As music fans have likely heard, the big-voiced lead singer of the popular pop-rock band Smash Mouth died earlier this week. He was just 56 years old. Yet, the legacy of Steve Harwell and his radio-friendly group lives on in song.
Videos by American Songwriter
Below, we wanted to dive into a handful of the group’s best tracks. Those songs that music fans heard happily on the radio for years on end. Though the news about Harwell’s passing is sad, the songs will make us grin again.
[RELATED: Smash Mouth Singer Steve Harwell Dead at 56]
1. “All Star”
From Smash Mouth’s 1999 album, Astro Lounge, “All Star” was one of the final songs to be added to the album. The “anthem for outcasts,” as the song’s writer and Smash Mouth band member, Greg Camp, called it, was a hit, becoming a top-10 single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. And the song had a second life a few years later when it appeared in the 2001 movie Shrek.
Somebody once told me
The world is gonna roll me
I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed
She was looking kind of dumb
With her finger and her thumb
In the shape of an “L” on her forehead
2. “Walkin’ on the Sun”
From the band’s 1997 debut LP, Fush Yu Mang, “Walkin’ on the Sun” was the last to make the album and it became the band’s first big hit, clocking in at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and No. 2 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart.
“It was written during the whole Rodney King thing,” said Camp of the song. “The song was basically a social and racial battle cry. It was a sort of ‘Can’t we all get along?’ song for the time when I wrote it. It was just about all the things that were going on around me as a young person. And I’m, like, God, what is going on? I don’t understand why this is happening. It’s like we might as well be walking around a planet on fire. And that’s how it came about.”
3. “I’m a Believer”
A cover from the band, “I’m a Believer” was originally written by Neil Diamond and cut by the Monkees. But when Smash Mouth tracked it, their version hit No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. Smash Mouth recorded the song for the 2001 film, Shrek, landing the song on the soundtrack, along with “All Star.”
I thought love was only true in fairytales
Meant for someone else but not for me
Love was out to get me
That’s the way it seemed
Disappointment haunted all my dreams
Then I saw her face, now I’m a believer
Not a trace of doubt in my mind
I’m in love, I’m a believer
I couldn’t leave her if I tried
4. “Then the Morning Comes”
The second single from the band’s 1999 album, Astro Lounge, “Then the Morning Comes” hit No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it a standout follow-up to “All Star.”
Good morning
Paint the town, take a bow
Thank everybody
You’re gonna do it again
You are the few, the proud
You are the antibody
Mind, soul and zen
And the world’s a stage
(And the world’s a faze)
And the end is near
So push rewind, just in time
Thank anybody
You’re gonna do it again
5. “Holiday in My Head”
From the band’s self-titled 2001 album, “Holiday in My Head” opened the album, which also included the Neil Diamond-penned “I’m a Believer.” On this percussive, electric-guitar-driven song, Harwell sings,
Do you believe everything that you read
Everything that you see on the set
You look around at your sleepy little town
And think that this is as good as it gets
Well what you’re looking at is heaven-sent
Every day is a getaway when all of it goes unsaid
I got a holiday a paid holiday
I got a holiday in my head
Photo by Theo Wargo/WireImage
