History Main / LongestSongGoesLast

** ''Discovery'' closes with [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Too Long"]] (10:00).

** ''Faith'' closes with "Faith" (6:43).
** ''The Top'' closes with another album titling track, "The Top" (6:50).

** ''Sounding the Seventh Trumpet'' ends with "Shattered by Broken Dreams" (7:06), a long crescendo that starts as a ballad.

** ''Music/TheStage'' ends with "Exist" (15:41), which is not only the longest song on the album by a wide margin (the next longest song is "The Stage" at 8:33) but is also quite different from the band's usual fare and from the rest of the album.

* Music/Avenged Sevenfold:

** ''Hail to the King'''s closer "Acid Rain" clocks at 6:34, although the last minute is just the sound of rain and faraway thunder; if you remove that the song itself is actually shorter than "Coming Home."

** ''The Stage'' ends with "Exist" (15:41), which is not only the longest song on the album by a wide margin (the next longest song is "The Stage" at 8:33) but is also quite different from the band's usual fare and from the rest of the album.

When crafting an album, bands and artists often spend part of the time thinking on the right order for the songs, depending on what they want to transmit. One of these decisions involve [[EpicRocking the longest songs]], if they are present. The usual place for these often varies: they may go at the beginning, at the middle, or at the end of a side (in the case of multi-sided albums). However, creating a long song isn't an easy task, and your band may risk boring the listener before the album ends, unless you adapt the piece to its place on the list. So bands often place the longest songs at the end of the album, often as a way to close the album on a high note.

This trope comes in two variations: the longest song being placed as the last track of the album, barring {{hidden track}}s, or preceeding a musical outro, a variant usually used in {{concept album}}s. For the purposes of the trope, we're defining "outro" as a musical piece that isn't structured like a song, but serves as a wrap-up or summary of the album's content[[note]]It can either be a musical piece composed of musical excerpts of other songs, or just a piece that isn't structured like a song[[/note]].

Note that this trope is exclusively for albums featuring a single long song in a single track. Some albums feature a long track at the end, but the track itself is composed of two short songs separated by a long silence between them giving the sensation of a long song, which doesn't make said track an example. Also, such long song must NOT be divided in the tracklisting[[note]]i.e., a song of 24 minutes undivided is an example, but a song of 41 minutes divided in 8 tracks of shorter duration than the longest non-closing track on the album is NOT[[/note]] unless the closing track of the suite is the overall longest song, in whose case it qualifies. And as a final note, the track listing being considered is the original tracklisting (bonus tracks added in [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition special editions]] or [[UpdatedRerelease reissues]] don't count for the purpose of the trope). For the record, for the tracklisting itself we take all sides as a single tracklisting, so only the last song of the last side qualifies for the trope[[note]]i.e., in an album spanning four sides A-B-C-D, only the last or next-to-last song of side D qualifies for the trope if it's the longest[[/note]].

* Music/MikeKrol:
** ''I Hate Jazz'' closes with "A Million Times" (4:11).

* Music/TheDoors:
** ''The Doors'' closes with "The End" (11:41).
** ''Strange Days'' closes with "When The Music's Over" (10:58).

--> ''"Long songs can be tricky for an artist to deal with. They can't really be released as singles, but they also run the risk of ruining the flow of an otherwise great album. These artists got around this problem by placing their extremely long songs at the end of their album."''

Note that this trope is exclusively for albums featuring a single long song in a single track. Some albums feature a long track at the end, but the track itself is composed of two short songs separated by a long silence between them giving the sensation of a long song, which doesn't make said track an example. Also, such long song must NOT be divided in the tracklisting[[note]]i.e., a song of 24 minutes undivided is an example, but a song of 41 minutes divided in 8 tracks of shorter duration than the longest non-closing track on the album is NOT[[/note]] unless the closing track of the suite is the overall longest song, in whose case it qualifies. And as a final note, the track listing being considered is the original tracklisting[[note]]as in, no {{bonus track}}s added in [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition special editions]] or [[UpdatedRerelease reissues]][[/note]]. For the record, for the tracklisting itself we take all sides as a single tracklisting, so only the last song of the last side qualifies for the trope[[note]]i.e., in an album spanning four sides A-B-C-D, only the last or next-to-last song of side D qualifies for the trope if it's the longest[[/note]].

** ''Erdentempel'' closes with the bonus track "Aufbruch" (11:16).

** ''Everything Now'' closes with "We Don't Deserve Love" (6:28), preceding outro "Everything Now (Continued)", which loops back into the first track "Everything_Now (Continued)".

** ''In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3'' closes with "The Light and the Glass" (9:38), excluding bonus track "21:13" (9:46)
** ''[[LongTitle Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Volume I]][[ColonCancer : From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness]]'' closes with "The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut" (7:39)
** ''The Color Before The Sun'' closes with "Peace To The Mountain (6:32)

** ''Aquarius'' closes with "Celestial Elixir" (17:00)

** ''[[LongTitle Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Volume I]][[ColonCancer : From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness'' closes with "The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut" (7:39)

When crafting an album, bands and artists often spend part of the time thinking on the right order for the songs, depending on what they want to transmit. One of these decisions involve [[EpicRocking the longest songs]], if they are present. The usual place for these often varies: they may go at the beginning, at the middle, or at the end of a side (in the case of multi-sided albums). But your band may risk boring the listener before the album ends, unless you adapt the piece to its place on the list. So bands often place the longest songs at the end of the album, often as a way to close the album on a high note.

** ''Highway 61 Revisited'' closes with "Desolation Row" (11:21).

Also, for this trope, we're only counting '''full-length studio albums'''. Live albums, singles, splits, compilations and {{cover album}}s fall outside of the scope of this trope, even if they may feature a possible example of the trope, due to {{padding}}, the usual live cutting, and because in compilations and splits the song order is either chronologically-based or isn't given much attention at all. As for the songs themselves, the length of the track itself doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is that the song is the longest in the album and closes it.

Note that this trope is exclusively for albums featuring a single long song in a single track. Some albums feature a long track at the end, but the track itself is composed of two short songs separated by a long silence between them giving the sensation of a long song, which doesn't make said track an example. Also, such long song must NOT be divided in the tracklisting[[note]]i.e., a song of 24 minutes undivided is an example, but a song of 41 minutes divided in 8 tracks of shorter duration than the longest non-closing track on the album is NOT[[/note]] unless the closing track of the suite is the overall longest song, in whose case it qualifies. And as a final note, the track listing being considered is the original tracklisting[[note]]as in, no bonus tracks added in special editions or reissues[[/note]]. For the record, for the tracklisting itself we take all sides as a single tracklisting, so only the last song of the last side qualifies for the trope[[note]]i.e., in an album spanning four sides A-B-C-D, only the last or next-to-last song of side D qualifies for the trope if it's the longest[[/note]].

** ''Music/HunkyDory'' closes with "The Bewlay Brothers" (5:22). The similarly {{word salad|lyrics}}-tastic "Quicksand" cuts a close second at 5:08, and it's the final track on the first side if you're listening to the album on vinyl or cassette.

** ''Music/HunkyDory'' closes with "The Bewlay Brothers" (5:22). "Quicksand" cuts a close second at 5:08, and it's the final track on the first side if you're listening to the album on vinyl or cassette.

** ''Music/HunkyDory'' closes with "The Bewlay Brothers" (5:22). Moreover, "Quicksand" cuts a close second at 5:08, and it's the final track on the first side if you're listening to the album on vinyl or cassette.