Smash Mouth, All Star | FIERCE Pop + Rock 🔥🤘

In the 38^th edition of FIERCE Pop + Rock 🔥🤘, we highlight “All Star” performed by Smash Mouth.

Bring on the bold, FIERCE tracks! FIERCE Pop + Rock 🔥🤘 provides background information and insight into pop, rock, and metal songs that raise eyebrows and stir the pot.  Featured records can be classic or brand new. In the 38^th edition of FIERCE Pop + Rock 🔥🤘 (2023), we explore 🎵 “All Star” performed by 🎙 Smash Mouth.

“Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me / I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed.” WOO! Back in 1999, 🎙 Smash Mouth released the biggest hit of their career, the ubiquitous 🎵 “All Star”. Sadly, on September 4, 2023, the band’s former vocalist, 🎙 Steve Harwell, who brought “All Star” to the masses, passed away from liver failure at the age of 56.  Despite Harwell’s untimely death, this classic from the late 90s lives on and on and on.  Surprisingly, the 🏆 Grammy-nominated, infectious highlight from 💿 Astro Lounge didn’t top the pop charts, peaking at no. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 🤯.  The band’s sole top-10 hit was certified triple platinum (as of 2020).  Likewise, Astro Lounge was certified triple platinum, clearly on the strength of “All Star.”

“So much to do, so much to see / So what’s wrong with taking the backstreets?” Besides the awesome vocals of Harwell (the melodies are hella rhythmic), the lyrics are a huge selling point of “All Star.” The opening verse, excerpted above, is incredibly memorable. That’s not something that can always be said of a verse. Similarly, the pre-chorus is memorable well, with its backstreets and all.  Of course, the crowning achievement is chorus, among the catchiest, most played, and most tuneful of all time.  If you were alive when “All Star” came out (I was in the eighth grade 😉) , this is one of those choruses you know/knew every single word to, PERIOD. Fellow millennials, sing the unforgettable chorus of 🎵 “All Star” with me!

“Hey now, you’re an all star

Get your game on, go play

Hey now, you’re a rock star

Get the show on, get paid

And all that glitters is gold

Only shootin’ stars 💫 break the mold.”

🎙 Smash Mouth • 💿 Astro Lounge • 🏷 Interscope • 🗓 1999

Smash Mouth, All Star: FIERCE Pop + Rock 🔥🤘 No. 38 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Interscope; Amr Osman, Deiby Tum Tum, Harry Shelton, Jerome Abel, Mavluda Tashbaeva, Pavel Danilyuk, RDNE Stock project, Vishnu R Nair from Pexels]