Fake Tales of San Francisco (2:59)

“Fake Tales of San Francisco” is a song by Arctic Monkeys originally released on the band’s first EP Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys in May 2005. After being featured on the band’s debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, the song was released as a radio only single in the United States instead of “Leave Before the Lights Come On”, which was released there at the end of October. The song was also released in the Netherlands. The song was popular on US Modern Rock radio in the Fall of 2006 and peaked just below the bottom of the US Modern Rock chart.

The song with its has been one of the band’s signature tracks, with its popularity as the band’s first recorded track. The song derides a fictional South Yorkshire band for taking its inspiration from the USA while never having been there, with lyrics such as “I’d love to tell you all my problem / You’re not from New York City, you’re from Rotherham”, and “He talks of San Francisco, he’s from Hunter’s Bar”. The song’s title, meanwhile, has made it a fan-favorite in the United States.