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The 11 best Fall Out Boy songs
Fall Out Boy have announced the Twilight Of The Punks – with UK tour dates set for June 2027. Get in the mood with their best tracks, ranked
Emerging from Chicago’s hardcore scene at the dawn of the millennium, few bands have been as integral to the sound, style, and sheer scale of modern pop-punk as Fall Out Boy.
Armed with the killer combination of Patrick Stump’s unmistakably soulful vocals and Pete Wentz’s densely packed lyricism, the four-piece arrived during the pop-punk explosion of the early 2000s, propelled into the mainstream by 2005’s From Under The Cork Tree. Blossoming into one of the defining bands of their generation, since then their ambition has stretched far beyond pop-punk, folding everything from soul and funk to orchestral pop, electronics and arena rock into their ever-expanding sound.
More than two decades into their story, Fall Out Boy are kicking off a whole new chapter in 2027. With a whole load of shows just announced – including a huge evening at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with A Day To Remember and Neck Deep – it’s the perfect time to look back on the songs that have soundtracked our awkward adolescences, messy adulthoods, and everything in between.
So, without further ado, here are the 11 tracks that best capture the absolutely undeniable magic of Fall Out Boy.
11. ‘Heaven’s Gate’
(MANIA, 2018)
There are few rock vocalists capable of competing with Patrick Stump’s range, and on this MANIA deep cut his astonishing pipes are given free rein. A blues-infused piano ballad drenched in soul, ‘Heaven’s Gate’ strips away much of Fall Out Boy’s usual chaos in favour of something warm, romantic, and soulful. Stump glides effortlessly between delicate croons and sky-scraping falsetto, transforming Wentz’s lovestruck lyrics into one of the band’s most unabashedly earnest moments. Worlds away from the frantic pop-punk that first landed them in the hearts of millions, it proves there’s far more to Fall Out Boy than distorted guitars and enormous choruses.
10. ‘Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet’
(Folie à Deux, 2008)
Recounting a tale of infidelity and paranoia, there are few Fall Out Boy songs that keep you guessing quite like this one. Swaggering into view with pounding drums and a funky, bass-heavy verse, all that bravado suddenly evaporates as Stump drops into his lower register over a sombre piano line. From there, ‘Headfirst Slide…’ careers between arrogance, anxiety, and outright despair, each dramatic left turn making Folie à Deux’s theatrical ambition increasingly clear. Add in the stacked vocal harmonies, bursts of brass, and one of Stump’s most astonishing performances, and it’s a brilliant snapshot of a band at their most gloriously over-the-top.
9. ‘Save Rock And Roll’
(Save Rock And Roll, 2013)
The title track of the band’s first album in five years, in 2013 Fall Out Boy brought their hiatus to a close with one of their boldest moves to date. Embracing every past version of themselves and channelling it into an absolute pop masterpiece, the record’s closing track felt like the perfect acknowledgement of just how big they were still capable of going after a lengthy break. A piano-led power ballad that steadily swells into arena-rock grandeur, its tongue-in-cheek title was never really a declaration that guitar music needed rescuing, but a reminder of what rock could mean on an individual level. Folding lyrical callbacks to earlier songs into its grand finale and recruiting Elton John for a suitably theatrical guest appearance, it ties their past and future together in spectacular fashion. After years spent trying to escape the expectations placed upon them, here Fall Out Boy finally seemed comfortable embracing every version of themselves, stepping up to their full pop potential.
8. ‘A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More ‘Touch Me’’
(From Under The Cork Tree, 2005)
There are few lines that better capture the delicious bitterness at the heart of mid-2000s Fall Out Boy than “I don’t blame you for being you / But you can’t blame me for hating it”. Bursting with wounded pride and romantic resentment, this From Under The Cork Tree highlight wraps Wentz’s lyrical venom around bright guitars and one of Stump’s most irresistible choruses. Released as a single after the formidable one-two punch of ‘Sugar, We’re Goin Down’ and ‘Dance, Dance’, it may have been overshadowed commercially, but its accompanying vampire-themed video has become one of the era’s defining scene artefacts, complete with appearances from members of Panic! At The Disco, The Academy Is… and Gym Class Heroes.
7. ‘Dance, Dance’
(From Under The Cork Tree, 2005)
Tightly wound and impossibly infectious, the opening bassline of ‘Dance, Dance’ alone is enough to transport an entire generation back to 2005. Channelling nervous teenage energy into three minutes of jittery pop-punk perfection, Stump’s soulful melodies dance over Andy Hurley’s propulsive drums before the chorus bursts the whole thing wide open. Originally conceived as an acoustic composition by Stump – drawing influence from David Bowie’s 1983 album opener ‘Modern Love’ – it evolved into one of the most defining pop-punk tracks of the decade, partly thanks to an iconic music video depicting the band as a group of stereotypically nerdy students attending their homecoming dance.
6. ‘This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race’
(Infinity On High, 2007)
By the time Fall Out Boy reached album three, they had become one of the scene’s biggest commodities. Thrust in front of countless cameras and expected to perform, that phenomenon made Wentz decide to write about how uncomfortable the whole thing felt. A sarcastic takedown of the music industry’s obsession with competition, celebrity, and commercial success, ‘This Ain’t A Scene…’ wraps its cynicism inside some of the band’s slickest songwriting, funky verses showcasing Stump’s deep-rooted love of soul and R&B before it detonates into a chorus destined for arenas.
5. ‘Grand Theft Autumn / Where Is Your Boy’
![Fall Out Boy: Grand Theft Autumn / Where Is Your Boy [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GZb_mqH2zJY/0.jpg)
(Take This To Your Grave, 2003)
Released during a time when alternative music was all about hopeless yearning and hating your hometown, it’s no surprise that this wound up as the most successful track on Fall Out Boy’s debut album. An almost pathetically bitter love song overflowing with jealousy and attitude, Wentz’s lyrics are petty, wounded, and painfully earnest, imagining the inevitable failure of somebody else’s relationship whilst secretly hoping for another chance. With Stump’s isolated opening vocal immediately giving way to jagged guitars and frantic drums, it’s topped off by one of the band’s earliest truly gigantic choruses, establishing the blueprint that would soon take four Chicago scene kids far beyond the sticky floors of local basement shows.
4. ‘Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes’
(Folie à Deux, 2008)
Perfectly setting the tone for the band’s heavily ambitious fourth full-length, there are few album openers that hit with such immediate force as this. Featuring a fairly obvious nod to The Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley’, it starts out with softly sung vocals over the gentle hum of a church organ, triumphant guitars and pounding drums then taking hold until the song’s powerful chants of “detox, just to retox”. Add in the way in which the outro transitions straight into the driving melodies of ‘I Don’t Care’, and it’s a masterclass in making sure your audience is hooked from the very moment they hit play.
3. ‘Sugar, We’re Goin Down’
(From Under The Cork Tree, 2005)
Take This To Your Grave may have turned heads across the scene, but the arrival of the lead single from the band’s major label debut caused them to spin wildly out of control. Taking Fall Out Boy from hometown heroes to pop-punk kings, it was the gateway into their empire for countless fans, its bizarrely poetic lyricism and Stump’s slurred angst-ridden delivery of such lines capturing the hearts of a generation. Boasting a singalong chorus that never fails to get the dopamine pumping, the song has sometimes been referred to as the ‘emo national anthem’, and it’s thoroughly deserving of such a grandiose title.
2. ‘Thnks Fr Th Mmrs’
(Infinity On High, 2007)
A band known for their ridiculously wordy song titles – take for example ‘I Slept With Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me’ or ‘Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued’ – the removal of the vowels in the title of one of Fall Out Boy’s biggest hits came as a playful swipe towards Island Records, with their label asking them to tone down their habit for verbosity. Delightfully bitter in both its dissection of a relationship breakdown and its criticism of society’s obsession with fame, there’s an intense energy pulsing through every note, barely restraining its vengeance before the cathartic outburst of its final choruses. Throw into the mix a music video jam-packed with easter eggs and guest appearances (including the bizarre inclusion of Kim Kardashian as Wentz’s love interest) and you have an absolute all-timer of a pop-punk track.
1. ‘Saturday’
![Fall Out Boy: Saturday [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UEzhlFqtAJk/0.jpg)
(Take This To Your Grave, 2003)
As a band with a penchant for shapeshifting into a fresh variation of themselves with every new era, it’s almost impossible to pick just one song to sum up the magic of Fall Out Boy. Really then, it only makes sense for our top spot pick to take things right back to the beginning. Almost always serving as the set closer at the band’s shows, the third single from their debut album holds a very special place in the heart of every Fall Out Boy fan. The ultimate anthem of anxious excitement, it captures the conflicted reality of growing older and reckoning with the future’s overwhelming possibilities. From lyrics that feel like lines in a coming-of-age teen movie to Wentz’s raw, passionate screams underpinning the track’s closing moments, it’s the perfect snapshot of where this whole incredible story began.
