When thinking of Smash Mouth, it’s hard not to have their signature hit, “All Star,” come to mind. There’s an encouraging energy interwoven into the song that was intentional by the song’s sole writer, Smash Mouth guitarist Greg Camp. Though it was already a chart-topping hit by the time it appeared in the 2001 animated film, Shrek, “All Star” shot into the stratosphere thanks to its use in the film—and resulting internet memes.
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Meaning Behind the Song
The song marked a departure in sound from Smash Mouth’s debut album that leaned more into punk and less into the sing-a-long pop anthem that is “All Star.” The song is full of memorable lines, particularly in the first verse as lead singer Steve Harwell professes, She was looking kind of dumb / With her finger and her thumb / In the shape of an “L” on her forehead. The lyrics were inspired by a relationship Camp was in at the time when he was a musician playing gigs in wedding and cover bands at night while his girlfriend had a nine-to-five job, their opposing schedules creating friction in the relationship.
“The whole ‘L on the forehead’ thing is actually a true story,” Camp told Rolling Stone. “I could sleep all day and drink at night and party and stay out and stuff like that, so there was a lot of jealousy happening, and it sort of came in the form of, ‘You’re a loser, dude. What are you going to do, sleep all day? This is going to end someday. You’re not going to do this the rest of your life. You’re gonna have to actually grow up and get a job.’”
“All Star” was the final song written and recorded for Smash Mouth’s 1999 sophomore album, Astro Lounge. The band thought the album was done until their label at the time, Interscope Records, asserted that it didn’t contain a hit. This prompted Camp to write “All Star,” which came in response to countless fan letters the band received from kids who felt like they were outsiders.
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“’All Star’ was incubating out there while we were on the road,” Camp explained. “[Bassist] Paul De Lisle [and I] would [go to] laundromats on the road, and we would bring a bag of laundry and a bag of fan mail, back when people actually used to write on pieces of paper. We would read the mail and do our laundry, and we noticed that there was a common thread in all of these letters: kids thanking us for being their band. They were sort of outcasts. They were kind of nerdy and picked on and stuff like that.”
“It was a response to all these letters he was getting from kids, and they were just sort of like a pep talk, almost,” De Lisle adds. “The song was [for] these kids: ‘Hang in there. You are the master of your own domain. You control your own ship.’”
The song is a cornerstone in the band’s career, pulling them out of the depths of being regarded solely as a one-hit wonder act. They struck gold right off the bat, as their major label debut single, “Walkin’ on the Sun,” topped both the Billboard Alternative Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay charts in 1997. “All Star” then catapulted them to No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Top 40 and Mainstream Top 40 charts, and No. 2 on the Alternative Airplay chart. It was also a Top 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Alternative Songs chart. It got a second life when it appeared in Shrek and is famously heard playing during the opening scene, solidifying the song’s enduring legacy.
Harwell passed away in September 2023 from liver failure.
Photo by Earl Gibson III/WireImage
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