"The Old Apartment" is a song by the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

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 ...

group

Barenaked Ladies Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian rock band formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario. The band developed a following in Canada, with their self-titled 1991 cassette becoming the first independent release to be certified gold in Canada. They reach ...

. It was the band's first entry on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and first Mainstream Top 40 hit, appearing on the albums ''

Born on a Pirate Ship ''Born on a Pirate Ship'' (sometimes abbreviated ''BOAPS'') is the third full-length studio album by Barenaked Ladies (BNL), featuring the songs "Shoe Box", "The Old Apartment", "When I Fall" and "Break Your Heart". "The Old Apartment" would bec ...

'', ''

Rock Spectacle ''Rock Spectacle'' is the first live album by Barenaked Ladies. It was also the first major success for the band in the United States, selling over one million copies and producing a hit single in the country in its version of "Brian Wilson." T ...

'' and '' Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits''. The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for the song, which garnered a

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

nomination at the 1997

MuchMusic Video Awards The iHeartRadio MMVAs were an annual awards show broadcast on Much to honour the year's best music videos that was last held in 2018. Originally debuting in 1990 as the Canadian Music Video Awards, the awards were renamed in 1995 to the MuchMu ...

, was directed by fellow Canadian and fan

Jason Priestley Jason Bradford Priestley (born August 28, 1969) is a Canadian actor and television director. He is best known as the virtuous Brandon Walsh on the television series ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (1990–1998, 2000), as Richard "Fitz" Fitzpatrick in t ...

at his own suggestion.

Composition

Steven Page Steven Jay Page (born June 22, 1970) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was a founding member, lead singer, guitarist, and a primary songwriter of the music group Barenaked Ladies. Page left the band in Februar ...

has said the song was partly inspired by "Back to the Old House" by

The Smiths The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. They comprised the singer Morrissey, the guitarist Johnny Marr, the bassist Andy Rourke and the drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to emerg ...

. While some have misinterpreted the lyrics to mean that the man in the song is stalking an ex-girlfriend and breaks into her apartment to terrorize her, Ed Robertson has said that this is definitely not the case. The person in the song and his girlfriend are still together and happy, having "bought an old house on the Danforth" (

Danforth Avenue Danforth Avenue (informally also known as the Danforth) and Danforth Road are two historically-related arterial streets in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Danforth ''Avenue'' is an east-west street that begins in Old Toronto at the Prince Edward ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

). However, he goes back to visit "the old apartment" "where we used to live", and winds up breaking in to reminisce. Although recalling "broken glass", the "crooked landing, crooked landlord", and other disadvantages, he nonetheless feels

nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek language, Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", ...

for "fading memories / blending into dull tableaux". The song drew a notable level of attention in the U.S. Priestley also invited the band to play the song at the fictional night club "The Peach Pit After Dark" on his series ''

Beverly Hills, 90210 ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (often referred to by its short title, ''90210'') is an American teen drama television series created by Darren Star and produced by Aaron Spelling under his production company Spelling Television. The series ran fo ...

''. With some isolated exceptions, this was the band's first break into the American market, which continued with their next release, a live version of "

Brian Wilson Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition, extraordinary musical aptitude, and m ...

" from the certified-gold album ''Rock Spectacle''. The live version of "The Old Apartment" from that album was included on later American radio singles as a B-side option for stations. The studio version of the song has two main versions: the original album version and a radio mix, which was a completely new mix of the song. Notable differences in the radio mix, besides a completely new audio mix, include an 8-bar instrumental intro and in Page's noticeably filtered vocal bridge. A 1995 demo version also appears on the compilation album ''

Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before ''Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before'' is a compilation album by Barenaked Ladies which includes rare recordings dating between 1992 and 2003. The album was originally planned as a companion to ''Hits from Yesterday & the Day Before''; how ...

''.

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

included the music video on the

Mac OS 8 Mac OS 8 is an operating system that was released by Apple Computer on July 26, 1997. It includes the largest overhaul of the classic Mac OS experience since the release of System 7, approximately six years before. It places a greater emphasis o ...

installation CD as a

QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...

example. New band member Kevin Hearn appeared in the music video despite not being present on the studio recording.

Personnel

* Steven Page – lead vocals, electric guitar * Ed Robertson – electric and pedal steel guitars, background vocals * Jim Creeggan – double electric bass * Tyler Stewart – drums, shaker, background vocals *

Gene Hardy Gene Hardy is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. He performs on saxophone, violin, musical saw and theremin. Career Hardy's early music training began in Victoria, British Columbia—first on violin at age 9, then on saxophone a yea ...

– musical saw

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Apartment, The Barenaked Ladies songs 1997 singles Songs written by Steven Page 1997 songs Reprise Records singles Songs written by Ed Robertson