Robbed Hit of the week 1/3/22 - Blink 182's "What's My Age Again?"...

"What's My Age Again?" - Blink-182

from the album Enema Of The State (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #58

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the pop-punk band Blink-182, who came together in the San Diego suburbs in the early 1990's, with guitarist Tom DeLonge, bass player Mark Hoppus, and drummer Scott Raynor. After putting out a few demos, the trio was signed to indie label Cargo Records, where they released their debut album Cheshire Cat in 1995. The local success of the record caused a "bidding war" between major labels trying to sign the act, with MCA winning out, co-signing with Cargo on the release of their next record Dude Ranch in 1997. Lead single "Apple Shampoo" was a minor hit in Australia, before the first American offering "Dammit" was put out in the fall of that year. Sporting a cute music video that MTV took to, the song went to #11 on Billboard magazine's Alternative Rock chart, #26 on their Mainstream Rock list, and despite not being released as a retail "single" got to #61 on the Hot 100 Airplay monitor. The Dude Ranch album peaked at #67 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a million copies.

But despite that success, there was trouble lurking, as Raynor's alcohol issues led him to be booted from the band after their tour, to be replaced by Travis Barker from the Aquabats. With Barker on board, the trio recorded their third effort Enema Of The State, which came out in the late spring of 1999. The lead single from the record was "What's My Age Again?", a crass slice of Bart Simpson on crack antics, with writer Hoppus spinning off scenarios where he'd rather watch TV than concentrate on the woman he's with, preceding to dubiously homophobic territory where he prank calls her mom to tell her her husband's in jail for sodomy. It's cheekiness is stuffed with parody, though, like they were mocking the protagonist here. But the kicker was the music video, where the guys, all naked, run around the town, including a stop for a "nurse", played by pornography actress Janine James, who graces the cover of the album (what a tie-in!). Naturally MTV took to this childish antics like ducks to water, and the band found themselves with a second hit...

Since Billboard changed their chart rules for the Hot 100, this time out "What's My Age Again?" was able to place on the list from just airplay alone and rose to #58 there in November of 1999. The song was massive on rock radio, spending eleven weeks at #2 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart, as well as going to #19 on their Mainstream Rock list. It even crossed over to the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format chart at #36. Internationally, the single went to #4 in Italy, and made the top 40 in the UK (#17), Ireland (#34), and Iceland (#36), and almost made it there in Canada (#42), Australia (#42), New Zealand (#43), and Sweden (#44). The Enema Of The State album, released in June of that year, climbed to #9 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to move over three million copies.

(8/10)

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Somehow, Blink-182 got themselves booked on the Donny & Marie talk show, where it's not only hilarious for Donny Osmond saying "Enema Of The State", but also singing about sodomy and hell on morning television....