This article originally ran in 2016, but we’re dusting it off in celebration of Billie Joe Armstrong’s birthday on February 17th. Top Songs is a feature in which we definitively handpick the very best songs in an artist or band’s catalog. Sounds simple, right? Oh, if only. Also, check out the new “Punk Is Dead, Long Live Punk!” T-shirt at the Consequence Shop.
Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt formed Green Day in 1986 — that’s over 35 solid fucking years of punk, pop punk, punk rock, rock, pop rock, and all the strange detours in between. They’ve scaled not one but two commercial peaks in a storied, 13-album career that’s experimented with form (rock operas, album trilogies, Broadway musicals) and subject (love, politics, masturbation). I think I speak for everyone who pitched in on this list when I say narrowing down their best songs was nearly as painful as (ahem) pulling teeth.
The breadth of their catalog aside, this ranking was difficult because the line between “best song” and “favorite song” quickly blurs when it comes to this band. Green Day is a formative band for many of us, whether you were there when they were still called Sweet Children or whether you were captivated by their grand middle finger to George W. Bush in 2004.
A band that’s been around for so long has unavoidably soundtracked different parts of your life, and with strong personal attachments, it can be unthinkable when the band takes a left turn. A new album can become as much a cause for apprehension as enthusiasm when you’ve so cherished what has come before.
So take a ride with us through Green Day’s prolific discography as we narrow it down to a definitive list of the band’s 20 best songs.
— Karen Gwee
Senior Reporter
20. “Wake Me Up When September Ends” – American Idiot (2004)
Pretty much every fall, Twitter becomes awash with jokes about Billie Joe Armstrong’s sleep habits. And isn’t that one measure of a successful song? That it can be effectively memed a dozen years after its initial release? But “Wake Me Up When September Ends” is more than just a yearly punchline. At the time of its release, it provided an emotional gut-punch on Green Day’s most ambitious album to that point, American Idiot.
And while the song holds the unfortunate distinction of ending Green Day’s three-song streak of number-one songs on alternative radio (it peaked at number two, fended off by Gorillaz’s “Feel Good Inc.”), it was also notable for its success on the pop charts, hitting number six on the Billboard 200. Its release as a single just ahead of Hurricane Katrina (which reached land during the final days of August 2005) only added to the song’s legend, giving it an extra bit of significance to the people of a devastated New Orleans. — Philip Cosores
The Armstrongest Lyric: “Summer has come and passed/ The innocent can never last/ Wake me up when September ends”
19. “21st Century Breakdown” – 21st Century Breakdown (2009)
Bless Green Day for following up a political rock opera with … another political rock opera. 21st Century Breakdown never detonated with the impact of American Idiot, but it did serve up some thumping tunes, like the album’s title track. This dramatic and occasionally flowery “fuck the man” anthem is a journey in itself, its stately first half giving way to a blood-pumping scramble away from the “bastards of 1969” towards a majestic, arm-waving conclusion. — Karen Gwee
The Armstrongest Lyric: “The scars on my hands/ And the means to an end/ Is all that I have to show”
18. “Church on Sunday” – Warning (2000)
Warning was the album where Billie Joe grew up, and nowhere is that incremental maturity more evident than on “Church on Sunday,” an upbeat, jangly ode to marital compromises and the little trade-offs every couple acquiesces to in order to stay together. It’s a tender song where Armstrong tempers his fondness of cliche – “Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives,” “I solemnly swear to tell the whole truth” – with gentle affection. Put this one on when you renew your wedding vows. — Karen Gwee
The Armstrongest Lyric: “I’m not getting any younger as long as you’re not getting any older”
17. “Murder City” – 21st Century Breakdown (2009)
There comes a point in every pop punk band’s career where they learn to love power chords. Green Day just so happened to perfect them at the same time they perfected descending harmonies. “Murder City” is a quick one, yet it stuffs an enormous sound into its entire runtime. 21st Century Breakdown has its fair share of sub-par lyrics (“21 Guns”) and underwhelming guitar riffs (“Know Your Enemy”), but its second act picks things up and shows no mercy.
“Murder City” speaks on behalf of a generation that’s desperate but not hopeless for improvement in the wake of murder-incited riots — which, unfortunately, still rings true in today’s Black Lives Matter climate — even if “we are the last call and we’re so pathetic.” As it charges on musically, so does its sentiment, each stacking of notes giving listeners a second burst of energy. Some power chords just feel right. This song employs plenty of ’em. — Nina Corcoran
The Armstrongest Lyric: “I’m wide awake after the riot/ This demonstration of our anguish/ This empty laughter has no reason”
16. “Holiday” – American Idiot (2004)
Green Day didn’t emerge in the ’90s as a particularly political band, but their punk rock roots infused their DNA with rebellion, making American Idiot less of an outlier than an eventuality. And even more than that collection’s title track, “Holiday” represented a commitment to a concept, going beyond the disenfranchised lyrics to create an entire tableau that echoed the ideals of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan before them.
But what makes “Holiday” special is how the band incorporates a “message,” a faux politician’s speech in the bridge, and call-and-response verses to fit neatly within a Green Day song. Propelled by Tre’s galloping drumbeat, the song wasn’t too serious for mass consumption, becoming a massive hit across radio formats. — Philip Cosores
The Armstrongest Lyric: “I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies/ This is the dawning of the rest of our lives”
15. “Macy’s Day Parade” – Warning (2000)
“Macy’s Day Parade” is one of the most overlooked Green Day songs ever. It’s definitely one of their simplest tunes, but that’s why this Warning cut shines. A lamentation of childhood naivete and an earnest, yet melancholy, look to a better future, “Macy’s Day Parade” sneers at American consumerism and gives voice to the band’s working-class backgrounds. Billie Joe’s voice is steady, but he snakes through emotions, jumping from pessimism to desperation, realism to hope, in the span of a simple song. — Karen Gwee
The Armstrongest Lyric: “Give me something that I need/ Satisfaction guaranteed to you/ What’s the consolation prize?/ Economy-sized dreams of hope”
14. “Christie Road” – Kerplunk (1992)
Camping out on train tracks to pass a blunt combats life’s biggest cause of insanity: boredom. For most kids, things get crazy between school and home life, so the need to get away rides high, and “Christie Road” was Green Day’s ode to such. Read a little closer, however, and Armstrong’s lyrics unveil a little more. Skipping over to Christie Road was the act of someone looking for a place of solace, where loneliness switches to intentional solitude and the drone of daily life complements the sunset. Drugs won’t save you, but you can pretend they will for as long as teenagerdom lasts or for all three and a half minutes of this song. — Nina Corcoran
The Armstrongest Lyric: “Take me to that place that I call home/ Take away the strains of being lonely”
13. “Waiting” – Warning (2000)
Listen to enough Green Day and you’re bound to make the connection that they’re more or less a punk rock version of The Beatles. Case in point: “Waiting.” From the poppy chords to Armstrong’s clap-along lyrics, you’d think this was a cheeky cover of something off Please Please Me. Nope, it’s just one of the many oft-forgotten non-hits that fills out 2000’s Warning, but that’s okay because it simply means the song was never drilled into the ground by rock radio.
Which is strange, since, like every song by The Fab Four, it seems pre-destined for the radio waves. It’s even optimistic, something of a rarity for Armstrong, who would spend the next decade rallying against a political system that had tragically failed us. In hindsight, we probably could have used this one on the air. — Michael Roffman
The Armstrongest Lyric: “Dumbstruck/ Color me stupid/ Good luck/ You’re gonna need it/ Where I’m going if I get there/ At all”
12. “Westbound Sign” – Insomniac (1995)
Wanna know how good Armstrong is at melody? Zero in on “Westbound Sign,” where he takes three words and sells a chorus: “She’s taking off.” It’s that easy for him. Of course, that’s negating the fact that he’s also an enviable singer-songwriter, an orator of accessibility, who can turn most stories into crunchy power pop. He’s even able to assume the role of an omniscient narrator as he does with this jagged shard off Insomniac, which follows a troubled girl who’s making a move to California.
Oh, did I say troubled? I meant totally bonkers, delirious from Xanax, beer, and way too much sun on the road. Not all of us have been there — don’t look at me, I at least have a prescription for the stuff — but Armstrong makes us feel like we have (and in some respects, makes it feel like we should) and that’s some power. — Michael Roffman
The Armstrongest Lyrics: “Will she find her name in the California cement?/ Punched out of the grind that punched her one too many times…”
11. “Redundant” – Nimrod (1997)
If you think saying “I love you” to your parents loses its meaning as a kid, wait until you bicker with a spouse as an adult. Billie Joe Armstrong watched his marriage with Adrienne Armstrong deteriorate slowly over nonsensical fights and sparked emotions in the mid-’90s, and their tensions hit an all-time high right before entering the studio for Nimrod. With a little help from a rarely used effects pedal, Armstrong got to work writing “Redundant,” a track that mirrors his own difficulties with his wife.
First comes the passion, the whole reason he fell in love with her to begin with, but it’s soon followed up by the monotony of their fights. He builds a chorus that feels melancholy despite its relatively uptempo beat. It’s a dreary emotion captured with painstaking detail, in tone and words, though not nearly as detailed as its music video where a handful of people make their way through a house as the band stays put. It raises the question: Why the hell is love, and the rest of life, so painful? — Nina Corcoran
The Armstrongest Lyrics: “I’m speechless and redundant/ ‘Cause I love you’s not enough”
10. “Longview” – Dookie (1994)
My first encounter with Green Day wasn’t actually hearing the band, but through a bunch of fellow pre-teens singing the lyrics to “Longview” together in a classroom. The words alone were enough to grab attention, with references to weed and jerking off, not to mention enough profanity to make even the most cavalier seventh grader blush. More than 20 years later, the song is still an anthem for the perpetually bored, with Mike Dirnt’s bassline among the most iconic ever. But maybe most importantly, it was Green Day’s first massive hit, catching the attention of more than just junior high students in the mid-’90s. With one song, Green Day became stars. — Philip Cosores
The Armstrongest Lyric: “When masturbation’s lost its fun/ You’re fucking lonely”
09. “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” – Nimrod (1997)
It’s probably the most loved and hated song in Green Day’s discography, and maybe it deserves such extreme reactions. The penultimate song on Nimrod, it sounded unlike any Green Day song at the time and unlike anyone imagined Green Day ever sounding, complete with a violin solo in its bridge.
But wide-eyed sentimentality played well for the band, with the song going on to be a fixture at high school graduations, coffee shop covers, and campfire sing-alongs, appealing to a wider demographic in a brief couple minutes than all their previous recorded material ever would. More than anything else the band’s ever released, it is a timeless and universal song. Sure, it alienated some of their core fans, but at least it earned the attention of their parents in return. — Philip Cosores
The Armstrongest Lyric: “Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial/ For what it’s worth it was worth all the while”
08. “Minority” – Warning (2000)
When Green Day returned with 2000’s Warning, it was fitting that the video for their lead single “Minority” would find the trio on a parade float surrounded by no one. That’s probably how they felt when all the hard work they put into the album went wasted on deaf ears. Still, “Minority” garnered enough notoriety to sit comfortably at No. 1 for five weeks in a row on the Billboard Modern Rock charts. Which is probably why it’s the only song off the album to consistently pop up in the band’s setlists each tour.
Then again, it helps that the song’s actually great, a timeless political anthem that’s vague enough to slot in on any occasion and outlast generations of asshole politicians. For this writer, it gets extra points for slamming the “moral majority” at a time when he was surrounded by dickhead Catholic priests in an equally dickhead Catholic school. — Michael Roffman
The Armstrongest Lyric: “One light, one mind/ Flashing in the dark/ Blinded by the silence of a thousand broken hearts”
07. “Welcome to Paradise” – Dookie (1994)
Record it once, shame on you. Record it twice, shame on me. When Green Day grabbed “Welcome to Paradise” off 1992’s Kerplunk and revamped it for Dookie, listeners accepted the new version with open arms, and it seems hearing the song twice as often as their others made fans fall in love with it twice as hard. Once re-recorded, “Welcome to Paradise” woke up like it got a full night’s sleep and then some. Those zig-zagging guitars blare louder. Descending harmonies fall with clearer pitch awareness.
Best of all, that devilish instrumental section draws out ever so slightly by the new version’s extra 15 seconds. Moving into a house full of punks and rejects may sound scary, but give it time and you’ll find it’s a proper home — and singing about it alongside Armstrong makes the song (and your own moves) timeless. — Nina Corcoran
The Armstrongest Lyric: “I want to take you through a wasteland I like to call my home”
06. “She” – Dookie (1994)
Many women live in Green Day’s music — Whatsername, Gloria, Haushinka — but the most compelling one of them all goes unnamed. That’s the beauty of “She,” a song which every female Green Day fan could step into. We’ve all felt like “a social tool without a use,” and we’ve sure as hell all yearned to rant our frustrations to someone (a man, even) who’d “take heed just for you.” “She” is a sweet, melodic brick to the glass walls that suffocate women, topped off by a Mike Dirnt bassline that’s still fresh 22 years on. — Karen Gwee
The Armstrongest Lyric: “She screams in silence/ A sullen riot penetrating through her mind”
05. “Going to Pasalacqua” – 1,039 Smoothed Out/Slappy Hours (1991)
What’s the definition of insanity again? Doing something repeatedly and expecting different results, right? Well, if that’s the case, then the entire concept of love is fucking insane. One shattered heart should be all the proof you need to know that the Big L is a tight pair of Bad Idea Jeans. That’s ultimately the conceit of “Going to Pasalacqua,” which finds Armstrong staring into the deep end at the diving board, debating mercilessly about whether or not he should plunge into another relationship. He has his reasons, above all being that he just can’t live without her.
If you can’t relate to that feeling, then you need to get out of the house more, or maybe you’ve just been lucky with relationships. For the not so lucky, this gritty pebble off 1,039… is something to keep in the back pocket forever, or at least until it’s needed. — Michael Roffman
The Armstrongest Lyric: “Well I throw away my past mistakes/ And contemplate my future/ That’s when I say, what the hey”
04. “Jesus of Suburbia” – American Idiot (2005)
Green Day fans run the gamut, but there are certainly two prime generations: those weaned on the snotty apathy of Dookie and those who saw the light with American Idiot. Call the latter the disciples of Jesus of Suburbia. The five-part epic is Green Day’s answer to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a firecracker borne of suffocation, substances, and self-destruction. This jewel in the American Idiot crown is nine minutes long, but there isn’t a second out of place, whether it’s the trills of piano in “City of the Damned” or the megaphone rant of “I Don’t Care.” — Karen Gwee
The Armstrongest Lyric: “It says home is where your heart is/ But what a shame/ ‘Cause everyone’s heart/ Doesn’t beat the same”
03. “Scattered” – Nimrod (1997)
With dozens of radio singles, it’s easy to forget just how strong Green Day’s deep cuts can be. But at the time of Green Day’s support of Nimrod, “Scattered” was a focal point of their live shows, its bridge extended so that when the song would eventually kick back in, it created a wow moment. But that wow moment is present on record, too, with the music dropping away before the final verse to let Armstrong’s voice carry the moment with intimacy. It’s as much indebted to The Beatles as it is to punk music, a shade that the band felt more comfortable with as their career lengthened.
As interesting as the shift in musical tone is the change in lyrical one, with the track content at being forlorn and vulnerable. Maturity works for Green Day, and “Scattered” underscored its capabilities. — Philip Cosores
The Armstrongest Lyric: “I’ve got some scattered pictures lying on my bedroom floor /Reminds me of the times we shared /Makes me wish that you were here”
02. “Basket Case” – Dookie (1994)
Green Day threw a fishing line as far as they could muscle at the start of 1990 and hoped it would catch. As that line got closer, fans in tow, so did their sound. “Longview” was its sharpened hook, and “Basket Case” was the automatic reel that pulled listeners in for the long haul.
Dookie signaled a complete and total ownership of their sound — even with major label executives lacing their fingers around them — that fans could lean into without worrying about a style change, and “Basket Case” was the peak of everything that album represented: frenetic punk, speedy drum fills, and lyrics your friends wanted to sing along to. Because, really, if you weren’t anxious as a teen, you probably never tried to ask your crush out or continually failed to kickflip.
Paranoia pulses in their instruments and Armstrong’s voice equally, and Green Day etch the jubilation of that manic feeling into every crevice of the song, all the way down to the real-life mental institution they filmed its video in. — Nina Corcoran
The Armstrongest Lyric: “Do you have the time/ To listen to me whine/ About nothing and everything/ All at once”
01. “When I Come Around” – Dookie (1994)
A scholar of The Replacements, Armstrong tapped into the heart of that band with “When I Come Around,” channeling his inner Paul Westerberg to craft an achingly simple song that tackles achingly complex emotions. It all seems so elementary, what with those chugging power chords and that weepy chorus, but when you start to put on his shoes, you slowly realize he’s just as confused as whoever he’s singing about — and isn’t that the true pitfall of any relationship? Isn’t that why we too find ourselves wandering the streets, searching for answers and resolve?
It’s kind of funny: Since the song first hit airwaves in 1994, couples have gone from twirling phone chords alone in bedrooms miles apart to literally watching one another on tiny screens often worlds apart. And yet, the spirit of this song hasn’t changed for any one of them. — Michael Roffman
The Armstrongest Lyric: “You may find out that your self-doubt means nothing was ever there/ You can’t go forcing something if it’s just not right”
Stream the entire collection with our Spotify playlist below.
Green Day’s Top Songs Playlist:
