Whatever

This is one heck of a kiss-off song, with Godsmack lead singer Sully Erna making his feelings quite clear: I'm doing the best I ever did Now go away! He wrote the song with the band's guitarist, Tony Rambola, who explained: "That's Sully's answer to his girlfriend when we were going through the whole struggle between rehearsing five nights a week, playing on the weekends and trying to keep a relationship going at the same time. We were really starting to take off, and it's hard to go through a relationship with a girl and have a band take all your time, plus we worked regular jobs, so there was probably 10 minutes of the day for them."

"Whatever" was Godsmack's first single, released in 1998 soon after the band signed to Republic Records. They released it independently in 1997 though, and got a lot of exposure when a disc jockey at WAAF, a radio station in Massachusetts, started playing it on his show, leading to their record deal. Godsmack had a following from their club shows, but had never gotten airplay before.

"Whatever" set a record for longest-running song on the US Active Rock Top 10 chart when it stayed there for 33 weeks. Over on the Hot 100, it reached #116 for a week in July 1999.