Song of the Day Apr 1

April 1, 2024

This month I’m focusing on One Hit Wonders of the 90s.

Today our song is:  Tubthumping

Wikipedia tells us this about the song:

"Tubthumping" is a song released by British rock band Chumbawamba from their eighth studio album, Tubthumper (1997). It is the band's most successful single, peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart. It topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and reached number six on the US Billboard Hot 100. At the 1998 Brit Awards, "Tubthumping" was nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Single. It sold 880,000 copies in the UK.

The song was the group's lead single from Tubthumper, their major-label debut. It was released on 11 August 1997. Vocalist Dunstan Bruce retrospectively observed that, before the group wrote it, they "were in a mess: we had become directionless and disparate". He credited "Tubthumping" with changing that, telling The Guardian, "It's not our most political or best song, but it brought us back together. The song is about us – as a class and as a band. The beauty of it was we had no idea how big it would be."

A Leeds pub called the Fforde Grene served as the group's inspiration for the song; guitarist Boff Whalley told The Guardian that it was written about "the resilience of ordinary people"; musically, "Tubthumping" is a dance-rock, alternative rock, and dance-punk song in D major. The intro to the song includes an excerpt from the British film, Brassed Off.

Enjoy!