One Week (song)

"One Week"
Single by Barenaked Ladies
from the album Stunt
Released	September 22, 1998 (1998-09-22)
Format	CD, 7", 12", cassette
Recorded	1998
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	2:52
Label	Reprise
Writer(s)	Ed Robertson
Producer	Barenaked Ladies, David Leonard, Susan Rogers
Barenaked Ladies singles chronology
"Brian Wilson (2000)" (1997) "One Week" (1998) "It's All Been Done" (1998)
Music video "One Week" on YouTube

"One Week" is a 1998 single by Barenaked Ladies, the first single off their 1998 album, Stunt. It was written by Ed Robertson, who is featured on the lead vocal of the rapped verses. Steven Page sings lead on the song's chorus, while the two co-lead the prechoruses in harmony. The song is notable for its significant number of pop culture references. It is one of the band's signature songs. The song hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and, fittingly, spent one week at #1.

"One Week" is the band's best-performing single on the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom, though it slightly under-performed several other singles in the band's native Canada. It was the band's first and only number one single in the U.S. on both the Hot 100 (for one week) and the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks (for five non-consecutive weeks). the song spent seven weeks at number 3 on the Hot 100 Airplay and an additional four at number two land locked behind the Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris". Both "The Old Apartment" and "Brian Wilson" barely broke the top 100 of the US chart. The band's US chart success has not been equaled, and was neared only by followup singles "It's All Been Done" and "Pinch Me", the first single off follow-up album Maroon; both broke the top 50 of the U.S. Hot 100.

In 1999, American parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a parody titled "Jerry Springer," about a man's strange obssession with The Jerry Springer Show, for his album Running with Scissors.

The song has been featured numerous times in other media, including Digimon: The Movie, the first American Pie movie, the video game Alvin and the Chipmunks, and in an ad for Mitsubishi Lancer, which featured teens trying to sing the song but being unable to keep up with the fast rapping at some points.

History

Ed Robertson wrote the ideas for the non-rap 'choruses' with the concept being the structure of a fight where the protagonist knows they are wrong and is just trying to save face. He wanted to come up with a rapping verse for the song but all attempts failed. Bandmate Steven Page suggested he simply improvise the rap as the two commonly did onstage every night. Robertson heeded the advice and set up a video camera. He improvised the song at a slower pace to make rhyming easier and arrived at about four minutes of rap. He sent it to Page who told him not to change a word. Two minutes of the improvising was almost directly compiled (with very little, if any, tweaking) into the verses of the song. As it is improvised, it is not intended to directly have any relation to the plot of the chorus sections. The lyrics in the liner notes from Stunt contain some additional lines that did not make it into the recorded version.

Band members have stated that the first live run-through of "One Week" did not go well, and that it took some time to get the song to sound good live. The instrumental parts are played by band members, notably Ed Robertson and Steven Page on guitar, and Kevin Hearn sometimes on guitar and sometimes on keyboards; as well, while Hearn was away from touring shortly after the song's release, his place at shows was taken by one of two other musicians on keyboards who each added their own unique parts to the song, helping to shape its live sound early.

The song is also featured on the third installment of the Big Shiny Tunes series, Big Shiny Tunes 3.

In performances starting in 2003, the band developed an acoustic, bluegrass version of the song. It is typically used in a new performance setting they developed on the Peepshow Tour that year, in which they play acoustically while they stand around and sing into one omni-directional microphone.

With the departure of Page in early 2009, Robertson has taken over singing Page's lead chorus vocal, while Page's harmonies have been performed by drummer Tyler Stewart.

Music video

The music video was directed by McG and begins with them singing in a royal court, featuring a singing girl on a wind-up pedestal, similar to a scene from the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. During the interlude they make an escape and sing while driving a lookalike of The General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard (using the numbers 07 instead of 01 and minus the Confederate flag on the roof) and Starsky & Hutch's Ford Gran Torino. The band drives into a suburb, where they perform a concert in front of a trailer, with a female motorcyclist, dressed like Evel Knievel, performing stunts. The video ends with a shot of the cyclist stuck on a tree. The video features Carmit Bachar from the Pussycat Dolls, playing an angel.

Charts

Peak positions Chart (1998) Peak position Canadian RPM Singles Chart 3 UK Singles Chart 5 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay 2 U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream 1 U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks 1 U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40 2 U.S. Billboard Top 40 Tracks 3

End of year charts End of year chart (1998) Position U.S. Billboard Hot 100[1] 51

Preceded by "The First Night" by Monica	Billboard Hot 100 number-one single October 17, 1998	Succeeded by "The First Night" by Monica
Preceded by "Inside Out" by Eve 6	Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single August 22, 1998 September 5–26, 1998	Succeeded by "Inside Out" by Eve 6

References

1. ^ "Billboard Top 100 - 1998". http://longboredsurfer.com/charts.php?year=1998. Retrieved 2010-08-28.