There is only one viable choice for "best single ever". For me anyways. I'm not worrying about b-sides here. I'm talking about a single song that was released and just fucking worked ... it was the culmination of the band that produced it, and struck a perfect note for that one instance in time. For a band that had basically imploded to reemerge a year later in 1997 with something as cathartic as Bitter Sweet Symphony is unbelievable. But that's exactly what Mad Richard and the rest of the Verve did. Ashcroft's tumultuous relationship with guitarist and foil Nick McCabe was rekindled in a record that fulfilled every promise even hinted at by the band in their former incarnation. Never mind the lawsuits by the owners of the sample used in the song, or its subsequent adoption by a myriad of advertisers (Nike springs to mind) ... this song was the penultimate expression of the Verve, and so wonderfully captured the band's sentiment that it left the realm of "single" and became a landmark.
previous
