Wikipedia's recent featured article about the Derek and the Dominos song "Layla" got me to thinking about an underappreciated musical convention: the coda or outro, in which an otherwise self-contained pop song segues into a closing section that is unrelated to the main body of the song—and presumably often cut for radio play—but which inexplicably makes the entire song more moving, mysterious, or universal. "Hey Jude" probably has the greatest coda in all of pop music, but "Layla," which moves from jaw-dropping guitar work to a transcendent piano close, is arguably even more perfect. (Are there degrees of perfection? Probably not. Oh well.)

In any case, I've recently realized that a lot of my favorite songs, ranging from "Dry the Rain" by the Beta Band to "English Beefcake" by James, have one thing in common: great, weird, mysterious, transcendent codas. Clearly, the rational thing would be to look for more. Anyone out there have a favorite coda or two?