10 Best Revenge Songs
5. The All-American Rejects - "Gives You Hell" (2008)
Released as the lead single from The All-American Rejects' third studio album, When the World Comes Down, "Gives You Hell" is a punk-infused anthem all about channelling your break-up energy not into sitting sad and all alone, but just getting mad.
Lead vocalist Jason Ritter and lead guitarist Nick Wheeler wrote the track together, and Ritter described it as a 'tongue-in-cheek' view of someone that you hate, that puts you down, and channelling this hatred into a song that's designed to tell them to back off. Initially, they didn't plan to add the song to When the World Comes Down, until a producer stepped in to suggest it belonged on the track list.
Just as well; When the World Comes Down would definitely be a lesser album without the punchy energy of this essential break-up anthem.
"Gives You Hell" is, to date, still The All-American Rejects most successful single, and Billboard announced back in 2009 that the song was their most played song of the year on their top 40 chart. Rock Sound even listed it as their fourth-best break up song of all time, so the Rejects must have done something right.