Released: November 20, 1995

Songwriter: Shirley Manson Butch Vig Steve Marker Duke Erikson

Producer: Garbage

[Verse 1]
Hey boy, take a look at me
Let me dirty up your mind
I'll strip away your hard veneer
And see what I can find

[Chorus]
The queerest of the queer
The strangest of the strange
The coldest of the cool
The lamest of the lame
The numbest of the dumb
I hate to see you here
You choke behind a smile
A fake behind the fear
The queerest of the queer

[Verse 2]
This is what he pays me for
I'll show you how it's done
You'll learn to love the pain you feel
Like father, like son

[Chorus]
The queerest of the queer
Hide inside your head
The blindest of the blind
The deadest of the dead
You're hungry 'cause you starve
While holding back the tears
Choking on your smile
A fake behind the fear
The queerest of the queer

[Bridge]
I know what's good for you
(You can touch me if you want)
I know you're dying to
(You can touch me if you want)
I know what's good for you
(You can touch me if you want)
But you can't stop

[Chorus]
The queerest of the queer
The strangest of the strange
The coldest of the cool
The lamest of the lame
The numbest of the dumb
I hate to see you here
You choke behind a smile
A fake behind the fear
The queerest of the queer
The strangest of the strange
The coldest of the cool
You're nothing special here
A fake behind the fear
The queerest of the queer
Queerest of the queer

[Outro]
I know what's good for you
I know you're dying to
I know what's good for you
I bet you're dying to
You can touch me if you want
You can touch me if you want
You can touch me
You can touch me
You can't stop

Garbage

Garbage is a Scottish-American Alternative rock band, formed April 8th 1994. Once producer Butch Vig decided to break out of the rock he had been producing ever since Nirvana’s Nevermind, he got together with his college/studio partners Duke Erikson and Steve Marker to write some demos that would basically be remixes in song form. Once someone commented that “it sounds like garbage”, Vig decided to embrace the name. Then they invited Scottish singer Shirley Manson after seeing her on MTV, and the band’s sound was completed with sly, dark and snarky lyrics delivered in a sultry way.

The band’s eponymous debut album was a surprise hit upon release in August 1995, selling more than 4 million copies worldwide. Follow-up Version 2.0 (1998) was equally successful, even receiving a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Then the band recorded “The World Is Not Enough” to the eponymous James Bond movie, and the record industry started to bring the band down.

Beautiful Garbage (2001) was barely promoted due to a release too close to the 9/11 attacks, and underperformed at the charts. Fourth album Bleed Like Me (2005) had a troubled production where bandmembers were frequently arguing, and eventually the album’s tour was cut short and Garbage disbanded for 2 years, only regrouped in 2007 to record new tracks for greatest hits compilation Absolute Garbage.