90s Jams #64: Green Day "J.A.R." (1995)

I'm guessing the reason why this song didn't appear on Dookie or Insomniac was because it was written by Mike Dirnt instead of Billie Joe Armstrong, which I didn't realize until about 2 minutes ago. In the 90's, the concept of the non-album track was like a status symbol among prospective (high school) music geeks... Never were so many of these played on commercial radio than in the mid-90's.. Nirvana's "Verse Chorus Verse," Pearl Jam's "Yellow Ledbetter," Smashing Pumpkins "Landslide." They were slightly more difficult to locate at Sam Goody than the bigger hit songs, but radio stations played them anyway, because most of the fans in the radio audience were diehards of at least one of these huge bands.

"J.A.R." has remained a fan favorite, not only for this reason... It was the perfect and most interesting example of the intersection of all of their best elements, from the unorthodox punk song structure heard in "F.O.D." and "Chump," the extreme high energy from "Burnout" and "Having A Blast," and the pitch perfect pop craftsmanship of "Basket Case" and "When I Come Around." It's all here in one 3-minute epic. The bridge and the outro of this one are especially brilliant...