Songoftheday 2/19/21 - It ain't no joke I'd like to buy the world a toke, and teach the world to sing in perfect harmony...
"Walkin' On The Sun" - Smash Mouth
from the album Fush Yu Mang (1997)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #2 (one week)
Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 49
Today's song of the day comes from the rock band Smash Mouth, who came together in Silicon Valley's San Jose, California in the mid 1990s. With lead singer and future Guy Fieri styling inspiration Steve Harwell, bass player Paul De Lisle, guitarist Greg Camp, and drummer Kevin Coleman, the group's members were from the rap (Harwell) and punk (the rest) worlds, but evolved into a mainstream rock with some punk-ska elements when they signed to Interscope Records out of local buzz. Adding on keyboard player Michael Klooster, Smash Mouth, named for a football play I've never heard of, released their debut album Fush Yu Mang (a play on words there) in the summer of 1997. Their lead single, "Walkin' On The Sun", was written by Camp but credited to the band, was a slinky retro-styled number in the manner of psychedelic garage rock bands of the 60's like ? & The Mysterians and the Barbarians. With Camp's fuzzy guitar, Klooster's groovy keys and De Lisle and Coleman's driving beat, the sound of the record really stood out, and camouflaged the meandering lyrics that supposedly were inspired by the racial unrest in Southern California at the time and its toll on society who had ignored the problem of economic inequity for so long, but the kiddos probably just latched on to the "don't delay act now, supplies are running out" TV commercial-style tagline in the chorus without knowing what it meant. Nevertheless it was an inventive record that shows them at their creative peak before the almight dollar took over. That summer it was a huge hit on rock radio, and eventually by the turning of the year found itself firmly planted on mainstream stations' playlists...
Since "Walkin' On The Sun" wasn't released as a commercially available physical "single", it was unable to place on Billboard magazine's official Hot 100 pop chart (one of the five BIG hits that probably ended up forcing the trade bible's hand in that aspect). However the track got so much love at pop radio that it spent 64 weeks on the airplay component of that tally, reaching the runner-up spot in January of 1998. On rock radio, where it ruled the previous summer, the song spent three weeks at #1 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart, and peaked at #13 on the Mainstream Rock list. But where it was most successful was at the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format, where boomer ears loved the retro sound, and it spent five weeks in the top spot. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Canada (#3), Iceland (#3), Italy (#5), Spain (#5), and Australia (#7). It also made it to #19 on the British Singles chart as well. The Fush Yu Mang album, aided by the lack of a single release, went on to sell over two million copies, cresting at #19 on the Billboard 200 sales chart in America.
Smash Mouth's followup would be a cover of funk-rock group War's 1970s top ten pop hit "Why Can't We Be Friends?". While it was a modest hit at rock radio, hitting #28 at the time "Walkin'" was hitting its peak at pop stations, that didn't carry over on this one, and for a while it seemed like they might end of one of the many "one-hit wonders" littered through the 90s. Meanwhile in Canada and the UK, "The Fonz" was released as a single, making it to #18 in Canada but only #82 in Britain. But their fortunes would improve as they (like fellow band Sugar Ray) embraced the call of mainstream capitalism for their next record.
(8/10)
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Here's the band appearing on The Tonight Show to promote the album...
Next up, in concert in 2000...
In 2017, on the 20th anniversary of the release of Fush Yu Mang, the band re-released "Walkin' On The Sun" with dance remixes like this one from Dave Aude, which helped it place at #5 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart...
And finally, showing up for VH1 in 2013...
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