Question of the Week: What’s the best ending to a popular song?

Local Spins’ Question of the Week (Oct. 18, 25 and Nov. 2, 2023)

What’s the best ending to a popular song?

The winner of last week’s drawing from email subscribers who responded to our question of the week was Mike Ward. To be placed in drawings for a Local Spins gift pack or concert tickets, sign up for email updates and the weekly newsletter here: https://localspins.com/subscribe-local-spins-mailing-list/

THE READER RESPONSES:

Vanessa Clark – The ending of “Kalamazoo Gospel” by The Go Rounds

Honest John Kowalko – “Hey Jude,” is or was a much talked about outro

Dave Adams – The Crunge – Led Zeppelin “Where’s that confounded bridge”

Justin Stover – “Can’t Hardly Wait”

Sarah Fairbanks Keen – One of my favorite song endings is for Pearl Jam’s “Inside Job.”

Dave Adams – “Won’t get Fooled Again,” The Who

Timmy Rodriguez – Popular Song? I’ll say radio hit first, “A Day in a Life.” Best ending to a song ever though? “I Want You (She’s so Heavy).” Which leads to the best transition ever.

Al Haaksma – “Smoke on the Water” from Deep Purple Made in Japan, “Soul Sacrifice” by Santana at Woodstock

Don Clapham – “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who. Combine Daltrey’s iconic scream with Moon’s manic drumming and Townshend’s powerful chords and you have pure Rock & Roll at its finest. (I almost chose the all-out violin jam at the end of “Baba O’Riley.”)

Stephen Aldrich – Zep, “Rain Song,” immediately comes to mind…

Bob Schader – Supper’s Ready!

Steve Damstra – “Rain” or “Strawberry Fields”: Beatles

Joe Kidd – “Revolution” – Beatles

Max Morrison – ‘Goodbye Stranger’ by Supertramp

Christian J. VanAntwerpen – “Layla” with the piano exit.

Thomas Leonard Saxe – Steve Gadd’s drums at the end of “Aja.”

John Wenger – “Scarlet Begonias” because it doesn’t end, it just segues into “Fire on the Mountain”

Charlie Walmsley – “Turtles All the Way Down” – Sturgill Simpson

Bruce Ling – “Layla”

Andrew Szumowski – “This Is The Shortest Song In The World.” It is an ending, that’s the entire song. And “Strawberry Fields”: Ringo’s solo!

Jack Leaver – The solo mandolin part at the end of “Losing My Religion,” thank you Peter Buck.

Andrew Ogrodzinski – “Billy The Mountain.” If you’re familiar with the ending, you already know.
Jess William Mac AnTòisich – Anything by Men at Work; always had interesting and odd endings to their songs.

Marty Lighthizer – The Intro and the Outro, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Looking very relaxed on vibes, Adolph Hitler… Nice! The Incredible Shrinking Man on euphonium.

Andrew Rossi – “In the Light” by Zep

Daniel P Hudelson – Steely Dan’s “Bodhisattva” Cosmic trash can in use.

William Hahs – “I Want You She’s So Heavy” by the Beatles, just because it really doesn’t have an ending it just stops I kind of like those kind of endings now and again.

Mike Ward – “A Day in the Life,” Beatles.

Darlene Cooper – “The End,” The Beatles

Bob Crissman – “The Guitar” – Guy Clark

Dan Kesterke – “Drive in Drive Out” – Dave Matthews Band

Daniel P Hudelson – “Hang Onto Your Life” – The Guess Who, “Remake/Remodel” – Roxy Music, “She Loves You”

Paul Brand – The Doors ‘Touch me.” The outro – sung exactly as the jingle for “Spic & Span”

James Gerard Collins – I don’t remember the name of the song but it’s by the Tubes and ends with “And a babies arm holding an apple”

Brenda Lavengood – “I’d Love to Change the World” by Ten Years After. A Space in Time.

Tammy Hall – “Get back, honky cat, Get back, honky cat, Get back, woo!”

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