Smash Mouth: The Dark Story Behind 'Walkin' On the Sun'

Smash Mouth: The dark story behind Smash Mouth's big hit song 'Walking' on the Sun'

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I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.

Smash Mouth would explode onto the scene in 1997 with their debut record Fush (Foosh) Yu (You) Mang. Propelled by the single Walkin’ on the sun, the song was inescapable. In my home country of Canada the song was featured on a yearly compilation called Big Shiny Tunes. Big shiny tunes was a yearly compilation album featuring the hottest songs put out by our own version of MTV called much music. The commercial for big shiny tunes back in the day was on constant rotation and in addition to appearing on rock radio the song was inescapable. , I always thought to myself what a cherry sounding song. Well I couldn’t have been more wrong. It would turn out that the inspiration for walkin’ on the sun was not cheery and the track would be inspired by a tragedy. That’s what were going to discuss in today’s video.

In 1992 Los Angeles and it’s residents would suffer through riots brought on about by anger caused by rodney king trial. One year prior four police officers were captured on camera beating an african american man rodney king. The officers would stand trial and be acquitted of most of the charges including excessive force and assault. For nearly a week in late april and early may of 1992 riots engulfed los angeles resulting in63 people had been killed,[7] 2,383 had been injured, more than 12,000 had been arrested, and a billion dollars worth of property damage. All while this was going on in Los Angeles, 400 miles to the south Smash Mouth Guitarist Greg Camp would witness the mayhem in on Television and recall to the LA Times “ There was a lot of racial tension everywhere because of the riots,” , “and as I was riding my bicycle through a neighborhood one night, I was kind of afraid--where normally I wouldn’t be afraid.
“I looked around and said, ‘Why does it have to be like this? It’s time to write a protest--a ‘90s let’s-all-get-along type of song.’ And so I kind of wrote it while I was riding my bike.”It would result in Walkin on the sun.
The original demo that Camp had come up with was quite a bit different than the version found on Smash Mouth’s debut record as Camp would tell Songfacts "I wrote it on a chintzy little nylon-string guitar that I had,", "and it sounded to me more like Santana or something. It had bongos and maracas and stuff on the original demo.”
By this point in time Smash mouth hadn’t formed yet. Camp was playing in a a different band at the time who didn’t take a liking to the song recalling to the LA Times
“they hated it,”. “The singer didn’t want to sing it, so that was that.” Camp would take his demo and toss it in his closet where it collected dust. By 1994 Camp would be playing in a new band Smash mouth after joining forces with singer Steve Harwell, Bassist Paul De Lisle and drummer Kevin Coleman. It would be the band’s drummer who found the demo and brought it to the band but Camp was reluctant at first. Camp would credit Coleman for pushing the song through the band telling the LA Times “Nobody else in the band was really that stoked about it,” Camp says. “It wasn’t hard enough, and they didn’t want to get all socially political. But Kevin was adamant. He kind of had to force us into actually learning how to play it, and then when our producer heard it, he said, ‘That’s the one.’ In a separate interview he would tell songfacts how the song underwent some big changes to get it to it’s final version saying We took it to Eric Valentine, who produced the record, and we just put this more locomotive driving beat to it. It was already simple, so we just did the little Doors-y style riff in there and that's what happened. The singer [Steven Harwell] brought it out to where it was supposed to be. He had this gravelly voice, but it still has a melody, so it just worked." The single would be a stand out track from the rest of the album being more pop punk and ska punk.

San Jose station KOME in 1996 began playing the demo of the song Nervous In the Alley. Smash mouth was unsigned at thetime but the attention from local radio gave the band an opportunity to appear alongside No Doubt, 311 and other acts at Kamp KOME Music Festival that same year. The attention resulted i