My Best Friend (Jefferson Airplane song)

"My Best Friend" is a song by the Jefferson Airplane. It was written by the band's former drummer Skip Spence.^[5] The song appeared on the band's second album, Surrealistic Pillow and was released as a single. The single stalled at number 103 on the Billboard Bubbling Under chart, which Jefferson Airplane biographer Jeff Tamarakin attributes to it being a "slower-paced song" that was not what the public expected from a San Francisco acid rock group.^[5]

ReleasedJanuary 1967

RecordedNovember 4, 1966 (1966-11-04)^[1]

Genre

• Pop^[2]
• folk-pop^[3]
• country^[4]

Length3:01

Quick facts Single by Jefferson Airplane, from the album Surrealistic Pillow ...

"My Best Friend"
Single by Jefferson Airplane
from the album Surrealistic Pillow
Released	January 1967
Recorded	November 4, 1966 (1966-11-04)[1]
Genre	Pop[2] folk-pop[3] country[4]
Length	3:01
Label	RCA Victor
Songwriter	Skip Spence
Producer	Rick Jarrard

Close

By the time the album was recorded, Spence had left Jefferson Airplane to join Moby Grape. Tamarakin described the song as "Set to a lazy hop-along rhythm, the mostly acoustic ballad is the embodiment of the love-power ethic, sung in uplifting tandem harmonies.^[5] Joe Viglione of Allmusic praised the song as "a beautiful blend of original Jefferson Starship sound with a harmony-ragged Mamas & The Papas meets Spanky & Our Gang's loose folk vaudeville."^[2] George Starostin praised it as a slow "catchy pop song."^[6] Rolling Stone called it a "country charmer."^[4] Doug Collette of Glide Magazine compared the song to tracks on the debut album Jefferson Airplane Takes Off and noted it as "polite, sweet harmony-laden."^[7]