I spend most of my waking days looking for weird and interesting things about music. Here’s something that got my attention. What is the shortest song to ever make it to the top of an official singles chart? The answer is “(Let Me Be) Your Teddy Bear” from Elvis Presley. It runs all of 1:46 yet managed to reach the top of the American charts in 1957.
Next question: What is the shortest song to ever receive a proper commercial release? The answer is a track called “You Suffer” by a brutally heavy British band called Napalm Death. In 1989, they released the song a 7-inch single. It took up all of side 1, even though the song was 1.316 seconds long.
To drive the point home, side 2 of that single was from a group called Electro Hippies entitled “Mega-Armageddon Death Pt. 3” which ran just slightly longer. Together, this makes up the shortest single ever issued.
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