"Banditos" | ||||
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Single by The Refreshments | ||||
from the album Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy | ||||
Released | 1995 | |||
Genre | Pop punk, cowpunk,[1] post-grunge[2][3] | |||
Length | 4:17 | |||
Label | Mercury Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Roger Clyne and Paul "P.H." Naffah | |||
The Refreshments singles chronology | ||||
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"Banditos" is a song by American band The Refreshments from their album Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy. The song is the band's best-known hit.
A music video was produced to accompany the single, in which the members of the band robbed a bank in Mexico and fled in lead singer Roger Clyne's Toyota Land Cruiser. They eventually give the police the slip through the use of a ridiculous disguise. The video was directed by David Dobkin.
Singer Roger Clyne said he came up with the idea for the song as a broke college student. He imagined making a run to Mexico and getting some money on the way by robbing a store like a Circle K. He wrote the song one morning over coffee with his friends laughing at him, and threw in a reference to Jean-Luc Picard because they were all Star Trek fans. "That was it. Just kind of the compassionate bandito. The guy who really wouldn't hurt a fly. You go to Mexico, you know, that's me," said Clyne.[4]
Clyne also said the choice of whether to release "Banditos" or "Blue Collar Suicide" as the lead single from Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy came down to a coin flip upstairs in the studio.[5]
Chart (1996) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australia (ARIA)[6] | 56 |
Canadian Alternative 30[7] | 13 |
Canadian RPM Top Singles[7] | 20 |
US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks[8] | 14 |
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