"Walkin' on the Sun" is a song by American
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
band
Smash Mouth
Smash Mouth is an American Rock music, rock band from San Jose, California. The band was formed in 1994 and was originally composed of Steve Harwell (lead vocals), Kevin Coleman (drums), Greg Camp (guitar), and Paul De Lisle (bass). Harwell's ...
from their first album, ''
Fush Yu Mang
''Fush Yu Mang'' is the debut studio album by American rock band Smash Mouth, released on July 8, 1997 by Interscope Records. It includes their first major hit, " Walkin' on the Sun". The title of the album was taken from a line ("fuck you, man! ...
'' (1997). Smash Mouth released it as their debut single in June 1997, the song was Smash Mouth's first major single, reaching 1 on the US ''
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 advertis ...
''
Modern Rock Tracks
Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...
chart and No. 2 on the ''Billboard''
Hot 100 Airplay chart. It was also a success abroad, peaking at No. 3 in Canada and Iceland, No. 5 in Italy and Spain, and No. 7 in Australia, where it is
certified
Certification is part of testing, inspection and certification and the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestatio ...
platinum for shipments exceeding 70,000 units.
Background
Smash Mouth guitarist Greg Camp said about "Walkin' on the Sun":
Paul De Lisle, the band's bassist, stated the original version of "Walkin' on the Sun" was more of a
rap song.
The band decided to record the song for ''Fush Yu Mang'' after drummer Kevin Coleman discovered a demo on one of Camp's tapes; it was the last song to be added to the album.
The guitar riff present throughout the song has been compared to a riff from "Swan's Splashdown" by
Perrey & Kingsley, from their 1966 album ''The In Sound from Way Out,'' as well as the
Hohner Pianet
The Hohner Pianet is a type of electric piano, electro-mechanical piano built by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany and designed by Ernst Zacharias. The Pianet was a variant of his earlier reed-based Hohner electric piano, the Cemba ...
riff from
The Zombies' "
She's Not There".
Critical reception
Pan-European magazine ''
Music & Media
''Music & Media'' was a pan-European magazine for radio, music and entertainment. It was published for the first time in 1984 as ''Eurotipsheet'', but in 1986 it changed name to ''Music & Media''. It was originally based in Amsterdam, but later m ...
'' described it as a "punchy and highly infectious track." They noted that it "deftly fuses
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
and
ska—and that's a feat which it manages while avoiding sounding stereotypical of either genre." ''
Music Week
''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future.
History
Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...
'' rated the song five out of five, adding, "This fun-loving US quartet have managed to fuse
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, comprising vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most influential and controversial rock acts ...
with the
Stereo MCs to create a deliciously frug-inducing slice of slacker pop. A cracker." A reviewer from ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...
'' wrote, "'Walkin' On The Sun' is a classic, straight out of the groovy, secret agent world of
Austin Powers
''Austin Powers'' is a series of American satirical spy comedy films created by Mike Myers, who stars as the British spy Austin Powers as well as his arch-nemesis, Dr. Evil. The series consists of '' International Man of Mystery'' (1997), ' ...
. Although it was written in the aftermath of the
Rodney King
Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965June 17, 2012) was a Black American victim of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, he was severely beaten by Police officer, officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) during his arrest after a high spe ...
beatings, it has an organ hook that's a deadringer for
The Zombies' '
She's Not There' and growling
staccato
Staccato (; Italian for "detached") is a form of Articulation (music), musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and ...
vocal that make it the perfect soundtrack for a strut down
Carnaby Street
Carnaby Street is a Pedestrian zone, pedestrianised shopping street in Soho in the City of Westminster, Central London. Close to Oxford Street and Regent Street, it is home to fashion and lifestyle retailers, including many independent fashion ...
circa 1967."
Ian Hyland from ''
Sunday Mirror
The ''Sunday Mirror'' is the Sunday sister paper of the ''Daily Mirror''. It began life in 1915 as the ''Sunday Pictorial'' and was renamed the ''Sunday Mirror'' in 1963. In 2016 it had an average weekly circulation of 620,861, dropping marked ...
'' gave the song nine out of ten. He commented, "It's jingly jangly American guitar music and
Radio One are playing it to death. It'll be massive, then they'll disappear."
Music video
The song's accompanying
music video
A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
, directed by
McG, begins with each band member, one at a time, walking down a dark alley. Then, the band performs in a room while scenes of
Steve Harwell pushing a remote control makes two girls appear under a glass dome. Afterwards, the band performs on a beach while beachgoers dance around them. The scene then changes to the band performing in front of the two same girls in an area full of flashing bright lights. A drag race is then shown in the street where a yellow hot rod races against an orange hot rod which the band is in. However, in the middle of the race, the orange hot rod implicitly crashes, and the race attendees and female race judge rush over to the scene. The band still performs while lying on the ground despite the crash. The video ends with them leaning close to the camera.
Track listings
Personnel
Smash Mouth
*
Steve Harwell – vocals
*
Paul De Lisle – bass, vocals
*
Greg Camp – guitar, vocals
*
Kevin Coleman – drums
Additional personnel
*
Eric Valentine
Eric Dodd, known professionally as Eric Valentine, is an American record producer who began his career as drummer and producer in the heavy metal band T-Ride.
He subsequently produced albums for artists such as Good Charlotte, Lostprophets ...
– keyboards, percussion
* John Grove, John Gibson, Lee Harris – horns
* J. Grady, Mark Harwell, Anzimee Camp, Kelly Young, Boston Johnny,
Jason Slater, Sam Burbank, Dan Plok – vocals
Charts
Weekly charts
"Walkin' on the Sun 2017"
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
Use in media
The song is a playable track in the video game ''
Rock Band 3'' and was featured in the movies ''
An American Werewolf in Paris'' (1997), ''
Can't Hardly Wait'' (1998), ''
Made of Honor'' (2008), the television film ''
Shredderman Rules'' (2007) and in the UK trailer for ''
What Just Happened What Just Happened may refer to:
* ''What Just Happened'' (2008 film), an American comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and starring Robert De Niro
* ''What Just Happened'' (2018 film), a Nigerian comedy film directed by Charles Uwagbai
* ...
'' (2008). It was also featured in early television advertisements to promote the Fox series ''
Firefly
The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...
'' in 2002. The television series ''
ER'' featured the song during the opening scene of Season 4 Episode 13 "Carter's Choice", when Dr. Carter was arriving at work in the snow.
The song is included in
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American comedy musician, writer, and actor. He is best known for writing and performing Comedy music, comedy songs that often Parody music, parody specific songs by contempo ...
's medley
"Polka Power!" from his 1999 album ''
Running With Scissors''.
Neil Cicierega
Neil Stephen Cicierega ( ; born August 23, 1986) is an American musician, filmmaker, YouTuber, and animator. He is known as the creator of '' Potter Puppet Pals'', " The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny", and various music albums under the ...
sampled the song in "Daft Mouth" from the 2014
mashup album ''
Mouth Sounds''. The
Self
In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes.
The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...
song ''
Paint by Numbers'' was written by
Matt Mahaffey
Matt Mahaffey is an American multi-instrumentalist, record producer, composer, and recording engineer best known for his band Self (band), Self and his composer collective Cake in Space.
Early and personal life
Mahaffey grew up in Kingsport, T ...
after seeing Walkin’ on the Sun’s success.
See also
*
List of ''RPM'' Rock/Alternative number-one singles (Canada)
*
Number one modern rock hits of 1997
References
{{Authority control
1997 songs
1997 debut singles
Interscope Records albums
Music videos directed by McG
Protest songs
Psychedelic soul songs
Song recordings produced by Eric Valentine
Songs written by Greg Camp
Smash Mouth songs
Songs about climate change
Environmental songs