Some 90s buzz bands exploded out of nowhere with a single that started to blow up even before they were signed to a big label. Toad The Wet Sprocket timed their move a little better. Their breakout single came once they had the support of a top label behind them.
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The California-based band hit big with “All I Want”, a 1991 single from their album fear. Even though their name suggested silliness, their breakthrough single was thoughtful and powerful.
Toad’s Wild Ride
If you’re starting a band, you should take a lesson from this group. When choosing a temporary name, always be aware that it might not be so temporary. The band chose Toad The Wet Sprocket, based on a Monty Python sketch, thinking they’d change it when something better came along. Instead, it stuck.
They started playing together in Santa Monica, California, when they were still high schoolers in the 80s. In fact, Glen Phillips, Toad The Wet Sprocket’s lead singer and chief songwriter, wasn’t even old enough to get a driver’s license when they first formed.
In 1989, they released their debut album, Bread & Circus, on an independent label. While making the follow-up, Pale, they snagged their major-label deal. None of the songs from that second record did much in terms of mainstream exposure. Still, anticipation was high for their third release, which they could create with a bigger budget in hand.
Having It “All”
Toad The Wet Sprocket recorded fear in Reno, Nevada, where Glen Phillips still wasn’t quite old enough to legally take advantage of the nightlife. The band toured the record relentlessly, but still watched in dismay as the lead single “It Is For Me” failed to catch fire.
Luckily, the band was given the chance to release another single. “All I Want”, cut loose in 1992, was the choice, and the song was remixed slightly for radio release. The tactic worked brilliantly, as the anthem, somehow brooding and uplifting all at once, rose all the way to No. 15.
The band proved more than a one-hit wonder, as follow-up single “Walk On The Ocean” also dented the Top 20. One funny postscript to all this: The story goes that Eric Idle of Monty Python was in America when “All I Want” started making its progress on the charts. He was floored when he heard a DJ mention the band’s name, the same name he had helped concoct as a joke decades before.
Behind The Lyrics of “All I Want”
“All I Want” touches on how times of peace and bliss often turn out to be all too fleeting. Phillips makes a point of how we humans sometimes get in the way of our own potential happiness. “Nothing’s so loud,” he sings. “As hearing when we lie / The truth is not kind.”
He continues in this vein in the second verse. “Nothing so cold,” he muses. “As closing the heart when all we need/Is to free the soul.” In the midst of all this, nature ignores the human folly and provides a respite. “And the air outside’s so soft,” he explains. “Is saying everything.”
The chorus finds the narrator clinging to this elusive feeling for all he’s worth. “All I Want” put Toad The Wet Sprocket on the map. And their talent ensured they’d be remembered for far more than a bizarre band name.
Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images
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