This morning I woke up humming Walkin' On The Sun, a popular song by a combo called Smash Mouth. Back in 1997, when the tune was a big hit single, my daughter Molly played Walkin' On The Sun constantly. Somehow, it burrowed its way into my subconscious but over the years, the song never really found a place in my music collection....until this morning that is! Somehow, someway Walkin' On The Sun crawled out of my subconscious and pretty much set up camp somewhere in the side of my brain that gathers musical sounds. This was a strange moment but hey...if I really like a song, I always play it over and over!
Some salient info from the songfacts.com site: "The jaunty melody, featured in Walkin' On The Sun, belies the serious nature of this song, which is about the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. The song was written by the group's guitarist Greg Camp, who told Songfacts: 'The song was basically a social and racial battle cry. It was a sort of 'Can't we all get along?' song for the time when I wrote it. It was just about all the things that were going on around me as a young person. And I'm, like, God, what is going on? I don't understand why this is happening. It's like we might as well be walking around a planet on fire.'
Walkin' On The Sun was Smash Mouth's first major-label single and their breakout hit. The group is from San Jose, California, where they had a supporter in Carson Daly, at the time a DJ at the alternative rock radio station KOME. In April 1996, the group was unsigned, but KOME put their song Nervous in the Alley in rotation anyway, and later added Walkin' On The Sun. Soon after, Daly moved to the mighty Los Angeles station KROQ, where he continued to champion the song and give it airplay. Other stations followed suit, attracting lots of attention to the band, which was courted by a passel of record labels. They signed with Interscope, which released Walkin' on the Sun as their first single in 1997. It landed at #1 on the Modern Rock chart and #2 on the Airplay chart (the song wasn't sold as a single, so it wasn't eligible for the Hot 100), helping the band's debut album Fush Yu Mang sell over 2 million copies.
The song interpolates the keyboard riff from the 1966 single Swan's Splashdown by the electronic music duo Perrey and Kingsley (Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley), which gives it a '60s retro sound. The mixing of musical genres and eras served Smash Mouth well and helped set the tone for their future hits.
Greg Camp
The creation of Walkin' On The Sun dates back to 1992, when Greg Camp wrote it. He was in a different band at the time, which turned it down. When he joined Smash Mouth in 1994, he brought it to them. When Camp was asked about the song, he stated: 'I wrote it on a chintzy little nylon-string guitar that I had, and it sounded to me more like Santana or something. It had bongos and maracas and stuff on the original demo. We took it into Eric Valentine, who produced the record, and we just put this more locomotive driving beat to it. It was already simple, so we just did the little Doors-y style riff in there and that's what happened. The singer [Steve Harwell] brought it out to where it was supposed to be. He has this gravelly voice, but it still has a melody, so it just worked.'
Smash Mouth - Walkin' On The Sun (Official Video)
WALKIN' ON THE SUN
It ain't no joke, I'd like to buy the world a toke And teach the world to sing in perfect harmony And teach the world to snuff the fires and the liars Hey, I know it's just a song but it's spice for the recipe
This is a love attack, I know it went out but it's back It's just like any fad, it retracts before impact And just like fashion, it's a passion for the with it and hip If you got the goods, they'll come and buy it just to stay in the clique
So don't delay, act now, supplies are running out Allow if you're still alive, six to eight years to arrive And if you follow, there may be a tomorrow But if the offer's shunned You might as well be walkin' on the sun
Twenty-five years ago, they spoke out and they broke out Of recession and oppression and together they toked And they folked out with guitars around a bonfire Just singin' and clappin', man, what the hell happened?
Then some were spellbound, some were hell bound Some they fell down and some got back up And fought back against the melt-down And their kids were hippie chicks, all hypocrites Because fashion is smashin' the true meaning of it
So don't delay, act now, supplies are running out Allow if you're still alive, six to eight years to arrive And if you follow, there may be a tomorrow But if the offer's shunned You might as well be walkin' on the sun
It ain't no joke when our mama's handkerchief is soaked With her tears because her baby's life has been revoked The bond is broke up, so choke up and focus on the close up Mr. Wizard can't perform no godlike hocus-pocus
So don't sit back, kick back and watch the world get bushwhacked News at ten, your neighborhood is under attack Put away the crack before the crack puts you away You need to be there when your baby's old enough to relate
So don't delay, act now, supplies are running out Allow if you're still alive, six to eight years to arrive And if you follow, there may be a tomorrow But if the offer's shunned You might as well be walkin' on the sun
You might as well be walkin' on the sun You might as well be walkin' on the sun You might as well be walkin' on the sun You might as well be walkin' on the sun
Greg Camp
Greg Camp
