For OG Linkin Park fans, March 20 has been a day of remembrance since Chester Bennington’s death in July 2017. This year, 2026, it would have been his 50th birthday. So to honor the late vocalist who impacted so many of us in our formative years, here are five of my all-time favorite Linkin Park tracks, plus a bonus.
If you’re like me, you may have had an older sister who was going through a nu-metal/goth phase at the time. Not only was this my first introduction to black box hair dye, but I also developed a deep appreciation for Linkin Park. When my sister moved out, I stole her Hybrid Theory and Meteora CDs (not like she noticed, having moved on from the goth phase), and in high school, they had permanent residence in my car. They’re still in that CD case now, enjoying a well-earned retirement on a bookshelf.
“Hit the Floor”
“Hit the Floor” appeared on Meteora, released in March 2003. I was particularly taken by the way several tracks on that album would start out with an unassuming intro before exploding with Chester Bennington’s raw vocals or Mike Shinoda’s rapid-fire verses. “Hit the Floor” was one of those that alternated between a strange calm before the storm and the actual storm.
“Nobody’s Listening”
“Nobody’s Listening” got its fishhooks into me and never really let go. The odd wooden flute intro? Innovative and interesting. Odd wooden flute intro that becomes the backing track? As Lady Gaga once said: brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spectacular, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, and so on and so forth.
The cadence and rhythm of “Nobody’s Listening” is God-tier, personally. And as a kid who was often ignored, the concept of “Told you everything loud and clear / But nobody’s listening” was particularly relevant. Not to be a bummer, or anything.
“From the Inside”
The chorus of “From the Inside” always sounds to me like some sort of wailing creature desperate to be heard. On every track, Bennington’s vocals bring out a sort of ancient emotion suppressed in humankind over eons of evolution. And “From the Inside” and “Easier to Run” are the two Meteora tracks where, personally, that feeling is the most pronounced.
“Easier to Run”
Again, the unsuspecting intro that explodes into raw emotion. “Easier to Run” punches high immediately, then settles in to draw it all out. The harmonies between Bennington’s vocals and Shinoda’s chanting cadence before the chorus build so beautifully. But it’s the bridge where Bennington shines on this track. The transition from “Pretending I don’t feel misplaced / Is so much simpler than change” into a chorus made hopeful by a simple key change shows off the sheer obliterating power that Linkin Park possessed.
“Bleed It Out”
Yes, there’s a lack of Hybrid Theory on this list. But all my favorites from that album are pretty much everyone else’s favorites too, because they’re so good. Same with Linkin Park’s 2007 album Minutes to Midnight. I like the singles, so sue me. “What I’ve Done” and “Leave Out All the Rest” are timeless, but “Bleed It Out” is almost like an outlier on that album.
Featured among Linkin Park’s somber, broody, aggressive usuals, “Bleed It Out” is weirdly hype, even fun. It’s exciting, and made more so by the subtleties of hushed laughter, whoops and shouts, and clapping. All the ambient sounds of a band just hanging out in a recording studio. “Bleed It Out” feels effortless in a way that much of Linkin Park’s discography doesn’t.
Not that their other songs feel harried or difficult. But most of Hybrid Theory and Meteora, the albums I’m the most familiar with, are more like emotional catharsis. Like something painful and raw is being wrenched from the depths of Chester Bennington’s body when he sings. “Bleed It Out”, in contrast, sounds like it just flowed out one day and didn’t leave a scar behind.
Bonus: “Numb/Encore” With Jay-Z
And of course, in 2004 Linkin Park teamed up with Jay-Z to produce a handful of mash-ups of their biggest hits. “Numb/Encore” was the only single from the Collision Course EP, and as such, it’s one of the most popular tracks. “Big Pimpin’/Papercut” is also a personal favorite, but really, the entire EP is gold. Like “Bleed It Out”, there’s an effortless atmosphere that comes through. This stems from the fact that Linkin Park and Jay-Z were in the studio together, re-recording these mash-ups. Sure, maybe it’s a little gimmicky, but “Numb/Encore” won a Grammy for crying out loud. Cross-genre artists aren’t getting together to mash their songs live anymore, and I think that would heal whatever is wrong with the music industry today.
Photo by Junko Kimura/Getty Images
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