"Why Can't We Be Friends?" is a song by American

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

band

War War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

, from their 1975 studio album of the same name. It has a simple structure, with the phrase "Why can't we be friends?" being sung four times after each two-line verse amounting to forty-four times in under four minutes. The song reached No. 6 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the summer of 1975, and uniquely features each band member singing their own verse. It was played in outer space when NASA beamed it to the linking of Soviet cosmonauts and U.S. astronauts for the

Apollo–Soyuz Test Project Apollo–Soyuz was the first crewed international space mission, carried out jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in July 1975. Millions of people around the world watched on television as an American Apollo spacecraft docked wit ...

. ''Billboard'' ranked it as the No. 24 song of that year.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Smash Mouth version

American pop rock 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 ...

covered the song on their debut 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! ...

'', and released it as the album's third single in January 1998.

Critical reception

Larry Flick Larry Flick is an American journalist, former dance music columnist, single reviewer, and Senior Talent Editor for ''Billboard'' magazine, where he worked for 14 years. Now he produces and hosts Sirius XM radio shows. Flick started in the musi ...

from ''

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 ...

'' wrote, "Hot on the heels of ' Walkin' On The Sun' comes a wonderfully festive, anthemic rendition of

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

/ R&B chestnut. The song's original

-flavored arrangement proves perfectly accessible to Smash mouth's pop/

ska Ska (; , ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...

style. The heartfelt 'let's get along' tone of the lyrics remains as relevant as ever to today's social and political climate, and the band's rousing approach makes the message all the more user-friendly to the pop masses. Another sure-fire multi-format hit from the album ''

''."

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1975 songs 1975 singles 1998 singles War (band) songs Smash Mouth songs Anti-war songs Songs written by Lonnie Jordan Song recordings produced by Jerry Goldstein (producer) Song recordings produced by Eric Valentine Music videos directed by McG United Artists Records singles ABC Records singles Interscope Records singles Songs about racism and xenophobia Songs about friendship