8 brilliant songs written in a matter of minutes

Some songs take years to write, these didn't. The biggest hits penned in no time at all

13:27 11th February 2014

Some songs take years, and even decades to write and perfect - as bands and artists spend years at the drawing board or in the studio trying to make the lyrics connect, get the beat to fit or find that perfect riff. Some songs however, don't take very long at all.

There are artists out there who have naturally just either got music seeping out of their pores or have just been plain lucky. Either way, they've ended up banging out a perfect track in a matter of minutes.

Some of these may surprise you, some may not, but everyone from Lorde and Icona Pop to Kanye West, Bowie and Blur have proven that often the biggest hits are the ones that just come naturally. Here are 8 brilliant songs, written in a matter of minutes.

Icona Pop - 'I Love It': Yup, Charli XCX claims to have written the melody and lyrics in just 30 minutes. BOOM.
David Bowie - 'All The Young Dudes': This should come as no surprise, seeing as the Thin White Duke practically bleeds music. When Mott The Hoople were about to split up in 1972, David Bowie offered them the track 'Suffragette City' but bassist Pete Overend Watts, turned it down. Bowie then called Watts back two hours later, saying: "I've written a song for you since we talked, which could be great." That song was he timeless classic 'All the Young Dudes'.
Kanye West - 'All Falls Down': No one in the game works quite as quickly as Weezy - who crafted this absolute stunner in 'about 15 minutes'.
Blur - 'Song 2': The band don't agree on exactly how long this indie classic took to write, but they agree it was between 10 minutes and half an hour. WOOH HOO!
REM - 'Losing My Religion': Whereas 'Bad Day' took the band 18 years to record and perfect, their seminal 'Losing My Religion' was much less stressful. Legend has it that guitarist Peter Buck spent an evening drinking wine, watching the Nature Channel on mute, and learning how to play the mandolin when he "played 'Losing My Religion' all the way through, and then played really bad stuff for a while." Buck had to play the tape back to remember how it went.
Kylie Minogue - 'I Should Be So Lucky': Shut up, this is classic bubblegum pop - cementing the Aussie angel's status as a worldwide star. Best of all, Stock, Aitken and Waterman totally forgot that Kylie was coming to meet them and quickly wrote 'I Should Be So Lucky in 40 minutes while she waited outside the studio
Lorde - 'Royals': One of the most globe-conquering, radio-dominating tracks of 2013 was written in just 30 minutes and never intended to appear on Lorde's debut album, Pure Heroine. Still, that didn't stop it winning the Grammy Song Of The Year.
The Rolling Stones - 'Satisfaction': In typical rock n' roll style, guitarist Keith Richards was passed out in the Jack Tar Harrison Hotel in Florida when he awoke and quickly recorded the riff to '(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction' along with him saying the title. He passed out again, woke up later and played back the tape to hear "two minutes of 'Satisfaction'and 40 minutes of me snoring."

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