THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

500-Tenacious D-Tribute.

2002- The song has never been released as a single in the UK, but it did reach Number 84 on downloads in 2012.

Best Bit-At 1.56. Yes, I am well aware that this isn’t the best song in the world, it’s not even the 499th best.

Tenacious D are the ‘Comedy Rock,’ ‘Acoustic Rock,’ and ‘Hard Rock’ duo of Jack Black, and Kyle Gass, who formed in Los Angeles, California, United States, in 1994, and at the time of writing they remain active. Their name is derived from ‘tenacious defense,’ a phrase used by the American ‘NBA’ basketball sportscasters Walt Frazier and Marv Albert. Jack Black and Kyle Gass first met in Los Angeles, in 1986, as members of the ‘Actors’ Gang theater troupe,’ but they didn’t become friendly until 1989, when they were both performers at the ‘Edinburgh Fringe Festival.’ They bonded musically, and began to write together, and also perform as a duo, building up a cult following. Prior to the release of their debut Album in 2001, the duo had a three episode television series released on ‘HBO’ between 1997-2000. The series came about after Jack Black had featured in episodes of the ‘HBO’ American sketch comedy series ‘Mr. Show with Bob and David.’ In 2006 Jack Black and Kyle Gass starred in their own movie ‘The Pick of Destiny,’ the film was a box office flop, but the soundtrack to the film, which also provided the duo’s second studio Album release, was a financial and critical success.

The discography of Tenacious D includes four studio Albums released between 2001-2018, and eight singles released between 2001-2024, there are also two official live Albums available. They have had three top 40 Albums in America, on the Billboard 200, and three also in the UK. In America on the Billboard Hot 100, their only chart entry to date is ‘POD,’ which reached Number 78 in 2006, while they have charted twice on the UK top, with ‘Wonderboy,’ (2001) reaching Number 34, and ‘POD,’ (2006) reaching Number 24. ‘Tribute’ has found it’s greatest success in Australia, where it made Number 4, and in New Zealand, where it peaked at Number 9.

Jack Black was born Thomas Jacob Black, on August 28th, 1969, in Santa Monica, California, United States, with ‘Tenacious D’ he provides the lead vocals, and plays rhythm guitar. Jack Black is best known for being a very successful actor, with many starring roles, including in the films ‘Shallow Hal,’ (2001) ‘School of Rock, (2003) and ‘King Kong,’ (2005) he has also voiced ‘Po’ in the ‘Kung Fu Panda’ franchise since 2008, to the present, and ‘Bowser’ in ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ (2023.) Kyle Richard Gass was born on July 14th, 1960, in Walnut Creek, California, United States, with ‘Tenacious D’ he plays lead guitar, as well as providing backing and lead vocals. He also has many film and television credits, and has released music away from ‘Tenacious D.’ In 2009, he released the Album ‘The Wreckoning,’ with the group ‘Trainwreck,’ and in 2013, and again in 2016, he released Albums with the ‘Kyle Gass Band.’

‘Tribute’ was the second of two singles released from the self titled debut studio Album by Tenacious D, from September 2001, the song was co-written by Jack Black, and Kyle Gass, with the production being by ‘The Dust Brothers’ (see also best songs 879.) ‘Tribute’ can be filed under the musical genre of ‘Comedy Rock,’ but don’t be fooled into thinking that they are just a novelty comic act. They have toured, opening for high profile acts, including ‘The Foo Fighters,’ and ‘Beck, and have used many top musicians to accompany then on their Albums. David Grohl (see also best songs 999-788-292 and 9) played on the duo’s self titled debut Album, as well as this song, playing guitar, and drums, and he also appears in the songs critically acclaimed video, playing the part of the Devil.

‘Tribute’ finds Jack Black, and Kyle Gass hitchhiking down the road when ‘Satan’ appears, and tells them to play the best song in the world, or he will eat their souls. Having nothing to lose by trying, the duo play the first thing that comes into their heads, the Devil is impressed thinking it is the best song in the world. The song we hear is a ‘tribute’ to that song, as the duo have forgotten the song that they played for the devil. Jack Black has said that he played the song ‘One’ (see also best songs 52) by Metallica to Kyle Gass, and told him it was ‘The best song in the world.’ This led the duo to attempt making something that could come close to it, but instead they decided to make a tribute to it. At the very end of ‘Tribute,’ you hear a guitar riff, which is ‘Stairway To Heaven,’ (see also best songs 66) and that probably signifies their general view of that song being the best in the world. It has been pointed out that the 1979 ‘Country’ song ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia,’ by the ‘Charlie Daniels Band,’ (Billboard Number 3 & UK Number 14) has a very similar story line to that of ‘Tribute.’

‘And the peculiar thing is this my friends, the song we sang on that fateful night, it didn’t actually sound anything like this song. This is just a tribute! You gotta believe it.’