Song of the Day 9/11: Glen Campbell, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”

Green Day made its name with a pop-punk combination, starting with “Dookie” in 1994, but this simple ballad is probably Billie Joe Armstrong’s most lasting contribution to popular music. He wrote it at the same time as the songs for “Dookie,” in response to his girlfriend leaving him to move to Ecuador, but it didn’t fit with the spirit of that album, so it sat on the shelf until 1997’s “Nimrod.” Despite never being released as a single, the song was downloaded 2.6 million times and, despite its kiss-off subject matter, it’s become a senior-prom staple.

So when Glen Campbell made a pop-charts comeback in 2008 with an album of the Rhinestone Cowboy singing modern tunes, his version — with an arrangement that harks back to his early hits by Jimmy Webb — was the first song released as a single. Here he is singing it for the AOL Sessions.

The original Green Day version did get a video treatment, based on Armstrong’s idea for how it should unfold.

British alt-rockers Wolf Alice stripped down the arrangement even more than the original, to haunting effect.

And, just for fun, here’s what 2Cellos did with the song.