Ween Was Hired By Pizza Hut to Write a Song About Stuffed Crust; They Were Fired After Delivering “Where’d the Cheese Go?”

In 2002, Pizza Hut was introducing their new stuffed crust pizza. They needed a song for the commercial, so, naturally, they hired Ween for the job. The resulting song was rejected by the pizza giants after eight attempts, so Ween came up with what ultimately should have been the actual jingle if not for a little thing called “censorship” and “not saying swears in advertisements.”

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According to Ween’s website, “That song was recorded by the band for a Pizza Hut commercial. Evidently, Pizza Hut’s advertising agency approached Ween to record a song for their stuffed crust pizza line.” The song, “Where’d The Cheese Go?,” was the first version initially written for the commercial. It’s a simple jingle that repeats the line “Where’d the cheese go? (I don’t know)” to get across that the cheese is in the crust now.

“The band recorded a clean version, and Pizza Hut executives dropped the idea. Deaner [Michael Melchiondo] posted the MP3 of the clean version and then a dirty version on his website,” the post continues. The dirty version, known as “Where’d The Motherf—in’ Cheese Go At?,” is a masterpiece of jingles and really should have been released onto unsuspecting consumers. If I heard “Where’d The Motherf—in’ Cheese Go At?” in a Pizza Hut commercial in 2002, I would, in all honesty, be pretty confused because I was nine at the time. However, the judgement stands: the dirty version of “Where’d The Cheese Go” is superior to any commercial jingle ever written, if you ask me.

Ween Fans Loved “Where’d The Cheese Go?” So Much the Band Played it During All Request Live Webcast

In July 2003, Ween hosted a webcast of a live show called All Request Live, the title of their fourth live album released that November. The show and subsequent album consist of fan requested tracks posted on Ween’s message board at the time. It included all five parts of “The Stallion” (called the “Stallion Suite” and most likely the only time they would ever play it, according to their website), “Awesome Sound,” “Demon Sweat,” and an extended version of “Pollo Asado.” Fans also requested “Where’d The Cheese Go?,” so Ween played a special 6-minute version of the jingle.

“The versions of the song most readily available on the web represent the 7th and 8th attempts at satisfying the decision makers at Pizza Hut,” the band’s website explains.

Ween has also explained the existence of the jingle, according to a 2017 blog post by Riot Fest. “We delivered in a big way,” they’ve said. “Unfortunately, [Pizza Hut] didn’t like a single piece of the 6 tunes we submitted and they had us rewriting the song every day for a couple of weeks before they hired someone else.” The band then added, “In my opinion, it is one of the best tunes we wrote all last year.”

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