Smash Mouth was only cool for a brief moment, really. And even that seems hard to believe now that you’ve heard their two hits a million times and paired with all sorts of ridiculous-looking media. But “Walkin’ on the Sun” wasn’t just one of the biggest alternative rock songs of the 1990s. It felt like the work of visionary hitmakers blending retro-rock, Latin pop, hip hop and ska in order to get hits. Surely, they’d keep flowing.
But what was Steve Harwell rap-singing about here? And why did Smash Mouth earn the reputation as a “two-hit wonder” and little else? Let me try to answer your questions.
Smash Mouth’s Road to Making “Walkin’ on the Sun”
Steve Harwell would, on occasion, brag about stealing bikes and whatever else he could find in order to finance early Smash Mouth. This episode tells you, I think, all that you need to know about the band. The quartet of musicians desperately wanted success and were willing to do anything to get it.
Smash Mouth was certainly at the right time and place. The band was formed in San Jose during the 1990s when Californian rock was one of the biggest U.S. musical exports. Besides, the band figured out early on what worked and what didn’t.
Led by guitarist Greg Camp’s songwriting, Smash Mouth specialised in crafting a kitschy, yet glamorous, retro 1960s image. And while their contemporaries mainly played pop-punk and revamped new-wave, Smash Mouth added elements of ska, Latin pop and hip hop.
Remember my story about stealing bikes? To be fair, the group hussled for years before Interscope gave them a chance at the big time. “Fush Yu Mang” was released in 1997, and the hit was just around the corner.
Meaning of the Lyrics to “Walkin’ on the Sun”
It had been a professionally sounding demo of the song “Nervous in the Alley” that landed the band its record deal. That song was championed by DJ Carson Daly, who would soon become a staple of MTV’s 1990s era.
But the song also gave Smash Mouth a visual and sonic direction. “Walkin’ on the Sun” purposely borrows sonic elements from 60s soul, psychedelic pop and garage rock.
It’s also a masterful lesson in how pop hooks work. I don’t think that Greg Camp gets enough credit for this work on the band’s big hits.
But regardless of how cheerful the song sounds, the meaning of the lyrics is darker than what you might expect. The song was inspired by the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, that was sparked by police brutality against the African-American motorist Rodney King.
Camp later talked about the inspiration for the music: “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.“
Camp also had a good ear for a hit, and like Harwell and his bikes, a willingness to take what he needed. The famous keyboard riff is “borrowed” from Perrey and Kingsley’s 1966 single “Swan’s Splashdown.”
Although the band was, early on, essentially a pop-punk group, Camp wrote “Walkin’ on the Sun” on an acoustic guitar while dreaming of an arrangement that included bongos and maracas. Visionary, I tell you!
And other pop culture references are scattered across Smash Mouth’s first hit. The opening line of the song is a callback to the famous “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” ad, and the title of the album is borrowed from a phrase in Oliver Stone’s “Scarface.”
The Music Video for “Walkin’ on the Sun”
The music video was directed by McG, and signalled a years-long love affair between Smash Mouth and MTV. The promo was inspired by kitschy ’60s beach films, complete with a dramatic car chase at the end.
The video was on heavy rotation on MTV for years, and McG went on to bigger, not necessarily better things by directing full-length movies like “Terminator Salvation.”
The Legacy of Smash Mouth
Smash Mouth is known, widely, for two songs and two songs only.
While nearly everyone assumed, in 1997, that the band would end up as a one-hit wonder, “All Star” put an end to those assumptions. The similarly catchy tune was a colossal hit in 1999. Famously, its use in the first “Shrek” movie revived its popularity for a whole new generation.
How did Smash Mouth follow up on all this success? Frankly, not by doing much. The band would be back on the charts from time to time. Mostly, it was down to old-school covers to keep them up there. “Can’t Get Enough of You Baby” or the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer.” They now have a new singer and are playing the hits.
Smash Mouth did sell out, sure. But the group members were always quite open about it. “Walkin’ on the Sun” and, especially, “All Star” have appeared in countless ads, cheesy soundtracks, and on numerous compilations.
But, boy, did the band make the world smile. That’s quite a wonderful thing, and something that I think singer Steve Harwell would’ve been proud of. “Walkin’ on the Sun” was Smash Mouth’s peak.
