Nick Drake - "Pink moon"

After two albums of orchestrated folk-pop, Nick Drake chose a radical change for what turned out to be his final album (he died of an overdose of antidepressants two years later). Not even half-an-hour long, with 11 short songs and no more — he famously remarked at the time that he had no more to record — it's simply Drake and Drake alone on vocals and acoustic guitar. Drake recorded them unaccompanied, in the presence of only a sound engineer, in two two-hour sessions, both starting at midnight. Only later was a piano overdubbed on the title track.

After recording the album, Drake dropped off the master tapes at the front desk of Island Records' office building and then swore he was retiring from performing music, planning to train to be a computer programmer and possibly write songs for others to perform. The master tapes layed on a secretary's desk over the weekend and were not noticed until later the next week.

"Pink Moon", the song, was eventually used in a Volkswagen commercial nearly 30 years later, one of life's many ironies, in that such an affecting song could turn up in such a strange context.

Available on the album also called "Pink Moon"