10 Legendary Songs That Almost Weren't Released

It may be hard to understand now, but Green Day were in a bit of an awkward spot after the release of Dookie. Given the pop appeal of songs like Longview and Welcome to Paradise, these three pop punk brats spent their next record Insomniac doing everything they could to reestablish their punk credibility. If Nimrod was any indication of where they were headed though, Good Riddance was the sound of leaving their punk background behind.

For as much of a staple as it has been at every high school graduation for the past 20 years, Good Riddance was originally written during the Dookie sessions before ultimately being discarded for the more straightahead punk songs. By the time that Nimrod rolled around though, the myriad of different sounds on the record made this song fit right in.

Before even settling on recording it though, Billie Joe Armstrong was still hesitant to even go through with it, going so far as to try and make a full band arrangement of the tune before eventually just laying it down with an acoustic guitar. After tucking it away at the back half of the record, Good Riddance became inescapable once it hit radio, being a permanent staple of pop culture to this day.

Since the punk community was already breathing down their necks to return to their old sound, releasing something like this as a single was probably the most punk thing you could have done.