All Star (song)

"All Star" is a song by American rock band Smash Mouth. It was released on May 4, 1999, as the second single from their album Astro Lounge and it is one of the group's most successful songs, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

## Contents

* 1 Composition
* 2 Music video
* 3 Commercial performance
* 4 Personnel
* 5 Usage in media
* 6 Track listing
* 6.1 CD1
* 6.2 CD2
* 7 Charts
* 7.1 Peak positions
* 7.2 Year-end charts
* 7.3 Certifications
* 8 References
* 9 External links

## Composition

"All Star" is set in the key of F♯ major with a tempo of 104 beats per minute.[1] According to a 2017 interview, songwriter Greg Camp was interested in exploring several layers of meaning with the stripped-down song: the social battle cry, the sports anthem, the fanbase affirmation, the poetic lyricism, the sweeping melody, the inclusion, the artistic music videos, and more.[2]

## Music video

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The music video (directed by McG) features cameos by William H. Macy, Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, Diane Rehm, Paul Reubens, Kel Mitchell, Janeane Garofalo, Doug Jones, and Dane Cook from the film Mystery Men (1999), which prominently featured the song. As of July 2018, the video has received over 170 million views on Smash Mouth's YouTube channel.[3]

The video begins with the group of men at a nerd club audition for unusually nerdish superheroes as each of them states their names and unusual powers. However, they all don't make the cut for the club. When the man dressed as Elvis is about to introduce himself, Harwell steps in and throws him out. The auditioners become very shocked and impressed and immediately accept him into the club. Then, Harwell begins singing the song while walking down a sidewalk path. After that, he stops by two kids, a boy and girl. The boy gives Harwell the big "L", when the lyrics, "In the shape of an L on her forehead" are sung. Harwell then jumps on top of a limousine as the other band members perform in front of a house. However, a fire breaks out at the house on the top floor that the band is performing at as two ladies scream for help. Then, Harwell notices a dog trapped in the burning house. While the other band members perform, he rushes into the house and saves the dog just in time. The ladies become relieved that the dog is safe. Two girls are standing on a two-person motorcycle as Harwell sings and approaches them. He then takes them on a joyride through the neighborhood. We then see the band perform in a parking garage, while intervals of the limousine and a 1950s car race around the garage. Shortly after, the motorcycle catches up. The old car whizzes by through a construction area, where it crashes into a trailer. The nerd club angrily attacks the limousine. Thankfully, Harwell saves his bandmates by picking them up in his motorcycle, leaving the two girls angry. When the band arrives back at the neighborhood, they see an overturned school bus on the ground with someone under it as two cheerleaders cheer and dance in the distance. They pull the bus up back on the road and see that the woman is "Miss All Star", who waves to the band. Afterwards, a group of schoolgirls and their teacher, who are on the school bus, wave to the band as well. The scene then transitions to the band performing the final parts of the song in a garage. At the end of the music video, the nerds from the nerd club applaud the band.

## Commercial performance

The song reached No. 2 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart[4] and No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.[4] In Canada, it peaked at No. 2 on the RPM singles chart.[5]

## Personnel

Musicians

* Steve Harwell – lead vocals
* Greg Camp – guitars, additional keyboards, backing vocals
* Paul De Lisle – bass, backing vocals
* Kevin Coleman – drums, backing vocals

Production

* Jacquire King – remixing, mixing, recording, Pro-Tools
* Eric Valentine – producer, engineer, mixer
* Bruce Dickinson – producer, engineer
* Porter Seals – producer, engineer

## Usage in media

Template:Inpopularculture In Mystery Men, "All Star" is played during a scene in which the titular superhero team holds auditions to recruit new members.[6][7] The final scene of Rat Race (2001) revolves around Smash Mouth performing the song at a charity concert.[8][9]

The song is heavily used in the Shrek franchise to promote the series, especially during the first film's opening credits introducing the title character.[10] Devotion towards the song has been considered a factor in the Internet's obsession towards the series and titular character.[11] In turn, it has since been dubbed a popular internet meme, resurfacing on the internet and becoming prevalent in media in 2017, usually focused on remixes and edits of the song and its music video.[12][13][14]

The season five premiere episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver features a performance of "All Star" by the New York City Gay Men's Chorus, intended to demonstrate that the United States is "a beautiful mess of contradictions" in that it is "a terrible, stupid song being sung absolutely beautifully [by the chorus]."[15][16]

The upcoming musical All Star: The Best Broadway Musical, exclusively features several varieties of the song, with a book by Allison Frasca.[17]

## Track listing

### CD1

1. "All Star"
2. "Walkin' On the Star" (Sun E Delight Remix)
3. "The Fonz"

### CD2

1. "All Star"
2. "Walkin' On the Sun"
3. "Can't Get Enough of You Baby"
4. "Walkin' on the Sun" (Video)

## Charts

### Peak positions

| Chart (1999)  | Peak
position

|

Australia (ARIA)[18] | 4
Belgium (Ultratip Flanders)[19] | 9
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[5] | 2
Canada Rock (RPM)[20] | 6
Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)[21] | 17
songid field is MANDATORY FOR GERMAN CHARTS | 74
Italy (FIMI)[22] | 45
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[23] | 57
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[24] | 15
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[25] | 49
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[26] | 24
US Billboard Hot 100[4] | 4
US Mainstream Top 40 (Billboard)[4] | 1
US Adult Top 40 (Billboard)[4] | 1
US Modern Rock Tracks (Billboard)[4] | 2

### Year-end charts

| Chart (1999)  | Position

|

Australia (ARIA)[27] | 31
Canadian RPM Singles Chart[28] | 4
Canadian RPM Rock Chart[29] | 32
US Billboard Hot 100[30] | 17

### Certifications

Region  | Certification | Certified units/sales

|
|

United Kingdom (BPI)[31] | Platinum  | 600,000

sales+streaming figures based on certification alone

## References

1. ↑ "Smash Mouth "All Star" Sheet Music". http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0026607.
2. ↑ "Songfacts Interview: Smash Mouth Songwriter Greg Camp". http://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/smash_mouth_songwriter_greg_camp/.
3. ↑ "Smash Mouth - All Star". Interscope Records. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_jWHffIx5E. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Billboard, Script error: No such module "WLink"./chart-history/ Charts for All Star, retrieved November 6, 2009
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Top Singles - Volume 69, No. 13, July 19, 1999". RPM. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.8383&type=1&interval=50&PHPSESSID=c6btf3r8hs459qqt5ln3o3dcv5. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
6. ↑ Blevins, Joe. "Smash Mouth meets The Larry Sanders Show in a Brilliant Minimalist Mashup". Onion, Inc.. Archived from the original on 28 January 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180128070710/https://news.avclub.com/smash-mouth-meets-the-larry-sanders-show-in-a-brilliant-1798243101. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
7. ↑ Preira, Matt. "A People's History of the Internet Campaign to Get Smash Mouth to Eat 24 Eggs". Archived from the original on 26 August 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20160826050534/http://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/a-peoples-history-of-the-internet-campaign-to-get-smash-mouth-to-eat-24-eggs-6438562. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
8. ↑ Schonfeld, Zach. "We Interviewed the Shit out of the Dude from Smash Mouth". VICE Media. Archived from the original on 28 January 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180128182327/https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/6ew8w6/smash-mouth-interview. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
9. ↑ Semley, John. "Smash Mouth, Guy Fieri, and Sammy Hagar Team Up for Awful Cookbook". Onion, Inc.. Archived from the original on 28 January 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180128190917/https://news.avclub.com/smash-mouth-guy-fieri-and-sammy-hagar-team-up-for-awf-1798233513. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
10. ↑ Harrison, Mark. "The Pop Culture Phenomenon of Smash Mouth's All Star". Dennis Publishing. Archived from the original on 22 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170922152554/http://www.denofgeek.com/us/culture/all-star/267722/the-pop-culture-phenomenon-of-smash-mouths-all-star. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
11. ↑ Sims, David (May 19, 2014). "Why Is the Internet So Obsessed With Shrek?". The Wire (The Atlantic). http://www.thewire.com/entertainment/2014/05/why-is-the-internet-so-obsessed-with-shrek/371189/. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
12. ↑ "What Smash Mouth really thinks of all your ‘All Star’ memes". https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/smash-mouth-memes/. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
13. ↑ "Smash Mouth: We ‘fully embrace the meme’". https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/5/14176992/smash-mouth-meme-interview-all-star. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
14. ↑ "The Internet's Endless Obsession With Smash Mouth's "All Star"". https://www.gq.com/story/the-endless-obsession-with-smash-mouth-all-star. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
15. ↑ Carr, Mary Kate (19 February 2018). "John Oliver: President Trump fails at the 'one thing' he is 'supposed to be good at'" (in en). EW.com (Entertainment Weekly). http://ew.com/tv/2018/02/19/john-oliver-president-trump-fails-at-the-one-thing-he-is-supposed-to-be-good-at/. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
16. ↑ Martinelli, Marissa (20 February 2018). "John Oliver Wants to Change the National Anthem to “All Star” by Smash Mouth, for a Good Reason" (in en). Slate Magazine (Slate). https://slate.com/culture/2018/02/john-oliver-on-trumps-foreign-policy-and-why-all-star-should-be-the-national-anthem-video.html. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
17. ↑ "All Star Mailing List". http://allstarthemusical.com.
18. ↑ "Script error: No such module "WLink".&titel=Script error: No such module "WLink".&cat=s Australian-charts.com – Smash Mouth – All Star". ARIA Top 50 Singles.
19. ↑ "Script error: No such module "WLink".&titel=Script error: No such module "WLink".&cat=s Ultratop.be – Smash Mouth – All Star" (in Dutch). Ultratip.
20. ↑ "Rock/Alternative - Volume 69, No. 15, August 02 1999". RPM. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.8376&type=1&interval=50&PHPSESSID=c6btf3r8hs459qqt5ln3o3dcv5. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
21. ↑ "Smash Mouth: All Star" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
22. ↑ "Hit Parade Italia - Indice per Interprete: P". Hit Parade Italia. http://www.hitparadeitalia.it/indici/per_interprete/ap.htm. Retrieved July 6, 2012.
23. ↑ "Script error: No such module "WLink".&titel=Script error: No such module "WLink".&cat=s Dutchcharts.nl – Smash Mouth – All Star" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
24. ↑ "Script error: No such module "WLink".&titel=Script error: No such module "WLink".&cat=s Charts.nz – Smash Mouth – All Star". Top 40 Singles.
25. ↑ "Script error: No such module "WLink".&titel=Script error: No such module "WLink".&cat=s Swedishcharts.com – Smash Mouth – All Star". Singles Top 100.
26. ↑ "Smash Mouth: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company.
27. ↑ "ARIA Charts - End of Year Charts - Top 100 Singles 1999". Archived from the original on March 12, 2012. https://www.webcitation.org/666S5mmSv?url=http://www.aria.com.au/pages/aria-charts-end-of-year-charts-top-100-singles-1999.htm. Retrieved June 25, 2015.
28. ↑ "Top Singles - Volume 70, No. 8, December 13, 1999". RPM. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.9952&type=1&interval=50&PHPSESSID=c6btf3r8hs459qqt5ln3o3dcv5. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
29. ↑ "Rock/Alternative - Volume 70, No. 8, December 13, 1999". RPM. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.9960&type=1&interval=24&PHPSESSID=c6btf3r8hs459qqt5ln3o3dcv5. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
30. ↑ "Billboard Top 100 - 1999". Archived from the original on July 9, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090709044506/http://longboredsurfer.com/charts.php?year=1999. Retrieved August 28, 2010.
31. ↑ "British single certifications – Smash Mouth – All Star". British Phonographic Industry. https://www.bpi.co.uk/brit-certified/. Select singles in the Format field. Select Platinum in the Certification field. Type All Star in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.

## External links

* Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

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