Al Houghton engineered, and the record is crisp and bright, every hook sitting right up front.

It gave the band their first US chart appearance, reaching number 11 on the Modern Rock chart, even though it never came out as a commercial single in America; there it went to radio only as a promo. Official releases followed in the UK, as a maxi-single, and in Australia in 1989, and in Europe in 1991.

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