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“Loser” was recorded almost entirely in the living room of producer Carl Stephenson and released in 1994 as the lead single from Beck’s album Mellow Gold. Stephenson looped a short slide-guitar part from one of Beck’s songs, added a drum break and his own sitar, then Beck improvised the vocal while trying to rap like Public Enemy’s Chuck D. When he heard the playback he said, “Man, I’m the worst rapper in the world, I’m just a loser,” and the chorus was born. It became the biggest hit of Beck’s career, reaching No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spending five weeks at No. 1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The track also samples Johnny Jenkins’ cover of “I Walk on Guilded Splinters.” Beck later said the idea of putting hip-hop beats under folk music had been in his head since the late 1980s, the song just happened to arrive fully formed in one afternoon.