"Birdhouse in Your Soul" is a song by American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

They Might Be Giants They Might Be Giants (often abbreviated as TMBG) is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as a duo, often accompanied by a d ...

. It was released in late 1989 through

Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the 1 ...

as the lead single from the album ''

Flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

'', making the single the band's first release on a major label. "Birdhouse in Your Soul" is the band's highest-charting single in both the US and the UK, and is one of their best-known songs. The song's lyric is narrated from the perspective of a

nightlight A nightlight is a small light fixture, usually electrical, placed for comfort or convenience in dark areas or areas that may become dark at certain times, such as at night or during an emergency. Small long-burning candles serving a similar fun ...

. Due to its largely digital composition, it contains some unconventional musical elements for a pop song, including an atypical snare drum pattern and modulation among four

keys Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

. Production was handled by

Clive Langer Clive Langer (born 19 June 1954 in Hampstead, London, England) is an English record producer and songwriter, active from the mid-1970s onwards. He usually works with Alan Winstanley. He composed the music for the films ''Still Crazy'' and ''Br ...

and

Alan Winstanley Alan Kenneth Winstanley (born 2 November 1952) is an English record producer and songwriter, active from the mid-1970s onwards. He usually works with Clive Langer. His early career during the mid-1970s was as an audio engineer, working on album ...

Background

"Birdhouse in Your Soul" was one of four songs on ''

'' produced by

and

; these four songs alone exhausted two-thirds of the album's budget. The track was selected for release as a single early on. An early one-minute demo version of the song was made available by the band via its

Dial-A-Song They Might Be Giants (often abbreviated as TMBG) is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as a duo, often accompanied by a d ...

service a year before they signed with Elektra.

Recording and composition

The melody to "Birdhouse in Your Soul" was written several years prior to its recording for ''Flood''. John Linnell has stated that he "shoehorned" the lyric into the existing melody. The lyric, which is narrated from the perspective of a blue

shaped like a

canary Canary originally referred to the island of Gran Canaria on the west coast of Africa, and the group of surrounding islands (the Canary Islands). It may also refer to: Animals Birds * Canaries, birds in the genera ''Serinus'' and ''Crithagra'' i ...

, is hyper-associative, rapidly connecting disparate topics such as

Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He w ...

and the

Argonauts The Argonauts (; Ancient Greek: ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War (around 1300 BC) accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, '' Argo'', ...

and

The Longines Symphonette ''The Longines Symphonette'' was a pre-recorded classical music program broadcast nightly on many Mutual Broadcasting System stations from 1943 to 1949. It then moved to CBS where it was heard Sundays at 2 pm from 1949 to 1957. The initial conductor ...

. Elizabeth Sandifer and S. Alexander Reed have noted movement between lyrical themes is a recurring motif throughout ''Flood''. However, Linnell has commented that he feels the lyrics ultimately sound like stand-in "dummy lyrics". "Birdhouse in Your Soul" features an unconventional drum beat, which was programmed by Linnell, wherein the

snare drum The snare (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used ...

sounds on every beat. During production, Linnell created a demo using a more standard pop drum beat with the snare drum only on the backbeats. However, Langer and Winstanley emphatically rejected this change, which Linnell credits as saving the song. Musically, Reed and Sandifer note that the song makes an unanticipated jump from its initial key of

C major C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and ...

E-flat major E-flat major (or the key of E-flat) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats. Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E minor, (or enharmonically ...

, and then back to C major. The frequent key changes (18 in total) may be a product of the album's largely digital composition and production; they call the album in general "modular" in its movement between musical ideas. The track's later shifts to

F-sharp minor F-sharp minor is a minor scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative major is A major and its parallel major is F-sharp major (or enharmonically G-flat major). T ...

and

A major A major (or the key of A) is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The key of A major is the only k ...

divide the octave into equal intervals. The music also interpolates elements of " Summer in the City" by

The Lovin' Spoonful The Lovin' Spoonful is an American rock band popular during the mid- to late-1960s. Founded in New York City in 1965 by lead singer/songwriter John Sebastian and guitarist Zal Yanovsky, the band is widely known for a number of hits, including " ...

. The

car horn A horn is a sound-making device that can be equipped to motor vehicles, buses, bicycles, trains, trams (otherwise known as streetcars in North America), and other types of vehicles. The sound made usually resembles a "honk" (older vehicles) or a ...

-like trumpet sound in the bridge of "Birdhouse in Your Soul" recalls the sounds of traffic in "Summer in the City" and both songs use similar rhythms in their chord progressions. Linnell states that these references were inspired by the intense heat during the album's recording in the summer of 1989. In April 1990, They Might Be Giants appeared on ''

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, ...

'' to promote the release of ''Flood''. As part of the appearance, Linnell and Flansburgh performed "Birdhouse in Your Soul" with

Doc Severinsen Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen (born July 7, 1927) is an American retired jazz trumpeter who led the NBC Orchestra on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''. Early life Severinsen was born in Arlington, Oregon, to Minnie Mae (1897–1998) a ...

and the Tonight Show Band. Severinsen's unusually fast count-in resulted in a performance with a noticeably higher tempo than the album recording. The band adopted a similar tempo for subsequent live performances.''

Gigantic (A Tale Of Two Johns) ''Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns)'' is a documentary profiling the alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, featuring interviews with Frank Black, Sarah Vowell, Dave Eggers, Mark Hoppus, and others. It was directed by AJ Schnack and premiered at ...

''. Dir. AJ Schnack. 2002. Plexifilm, 2003.

Music video

The music video for "Birdhouse in Your Soul" was directed by

Adam Bernstein Adam Bernstein (born May 7, 1960) is an Emmy Award-winning American film director, music video director and television director. For his work on the television show '' Fargo'' in 2014, he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for O ...

and filmed in the

New York County Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Surrogate's Courthouse The Surrogate's Courthouse (also the Hall of Records and 31 Chambers Street) is a historic building at the northwest corner of Chambers and Centre Streets in the Civic Center of Manhattan in New York City. Completed in 1907, it was design ...

building in Manhattan in 1989. The video features Linnell and Flansburgh moving and performing erratically amidst a group of dancers dressed in red plaid shirts. In the video, the dancers wear masks made from sunglasses affixed with an image of the eyes of

William Allen White William Allen White (February 10, 1868 – January 29, 1944) was an American newspaper editor, politician, author, and leader of the Progressive movement. Between 1896 and his death, White became a spokesman for middle America. At a 1937 ...

, whose face is used frequently in the band's visual material. These props were designed by

John Flansburgh John Conant Flansburgh (born May 6, 1960) is an American musician. He is half of the long-standing Brooklyn, New York-based alternative rock duo They Might Be Giants with John Linnell, for which he writes, sings, and plays rhythm guitar. Common ...

. In an article on They Might Be Giants' music videos, Emily Petermann speculates that the

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in whic ...

-like behavior of the dancers, coupled with the video's warehouse setting, evokes "oppressed factory workers". Petermann finds this to be at odds with the song's "cheerful" music. On the other hand, the "non sequitur" lyrics and "surreal" musical elements—such as modulation—are complemented by moments of "nonsense" in the video, such as when " innell and Flansburgh'sperformance becomes embedded in a bizarre situation or the performance is abandoned altogether".

Reception

"Birdhouse in Your Soul" received positive attention from critics. In his review of ''Flood'' for

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

called it one of the band's "finest singles". Reviewing the single alone, Stewart Mason elaborates that, compared to previous releases, the high production value highlights Linnell and Flansburgh's "knack for dynamics and arrangement". Mason also speculates that the song's popularity stems from the modest depth of its lyric, which is somewhat oblique on the surface but ultimately "easy to figure out", giving the listener a sense of pride in their understanding. Chris Willman, writing for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', predicted the track would become a "

college radio Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...

standard".

Commercial performance

"Birdhouse in Your Soul" peaked at #3 on the United States

Modern Rock Tracks chart Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

and #6 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. ''Billboard'' Single Chart Historyfor

. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

''. Retrieved September 10, 2012. It is They Might Be Giants' highest-charting single in both countries. In 2010, the song was featured in an advertisement for

Clarks shoes C. & J. Clark International Ltd, doing business as Clarks, is a British international shoe manufacturer and retailer. It was founded in 1825 by Cyrus Clark in the village of Street, Somerset, England, where the company's headquarters remain. ...

. Following this, the song returned to the UK singles chart for three weeks, peaking at #70.

Track listing

All songs by They Might Be Giants. ;7" single & cassette single #"Birdhouse in Your Soul" – 3:19 #"Hot Cha" – 1:34 ;12" single & CD single #"Birdhouse in Your Soul" – 3:19 #"Hot Cha" – 1:34 #"Hearing Aid" – 3:26 #"Ant" – 1:53 ;Notes *"Hot Cha" and "Hearing Aid" are taken from ''Flood''.

Personnel

;They Might Be Giants *

– guitar *

John Linnell John Sidney Linnell ( ; born June 12, 1959) is an American musician, known primarily as one half of the Brooklyn-based alternative rock band They Might Be Giants with John Flansburgh, which was formed in 1982. In addition to singing and songwri ...

– vocals, keyboards ;Additional musicians * Mark Feldman – violin *

Frank London Frank London (born 1958 in New York) is an American klezmer trumpeter who also plays jazz and world music. Early life London was born to a Reform Jewish family and grew up in New York and Connecticut. He started playing the trumpet in fourth g ...

– trumpet (sampled) ;Production *

– producer *

– producer *Roger Moutenot – engineer, mixing

Charts

Certifications

Cover versions

A cover of "Birdhouse in Your Soul" was featured in the ''

Pushing Daisies ''Pushing Daisies'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Bryan Fuller that aired on ABC from October 3, 2007, to June 13, 2009. The series stars Lee Pace as Ned, a pie-maker with the ability to bring dead things back to life ...

'' episode "

Pigeon Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

", which premiered on October 24, 2007. This version was arranged and performed by series composer

Jim Dooley James William Dooley (February 8, 1930 – January 8, 2008) was an American football player and coach who is best remembered for his tenures as a player and coach with the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). College career Bo ...

with vocals from actors

Kristin Chenoweth Kristin Dawn Chenoweth (; born Kristi Dawn Chenoweth; July 24, 1968)Kristin Cheno ...

and

Ellen Greene Ellen Greene is an American actress and singer. She has had a long and varied career as a singer, particularly in cabaret, as an actress and singer in numerous stage productions, particularly musical theatre, as well as having performed in many ...

. The cover also appears on the show's official soundtrack. In a 2015 ''Decider'' article revisiting the episode, Joe Reid wrote that the selection of "Birdhouse in Your Soul" contributed to "a moment that must have felt tailor-made for the audience members who responded to it".

References

External links

Birdhouse in Your Soul "Birdhouse in Your Soul" is a song by American alternative rock band They Might Be Giants. It was released in late 1989 through Elektra Records as the lead single from the album ''Flood'', making the single the band's first release on a major label ...

" at

This Might Be A Wiki They Might Be Giants (often abbreviated as TMBG) is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as a duo, often accompanied by a ...

*''

'' EP on This Might Be A Wiki {{DEFAULTSORT:Birdhouse In Your Soul 1989 singles They Might Be Giants songs 1989 songs Elektra Records singles Warner Music Group singles Songs written by John Linnell Songs written by John Flansburgh Song recordings produced by Clive Langer Song recordings produced by Alan Winstanley