4 Classic Rock Songs That Took Less Than an Hour To Write

The best classic rock songs are usually the result of very good writing. However, some of the biggest rock songs of the last half-century or so didn’t require much in the way of time to write. In fact, the following four classic rock songs took less than an hour to actually complete. That’s impressive, to say the least. Let’s take a look!

“40” by U2

“40” by U2 was released in 1983 and quickly became a staple for the Irish rock band’s live sets. And, apparently, it took only about 10 minutes to write, as well as 10 minutes to record, according to Bono.

“When we were making our third record, the ‘War’ LP, we were being thrown out of the studio by the studio manager because we had overrun or something and we had one more song to do,” said Bono. “We wrote this song in about ten minutes, we recorded it in about ten minutes, we mixed it in about ten minutes and we played it, then, for another ten minutes and that’s nothing to do with why it’s called ‘40’.”

“Rock And Roll” by Led Zeppelin

Some fans might be surprised to learned that Led Zeppelin’s “Rock And Roll” did not take much time to write at all. The riff is pretty simple, though, so it makes sense that this one would be a quick process. According to Jimmy Page, the song evolved from a jam session and only took about 15 minutes to smooth out the whole song for recording.

“Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie

This song, especially its ending, is so beautiful, I’m shocked that it took so little time to write. According to lore, this gem and famous collaboration took less than 10 minutes to write, though the truth is a bit on the murky side. In general, it is more or less accepted that the writing and recording of this song took place entirely within a 24-hour period, the bulk of that time period being dedicated to recording. “Under Pressure” was recorded during a “marathon” recording session in Switzerland. 

Sometimes, collabs can have expedited results, it seems. Freddie Mercury wrote the bulk of the song, but the composition, as a whole, was a group effort.

“The River Of Dreams” by Billy Joel

Like Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday”, Billy Joel’s “The River Of Dreams” was conceived while he slept. Billy Joel has gotten plenty of song ideas from his dreams, but this particular tune wasn’t exactly what Joel was expecting. He initially didn’t want to fully write and record it. However, after really waking up, he decided to jot down the lyrics quickly.

“I thought, who the hell am I to try to pull off this gospel song?” Joel told Howard Stern a few years back. “So I took a shower to wash this song away. I sang it in the shower and knew I had to do it.”

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