"Special" is song by American rock band Garbage from their second studio album, Version 2.0 (1998). It was released as the album's third single. The track contains a vocal interpolation of a lyric taken from "Talk of the Town" by the Pretenders. Commercially, "Special" reached number 15 in the United Kingdom, number 52 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 54 in Australia. The song received nominations for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group at the 2000 Grammy Awards, and winning a Wisconsin Area Music Industry award for Song of the Year and a Citation of Achievement from the BMI Pop Awards. The sci-fi-inspired music video for "Special" also received nominations from music industry award panels, winning a D&AD Award, a MTV Video Music Award, and a VH1 Visionary Video award. In 2007, "Special" was remastered and included on Garbage's greatest hits album Absolute Garbage. Composition and recording Garbage began writing their second album, which would go under the working title of Sad Alcoholic Clowns, in March 1997 in the band's label-head Jerry Moss's Friday Harbor, Washington, vacation house. The group demoed and made rough outlines for new songs, of which "Special" was one. When they felt they had made a good start, Garbage took the work they made in Washington back to their Madison, Wisconsin, base at Smart Studios and begin fleshing out the ideas and rough sketches over the following year. Garbage intended their second album to build upon the framework, music style and musical template laid down by their first release; to create a rapprochement between the "high-tech and low-down, the now sound and of golden memories" and wear musical references to the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Garbage recorded all of their work for the second album through a 48-track digital system digitally, direct to hard drives utilizing a 24bit Pro Tools rig. Garbage employed touring bassist Daniel Shulman to perform electric bass on "Special", which he performed using a Fender Precision Bass run through an Ampeg SVT and then treated with "severe" equalization to achieve a Paul McCartney-esque Höfner sound to the part. The guitar solo intro (which returns at the end of both choruses) was performed on a 12-string Rickenbacker guitar. At the end of the first chorus, Garbage recorded a multi-tracked harmony vocal from Manson ("I can't think of any latter-day bands where a female is singing