If Ernest Hemingway could tell a compelling story in 6 words, why can't a musician craft a great song in 60 seconds? Short answer: They can and they have. But unlike Hemingway's super succinct masterpiece, most of these songs won't go on to obtain legendary status. And I'll never really understand why. It seems that we're craving shorter and shorter pieces of entertainment as our attention spans turn to mush, but for some reason we're not quite willing to accept anything less than the typical three-minute pop song. Which is a real shame, because some of the greatest songs pack more substance into one minute than some musicians put into an entire album. Now, to be fair, oftentimes a running time this short means the track is just an interlude or a skit or an uber-experimental bit of nonsense. But occasionally, it's just a really brief, extraordinary little song. The good news is that if you don't like any of those listed, you've only wasted, at most, a minute of your life on it. So play the odds and click on the videos embedded within. You've got nothing to lose...
20. Paul McCartney - "The Lovely Linda"
"Awwww, that Paul. He's so sweet." If anyone doesn't think that was the reaction McCartney was hoping to hear most often in his post-Beatles career, they obviously haven't heard his schmaltzy solo debut. That album is almost defiantly adorable. "The Lovely Linda" is the opening track from that debut, and the shortest song Paul's ever recorded. It's a simple love song dedicated to his first wife that was meant as a subtle jab to his former bandmates declarations of love to Yoko Ono.