Very few bands have had a career quite like Smash Mouth.
They're widely viewed as a goofy meme band synonymous with a kid's movie, after their 1999 hit 'All Star' was featured in 2001 animated mega-hit Shrek, then immortalised in countless memes forevermore.
But Smash Mouth and lead singer Steve Harwell, who died overnight at age 56, had a complicated relationship with their fame and success. And to really unpack that love-hate dynamic, we need to examine Smash Mouth's first major success.
That's right. 'All Star' wasn't the band's first big hit – as Smash Mouth themselves were quick to often point out to hecklers on Twitter.
It shows there was as darker side to this seemingly happy-go-lucky act who began life as a ska-punk group struggling to prove themselves.
Smash Mouth's origins
In the early '90s, Harwell was becoming disenchanted with his rap group F.O.S. [Freedom Of Speech], whose most notable song was 'Big Black Boots'.
"Around the time we were about to put out our single, this kid Snoop Dogg came out and changed everything," the singer recounted in a 2017 Stereogum interview.
"I was at a radio convention in Las Vegas watching MC Hammer of all people, and I just looked at my manager, 'I'm tired of all this hip-hop shit, I want to start an alternative rock band.' He said, 'You're crazy, it was hard enough getting this.' But he followed me down the path and here we are."
That manager was Robert Hayes, who linked Harwell up with members of Lackadaddy, another band he managed: guitarist Greg Camp, bassist Paul De Lisle and drummer Kevin Coleman.
In 1994, Smash Mouth was born… but nearly had a very short lifespan. They struggled to find traction and pull crowds in their local scene of San Jose, California. But that all changed with the group's first major taste of success with 1997 single 'Walkin' On The Sun'.
A retro throwback to '60s lounge and pop music, 'Walkin' On The Sun' was a #1 hit in the US and reached the top 10 here in Australia, as well as reaching #11 in triple j's Hottest 100 of 1997.
The song also got Smash Mouth signed to a major label deal with Interscope records after it was championed by American radio and TV personality Carson Daly, "back when he was a just a lowly San Jose alternative rock DJ," guitarist Camp told the website Songfacts.
When Daly landed a gig with LA's influential KROQ radio, he brought 'Walkin' On The Sun' along with him. "So they put it into rotation," Camp said. "The next day every record company in the world was calling. That's how the band kind of happened."
As Daly wrote in his own Instagram tribute to Steve Harwell, the single "played regularly next to Green Day, Nirvana, No Doubt, Pearl Jam and [Nine Inch Nails]."
Its slick hooks and production might have seemed in stark contrast to those grittier rock groups but 'Walkin' On The Sun' features some subversive lyrics, inspired by the L.A. riots of 1992 and the police beating of Rodney King.
"The song was basically a social and racial battle cry," Camp told Songfacts. "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."
However, 'Walkin' On The Sun' was a sonic outlier on Smash Mouth's Platinum-selling debut album Fush Yu Mang, which was otherwise in line with the ska-pop sound of No Doubt, Reel Big Fish, and Goldfinger.
By 1998, Smash Mouth were struggling to replicate the song's runaway success and shake being labelled a one-hit wonder.
They turned in their second album, Astro Lounge, to their label but were sent back to the studio after famous record exec Jimmy Iovine thought it lacked a major single.
The group came back not only nailing the assignment but with a song that would define them.
'Hey now, you're an All Star...'
'SomeBODY once told me the world is gonna roll me/ I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed'
It's arguably one of the most recognisable introductions in modern music, with a single vocal syllable that instantly kickstarts the track.
Unapologetically peppy, playful, and mildly edgy, 'All Star' was originally written as a 'pep talk' to the band's fans.
"About 85 to 90 per cent of the [fan] mail was from these kids who were being bullied or their brothers or older sibling were giving them shit for liking Smash Mouth," Camp told Songfacts.
"So, we were like, 'We should write a song for fans'. It was sort of like a daily affirmation. It was designed to be an uplifting, self-confidence building song."
Ironically for a tune that would wind up soundtracking a million sporting events and a Gatorade commercial, 'All Star' was written as an anthem for the outsiders, not the jocks.
"These were kids that weren't really wearing a uniform in any certain way. They weren't mods, they weren't punks, they weren't jocks, they weren't sport-os. They were just these kids that liked music, saying that they got picked on a lot," Camp told Rolling Stone in 2019.
Additionally, the second verse interestingly addresses the hole in the ozone layer. As several fan theories have outlined, it also loosely cautions about the dangers of climate change decades before it became a pressing environmental crisis.
'The ice we skate is getting pretty thin/ The water's getting warm so you might as well swim / My world's on fire, how 'bout yours?'
'[I felt] I might want to slip something like that in there because I had a podium," Camp confirmed in a 2021 episode of the How To Save A Planet podcast.
"It was kind of my duty, and I think our duty as songwriters and musicians and artists and the creative people who have a lot of people listening, to at least mention it. Just to get awareness happening and to try to get people to be a part of the problem solving as opposed to part of the problem."
When the song was recorded, and Harwell first heard 'All Star', he immediately knew what the band had on their hands. As he put it to WBUR in 2018:
"I said, 'This is like a smash. This is going to be life-changing.' And we knew it. I knew it right away."
Astro Lounge producer Eric Valentine also warned the group about the song's potential.
"This song will do exactly what the record company wants it to do. But it is going to sail this band straight into the sun. Like, there's no turning back. You cannot put that toothpaste back in the tube."
Those words would become prophetic.
Released on 4 May, 1999 – followed by Astro Lounge on 8 June – 'All Star' would indeed be everywhere. It was all over the radio, dominating the charts and sold-out shows.
The Shrek effect
Despite its cultural infamy being inextricably linked to Shrek and online joke culture, 'All Star' was a sensation before Dreamworks animation came calling.
The song was initially included on the soundtrack for 1999's Inspector Gadget and Mystery Men.
The cast of the latter film – a superhero satire starring Ben Stiller – is featured in the 'All Star' music video, where they attempt to recruit Harwell as he rescues pets from burning buildings and kids from a crashed school bus.
However, 'All Star' would achieve immortal status after it scored the opening of Shrek, the 2001 fairy-tale send-up about a belligerent green ogre voiced by Mike Myers that became its own blockbuster franchise.
"We had no clue how big Shrek was going to be," Harwell told Rolling Stone. "We had no clue. That was just a launching pad. The song was already a number one single, and then Shrek came out and we sold millions of records off that alone. The song was reborn again."
It wasn't the first time Smash Mouth had hit the silver screen. Their cover version of 'Can't Get Enough Of You Baby' featured in 1998 teen flick Can't Hardly Wait, while their ska'd up rendition of 'Why Can't We Be Friends' was in Wild Things the same year.
However, initially, the band were hesitant about being branded with a children's film. Particularly songwriter/guitarist Camp, who was already ambivalent over concerns of the band 'selling out'.
"When DreamWorks came to us, some of us were a little apprehensive," he told Rolling Stone. "Because once you get your song into like a family movie you merge into this Disney zone. It's like you're out of Warped Tour Land and Credibility Land."
Regardless, Smash Mouth licensed 'All Star' to Shrek. Not only that, they recorded a new version of The Monkees' 'I'm A Believer' for the film's ending and accompanying soundtrack.
So much to meme
Through a combination of nostalgia and the increased cultural dominance of YouTube and social media, the mid-to-late 2000s saw a whole generation that grew up with Shrek begin remixing 'All Star' into countless memes, parodies, and mash-ups.
One of the earliest examples was 'Mario You're A Plumber', which riffed on 'All Star' with Nintendo's plumber mascot and has nearly 1.6 million views.
There's YouTuber Neil Cicierega, who released a series of mash-up albums prominently remixing 'All Star' and other popular 1990s hits. Or how about the one which replaces every lyric in the song with that iconic 'SomeBODY' opening?
The team at The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon even jumped on the craze by stitching a performance together with Star Wars clips
We could literally go on forever. You get the idea.
But one of the more interesting cases is Jon Sudano, whose YouTube channel was dedicated to singing the melody and lyrics of 'All Star' to anything and everything from Adele to Nirvana and beyond.
"He's this big, overweight guy who sits in front of his computer and does stuff like this all day long," Camp told Songfacts, adding that he'd even become Facebook friends with the YouTuber.
"The song was written for people like him, who may be a little bit of an outcast or not accepted socially because of their appearance. And he's just going for it. He gets it, completely. He is the person that that song was written for."
They may be played for deadpan comedic effect but Sudano's renditions emphasise the simplicity and adaptability of 'All Star'. It's ubiquitous by nature - a quality that Smash Mouth manager Robert Hayes told Rolling Stone he was keenly aware of.
"It was very licensable, I licensed the crap outta that song. You could not walk into a grocery store or turn on the television without hearing 'All Star.' It was very, very saturated."
Smash Mouth were never shy about marketing, their music and presence used in adverts for soft drink, cars, potato chips – you name it.
That also created tension within the group, particularly between the anti-corporate Camp – who left the group in 2008 — and the band's entertainer and frontman, Harwell.
The not-so-fairytale ending
Although the singer initially enjoyed how the widespread exposure lined the band's pockets, Harwell didn't appreciate being the butt of online jokes that dismissed Smash Mouth as 'that Shrek band'.
"It's entertaining, I get it. It doesn't bother me, but at the same time, I don't love it," Harwell told Stereogum regarding the endless memes in 2017.
But his attitude would become increasingly antagonistic in later years, lashing out at fans on social media and in concert while touring the nostalgia circuit.
He made headlines for a 2015 show where he threatened to beat up fans pelting the stage with bread and in 2016 when he collapsed on stage and was rushed to hospital.
Things took a very dark turn in 2021 when footage emerged of Harwell appearing disorientated during a live performance at the Big Sip beer festival in Syracuse, New York, where he cursed at and threatened the audience.
Afterwards, Harwell retired from Smash Mouth, his declining state attributed to long-term medical issues, including mental health and cardiomyopathy – a condition linked to substance abuse that impacts both memory and motor function.
Harwell had long struggled with alcoholism, which worsened after suffering a tragedy at the height of the band's fame in 2001, when his infant son died from a rare blood disease.
Diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukaemia at just two months, Harwell's son Presley died aged just six months old. The tragedy prompted the postponement of Smash Mouth's third, self-titled album and, later, Harwell set up a medical research fund in his son's name.
"It was so shocking," he said in an interview with The Morning Call. "I thought I was invincible until that happened to me. It happened to Steve Harwell, lead singer of Smash Mouth, the rock star. All the money in the world couldn't save him."
It's a heartbreaking detail that's so often overshadowed in the wider story of Smash Mouth. And there's a case to be made that the frontman was never the same after.
Earlier this week, it was reported Harwell had begun receiving hospice care at home, where he was in the final stages of liver failure.
On Monday, manager Robert Hayes confirmed that the frontman "passed away peacefully and comfortably" at home "surrounded by family and friends" at age 56.
"Steve lived a 100% full-throttle life. Burning brightly across the universe before burning out," Hayes added in tribute.
Much like The Killers' endlessly popular 'Mr. Brightside' or Australians singing DJ Ötzi's 'Hey Baby' at music festivals, there's a sense of baffling mystery to the deathless endurance of 'All Star'.
Following Harwell's passing, there's also a sense of sadness hanging over the song's legacy. But there's no arguing it soundtracked so many childhoods and was a source of humour and joy for countless music fans and internet humourists alike. And that ain't no joke.
When the news of his death broke, the YouTuber behind the video, 'All Star ... but every word is someBODY', updated the caption to honour Steve Harwell:
"Thanks for singing the greatest song ever made."
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