Shark jumps shark in this Smash Mouth-Santana monstrosity

February 8, 2017 5:53 PM

The A.V. Club says it better than I could: Here is the song “All Star” by Smash Mouth, but it is sung to the tune of “Walking On The Sun,” also by Smash Mouth. It’s sort of hard to tell where one ends and the next begins, a quality exacerbated by the fact that it is set to the video for Santana’s “Smooth,” because why not. There’s an uneasy body horror element to the whole thing, an unnatural embodiment being forced to perform against its will—as if there is a mind trapped somewhere deep within this monstrosity begging only to die.
posted by Room 641-A (83 comments total)

Amazeballs.
posted by brevator at 6:04 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Whisky Tango Foxtrot???
posted by mystyk at 6:05 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

honestly I'm most surprised this trend has gotten as much traction on metafilter as it has. But i guess there was that year i posted like six dreamwave albums to the blue...
posted by rebent at 6:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's Stairway to Gilligan's Island, performed by Smash Mouth and with a video overlay from the Simpsons?
posted by Bringer Tom at 6:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]

sung to the tune of “Walking On The Sun”

At some point years ago I misheard that song's refrain as "Marcus Welby walking on the sun", and now I can't hear it any other way.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:16 PM on February 8, 2017 [27 favorites]

Do you want Nyarlathotep? Because this is how you get Nyarlathotep to awaken from his slumbers and devour reality.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 6:18 PM on February 8, 2017 [35 favorites]

I love me some 90s. Had a great time in that decade. But shit some awful stuff was on the radio. And men's clothing...not good.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 6:19 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

This broke my brain

Also this is like the third thread in the last six months where I get to profess my love for Smash Mouth
posted by uncleozzy at 6:41 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

Poor Smash Mouth.
posted by GuyZero at 6:44 PM on February 8, 2017

I wonder if, should I make it to 80, time will strip all irony from my enjoyment of All Star and, as the rest of the world gets quieter, I'll hear the opening "SOME" and feel only a sincere, joyous nostalgia.

(could be worse. could be Train.)
posted by postcommunism at 6:50 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]

Woe to you, oh earth and sea, for the Devil sends the beast with wrath,
Because he knows the time is short.
Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast
For it is a human number.
Its number is six hundred and sixty six.
posted by Palindromedary at 6:58 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

At some point, media critics must come around to the inevitable - Smashmouth is a good-to-great Alt-Rock retro band in the best place at the best time.

Proof: Every song in Smashmouth's repertoire vs. "Take a Letter Maria" or "Change Your Evil Ways" from the time period Smashmouth was mocking.

Also they were miles ahead of Silverchair and Oasis. (MEANINGFUL LOOK.)
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:06 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]

As with a lot of most-hated bands, Smashmouth is mostly guilty of overexposure, which isn't entirely their fault so much as the inevitable result of the MTV/Clear Channel musical hellscape we all found ourselves trapped in back then.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:14 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]

I really liked this, but I have to wonder. Maybe computers are too easy to use?
posted by putzface_dickman at 7:15 PM on February 8, 2017 [68 favorites]

I didn't know hating Smashmouth was a thing. I just thought we laughed at them because they had two hit songs that were really the same song. Is there more to it than that?
posted by panama joe at 7:18 PM on February 8, 2017

Did it work? Are we in the President Hillary timeline?
posted by Behemoth at 7:18 PM on February 8, 2017 [56 favorites]

Goddamn it.
posted by Behemoth at 7:18 PM on February 8, 2017 [27 favorites]

Am I supposed to feel sorry for Rick Astley now because nobody went to as much trouble messing with "Never Gonna Give You Up"?
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:25 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

What a glorious future we live in.
posted by anarch at 7:32 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

I thought all that rickrolling WAS messing with "Never Gonna Give You Up".
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:32 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

So I only offer this as a way to avoid getting brainlocked on that thing that just happened to me, but:

Do you want Nyarlathotep? Because this is how you get Nyarlathotep to awaken from his slumbers and devour reality.

So IIRC Nyarlathotep isn't sleeping? Nyarlathotep is generally active in the world doing things in the service of the elder entities?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:35 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

At the centre of the universe, Azathoth is mindlessly piping "All Star."
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:43 PM on February 8, 2017 [28 favorites]

For some reason it got way funnier like 45 seconds in. I think maybe I just haven't seen enough of the Smashmouth/Bee Movie genre of mashups but I still find them totally delightful. This was a very good one.
posted by aka burlap at 7:43 PM on February 8, 2017

Deep cuts? Scott Aukerman briefly defends Smashmouth (and then abandons the idea).
posted by tummy_rub at 7:57 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

So IIRC Nyarlathotep isn't sleeping? Nyarlathotep is generally active in the world doing things in the service of the elder entities?

It was a big election. Dude needs a lie down.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 8:03 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]

Woe to you, oh earth and sea, for the Devil sends the beast with wrath,
Because he knows the time is short.
Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast
For it is a human number.
Its number is six hundred and sixty six.


Wait...that doesn't work with "Walking on the Sun" at all.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:08 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]

I clicked with no headache and came out the other side in nauseous agony. As I would with anything Smash Mouth and / or Santana related. 10/10, seems normal.
posted by The Noble Goofy Elk at 8:10 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

At some point, media critics must come around to the inevitable - Smashmouth is a good-to-great Alt-Rock retro band in the best place at the best time.

"smash mouth"?? well, by golly do i have a take for you.,
posted by invitapriore at 8:30 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

A take so hot, why, you might as well be something on the something.
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:35 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]

Yeah, I'm gonna chime in too with "Smash Mouth isn't actually all that bad, just overplayed." It turns out that having a hit single associated directly with two heavily marketed major movies causes media landscape saturation???

basically "not actually that bad in and of itself but I'm sick of it because of overexposure" kind of sums up my feelings toward steampunk, too
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:44 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

it's like a song from a higher dimension projected onto our three-dimensional universe
posted by secret about box at 8:48 PM on February 8, 2017 [14 favorites]

Over it.
posted by codacorolla at 8:53 PM on February 8, 2017

I realise that this kind of product is best used as a starting point for horsing around for some wee laughs but I feel the urge to be earnest, sorry. I come at this (from the backward Hungarian woods :) ) with no previous exposure. I have never heard of Smash Mouth before I read this post. I am aware of the Santana phenomenon, but last time I was a fan I was about 17 and that was 30 years ago. So I watched the mashup and then the two SM songs and then the Santana song... Now I dabble in music, and I would say my tastes in music are unusually diverse, from experimental contemporary music to funk and folk music and electronica, but all three of those songs are pure unadulterated shite. And they, plus the ridiculously highly produced videos they wear, are a huge waste of human talent, creativity and time and attention that I can alternately view as hilarious or as kinda sad.

P.S.: Musicallywise, Santana has some redeeming qualities. He can play, has less than trivial and somewhat personal sense of rhythm and melody. Though this song is one of his most terrible excursions (out of many, I should add) into kitsch.
posted by holist at 9:04 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

Minority opinion: Fush Yu Mang was good fun and remains so. A lot of it has stood up well.

All Star got badly overplayed, but I'm reminded of an old comment Bryan Adams made about "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" - you might like it, you might hate it, but you won't find a songwriter anywhere who wouldn't cut off a finger to have written it.
posted by mhoye at 9:08 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

I forgot the most important thing: all of this doesn't stop the mashup from being quite funny. And enjoyable. :)
posted by holist at 9:13 PM on February 8, 2017

Santana has some redeeming qualities.

Uhhh yeah
posted by stinkfoot at 9:17 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

Though this song is one of his most terrible excursions (out of many, I should add) into kitsch.

While I wasn't all that fond of Smooth, Santana's previous works more than make up for the songs that I didn't like but that he made a bundle on.

So, with that said, I am going to fuck you up for smash-mouthing Santana.
posted by ashbury at 9:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Here is the song “All Star” by Smash Mouth, but it is sung to the tune of “Walking On The Sun,” also by Smash Mouth. It’s sort of hard to tell where one ends and the next begins, a quality exacerbated by the fact that it is set to the video for Santana’s “Smooth,” because why not.

Hah, yeah, I saw that it was funny

There’s an uneasy body horror element to the whole thing

Heh, yeah I--wait, what now? Body...horror?

an unnatural embodiment being forced to perform against its will

Um. Yeah, I guess? Hah...

as if there is a mind trapped somewhere deep within this monstrosity begging only to die.

...

Are you okay?
posted by clockzero at 9:38 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]

These things have about as much élan as your estranged uncle doing the Harlem Shake while taking the Ice Bucket Challenge.
posted by codacorolla at 9:40 PM on February 8, 2017

I don't think anyone has posted All Star where all the sung notes are C yet.
posted by hawthorne at 9:42 PM on February 8, 2017 [27 favorites]

"These things have about as much élan as your estranged uncle doing the Harlem Shake while taking the Ice Bucket Challenge."


:D :D
posted by holist at 10:03 PM on February 8, 2017

These things have about as much élan as your estranged uncle doing the Harlem Shake while taking the Ice Bucket Challenge.

You leave Weird Uncle Steve out of this!
posted by 1adam12 at 10:19 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Wait. Wait. Wait. That's not Sugar Ray?
posted by eyeballkid at 10:25 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

Smashmouth is the Nickleback of Monkees
posted by gottabefunky at 10:38 PM on February 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

EAT THE EGGS, SMASHMOUTH!
posted by Samizdata at 11:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]

That version of All Star that's all in C is really interesting. It actually starts to feel kind of somehow oppressive after a little while.
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:57 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]

Now all this needs is the pluffnub "all instruments off tempo" plus some StSanders shreds, and turn up the stem of David Lee Roth doing his Mongolian throat singing yowl and...

My god, we're in the Cinco timeline.
posted by zippy at 12:45 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is maybe the fifth time I've watched this, and I just realized that the words seem to be correctly synced with Rob Thomas's mouth. Even more unnerving now.
posted by Stilling Still Dreaming at 1:16 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]

WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS
posted by ELF Radio at 1:43 AM on February 9, 2017

Anyway here's Wonderwall.
posted by kersplunk at 3:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [7 favorites]

This is the music the robots are going to make once they take over.
posted by darksong at 3:26 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

> All Star where all the sung notes are C

Holy shit now I want to hear "All Star" stemmed, chopped, and sequenced in the style of Terry Riley's "In C".
posted by ardgedee at 4:00 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Smashmouth playing in cave for all your slowly descending into hell needs.
posted by sonmi at 4:22 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]

Still not as bad as the alternate-universe possibility of a version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" set to the tune of "Open Arms."
posted by blucevalo at 4:22 AM on February 9, 2017

I'd like to know how many mouths you snobs have smashed
posted by thelonius at 4:50 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

Anyway here's Wonderwall.
posted by tocts at 5:17 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]

I love that Smashmouth in a cave thing and want the whole goodbad SyFy movie now, the one where the naive college kids with a jeep go on holiday to that one state park they're warned about and they stumble upon it playing over and over and realize too late the horror they've walked themselves into.

Sorry, got a little carried away there.

Anyway, the video in the post: all it lacks is pop up video bubbles, right?
posted by Caxton1476 at 5:18 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]

Okay, but was All Star actually in Bee Movie, or is this just the new universe we're all living in?
posted by Mchelly at 5:23 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't think anyone has posted All Star where all the sung notes are C yet.

Hmm. I non-ironically prefer that to the original. Just listened to it three times in a row. Not sure whether to follow-up with a therapist or an audiologist.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 6:09 AM on February 9, 2017

Okay, but was All Star actually in Bee Movie, or is this just the new universe we're all living in?

No, no, it was in that movie Shazaam with Sinbad. That's probably what you're thinking of.
posted by Trinity-Gehenna at 6:37 AM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]

Santana has some redeeming qualities.

Almost as strange as the FPP in its own way is that "Black Magic Woman" is a Fleetwood Mac cover.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:38 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

(not) the best of the Web
posted by DrAstroZoom at 6:45 AM on February 9, 2017

That 'smashmouth playing in a cave' is totally my 'wait a second, this isn't heaven, is it?' song for when I wake up in the afterlife.
posted by mrdaneri at 7:13 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

I love that Smashmouth in a cave thing and want the whole goodbad SyFy movie now,

It made me think that maybe we are all chained in a cave somewhere, and our only understanding of reality comes from Smashmouth songs.
posted by nubs at 7:15 AM on February 9, 2017 [12 favorites]

All Star but the words are ordered by scrabble score

Photograph by Nickelback but every word is "someBODY"
posted by Gymnopedist at 7:31 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

I used to hate on bad music but I've mellowed and I now consider all music to be one of two types: music I like, and music somebody else likes. And I've long given up on trying to rationalize other people's tastes.

But when and how did Santana get lumped in with Smashmouth, Rick Astley, and Nickelback as bands deserving of open mockery and ridicule? Is it a generational thing among 90s kids who only know Carlos Santana from Smooth? (which wasn't even a bad tune, just overplayed. I'd bet money that everyone loved it the third time they heard it)
posted by rocket88 at 7:53 AM on February 9, 2017 [10 favorites]

[smash mouth story incoming]

When I was a boy of 14 in the year of our lord nineteen-hundred and ninety seven my now-ex-sister-in-law* and my brother set me up on a blind-double date with the two of them and a Girl from Florida. At the time she had a name, but it has been lost to the ever deepening chasm of my memories.

1997 was a good year for me. This story takes place in December. I had worked a part time job for a couple months and earned a little extra money. The day before the date I had blown that extra money on video games. Specifically, the video game Iron Man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal. So here I was, in December. I had a bona fide date with a girl and enough extra money to blow on video games. Things were looking up!

Now - I will be honest, Iron Man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal is not a good video game. I mention the game because, when the time for the double date came, I didn't want to turn it off. And after the date, even though the game is terrible, I wished I had kept playing it and never gone on the date at all.

Eventually my now-ex-sister-in-law dragged me away from my PlayStation and introduced me to the Girl form Florida. I remember nothing about her except 1) she was beautiful 2) she was wearing a sun dress in Ohio in December. Probably she was very kind and sweet to me when I shoved my sweaty palm in front of her to shake her hand, but like I said, I don't remember. I was still trying to figure out how to beat the first level of Iron Man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal and the brain can only retain so much information.

We all pile into my now-ex-sister-in-law's car, a little blue hatchback. My brother is shotgun, I am in the passenger driver side and the Girl from Florida is next to me.

Friends, this was the first time yours truly had ever been in the back seat of a car with a girl with whom I was nominally on a date. To say that my mind was racing in a million directions is a dire understatement.

I tried some small talk, and I totally whiffed. What did I talk about? The possibilities are not limitless. I probably asked her about 1) life in her homeland of distant Florida 2) video games. Who knows? Probably it was not as bad as I remember, but I distinctly recall a weak smile and her turning to look out the window.

I knew I needed to get in the fight but didn't have any extra ammo. All my best tricks were spent. If she didn't want to talk about Florida or Pokemon, goddamn, what was I supposed to do?

Luckily, now-ex-sister-in-law came to the rescue.

"We need some music!" she says. I like her taste in music, which usually went from Bowie to Brittney Spears and everything in between. "Smash Mouth!" she says, and grabs the first cassette from the tape deck.

"I LOVE SMASH MOUTH!" Says the Girl From Florida. "ME TOO!" I say, because it's 1997 and everyone loves Walking on the Sun. Yes, I say to myself, back in the game. We talk about other Smash Mouth-related trivia for a few minutes while I anticipate winning her further affection by singing all of the lyrics to Walking on the Sun. This way, I'm sure, she will know exactly how cool I truly am.

Then the music starts and the Girl from Florida knows every goddamn lyric from Fush Yu Mang. I only know the lyrics from Walking on the Sun. I suddenly realize that there is more than one Smash Mouth song and I know literally nothing else about them. I desperately search the album liner notes to see when Walking on the Sun will play. Track number 3! I just have to play cool.

Reader, I don't play it cool. The Girl from Florida tries to engage me in singing the other songs. I can't really see her face, except for the look of disappointment in her eyes as she realizes I'm not really a fan. I'm a fraud. I'm a hit chaser, nothing more. She continues singing. I slump into the seat back.

At that moment my entire body melted from embarrassment. I'm typing this message from the back of that hatchback because I never left. I am a ghost, and I died of embarrassment and shame.

Thanks a lot, Smash Mouth.


*who has stayed in the family and is basically my sister
posted by Tevin at 7:59 AM on February 9, 2017 [29 favorites]

But when and how did Santana get lumped in with Smashmouth, Rick Astley, and Nickelback as bands deserving of open mockery and ridicule?

Maybe Carlos has become some kind of classic rock sin-eater, I don't know
posted by thelonius at 8:09 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]

Almost as strange as the FPP in its own way is that "Black Magic Woman" is a Fleetwood Mac cover.

And possibly even stranger, the other cover that it came bundled with on Abraxas, Gypsy Queen, was written by a compatriot of mine, the guitar genius Gabor Szabo.
posted by holist at 8:29 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]

Hot mess.
posted by Peach at 8:54 AM on February 9, 2017

And I will confess that I have "Smooth," "All Star," and "Walking on the Sun" in my collection of songs. Because I gave up being snobbish about music some time after I graduated from college. I just play what I like.
posted by Peach at 8:57 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

Good for you. But hey! Are you asserting that you used to be snobbish and rejected those songs out of snobbery, but then stopped (which would be a great achievement), or are you asserting that if I do not have those songs in my collection, then I'm snobbish? (That would be false.)
posted by holist at 9:01 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

Hey, now
We’re in Smash Mouth
Get your mouth smashed
Mouth smashed

Hey, now
You like Smash Mouth
Get your smash mouthed
Smash mouthed

And all that smashes is mouth
Only shooting stars mouth the smash
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:12 AM on February 9, 2017 [13 favorites]

The tradition continues, by the way.
posted by holist at 9:32 AM on February 9, 2017

> "... Are you okay?"

clockzero, I completely agree with your assessment of the reaction there, and yet a part of me still kind of hopes that all web video criticism will soon start going this route, e.g.: "This short remixed mashup of 'Fancy' and 'Blurred Lines' is the annihilation of all hope, the final failure of the social contract, and the death of the real. We are all living in Hell now. We are all dead and in eternal torment, only some of us have not quite noticed yet. Put out your eyes before you see what cannot be unseen. Stop up your ears and sew shut your mouth. You cannot escape, you cannot run, you cannot even breathe. I'll show you the life of the mind. I'LL SHOW YOU THE LIFE OF THE MIND."
posted by kyrademon at 10:25 AM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]

I love how much the lyrical refit strains against the meter of the melody. It's a nasty armwrestling match between the two songs for most of it, though it feels like late in the song it finally lapses into a kind of brutal synthesis that actually really works.

My only complaint about this is that the video doesn't, after fading out and to black, have a concluding contextless "SOME—"
posted by cortex at 10:55 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]

kersplunk, thanks for exposing me to Joe Sudano, and now I'm watching all his videos.

The cover of Toto's Africa is especially enjoyable featuring Ten Second Songs
posted by numaner at 11:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

I liked "All Star But They Don't Stop Coming And It Gets Really Dank" literally right up until they point halfway through where it gets "really dank". The way that (spoilers) the "don't stop coming" is repeatedly inserted into various other locations in the lyrics is just subtle enough that you forget momentarily until the next time they don't stop coming.

(The "really dank" part of the video is fucking garbage, though, I can't emphasise that enough.)
posted by tobascodagama at 11:39 AM on February 9, 2017

All Star but it's a Bach chorale following the conventions of the Common Practice Period
posted by koeselitz at 1:24 PM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]

How can you have a Smash Mouth post without mentioning that Neil Cicierega recently released his third (loosely) Smash Mouth inspired mashup album?

bustin makes me feel good
posted by ymgve at 1:26 PM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]

A TV comedy writer and podcast personality Jordan Morris (from Jordan Jesse Go) admitted that a lot of times Smashmouth appears in jokes on Comedy Centeal produced shows purely because they will garner recognition from multiple demographic groups by virtue of peaking 20 years ago but also appearing in all those kid movie soundtracks. Jordan also told a story recently about seeing Smashmouth in concert in LA this winter (headlining a small venue, not at a state fair). I believe he said they were "not bad".

Also, I was 14 when I first heard Smashmouth playing at a Spencer's gifts (my town didn't have hot topic until 2004). I kinda loved them but would never buy their albums.
posted by midmarch snowman at 10:51 PM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

I can't believe no one has posted this yet. It is one of the greatest SNL skits of all time and once again proves my belief that the best part of SNL is the last twenty minutes or so.
posted by wyndham at 5:07 AM on February 10, 2017 [7 favorites]

That was...unsettling. I'm vexed.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:15 PM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]