Loser is one of those freak hits that captured the zeitgeist, launched a career and defined an entire music style. And it was all an accident.

Beck was an unknown folk singer when he came up with the stream-of-consciousness nonsense lyrics in a friend’s kitchen in 1991 – two years before it became a worldwide hit for him.

When a friend introduced him to someone who made hip-hop beats, Beck played him some of his folk songs and “he seemed pretty all-around unimpressed,” he recalled later. 

“Then I started playing this slide guitar part and he started taping it. He put a drum track to it and it was, you know, the ‘Loser’ riff.

“I was always into the Delta blues and playing slide guitar, and I had always heard that Delta-blues rhythm in hip-hop.

“I remember early on playing slide guitar, and thinking that slide guitar on a hip-hop beat would always sound real good. I had that in mind for years, long before I did ‘Loser.’“ 

Because his new friend was more interested in hip-hop than folk, Beck began freestyling the rap section of the song as the tape kept running.

“When he played it back, I thought, ‘Man, I’m the worst rapper in the world – I’m just a loser.’ So I started singing, ‘I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me.’”

Initially intended to be no more than a filler track, it was released as a single two years later in 1993 on an independent label, Bong Load, in a limited pressing of 500 – but instantly struck a chord with listeners to college radio.

That attracted major-label interest and when it was reissued by Geffen Records, Loser became Beck’s breakout hit, launching Beck’s career worldwide – helped by a video that has now achieved more than 250 million views on YouTube.