Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

"Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm"
Single by Crash Test Dummies
from the album God Shuffled His Feet
Released	October 1993 (U.S.)
Format	CD single
Recorded	Music Head Recording in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
Genre	Alternative rock, folk rock
Length	3:55
Label	BMG/Arista
Writer(s)	Brad Roberts
Producer	Jerry Harrison, Crash Test Dummies
Crash Test Dummies singles chronology
"The First Noel" (1992) "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" (1993) "Swimming in Your Ocean" (1994)
Music sample Crash Test Dummies - "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm"

"Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" is a single by the Canadian folk-rock group Crash Test Dummies, featured on their 1993 album God Shuffled His Feet.

Track listings

CD maxi

1. "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" — 3:53
2. "Here I Stand Before Me" — 3:07
3. "Superman's Song" (live from the U.S. public radio program Mountain Stage)

7" single

1. "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" — 3:53
2. "Here I Stand Before Me" — 3:07

U.S. single

1. "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" — 3:53
2. "Superman's Song" (album version) — 4:31
3. "How Does a Duck Know?" — 3:42

Song lyrics

Each verse describes the isolation and suffering of a child, two of whom have a physical abnormality; a boy whose hair has prematurely whitened from shock and a girl covered in birthmarks. The third child is a boy whose parents take him with them to their church, where they 'shake and lurch' on the floor. His situation is said to be worse than the other children's.

An alternative version sometimes performed at live concerts replaced the third verse with one concerning a boy whose mother disposed of his tonsils after a tonsillectomy, thus depriving him of the possibility of bringing them to show and tell.^[1]

Music video

The associated music video sets the song's lyrics as the script for a series of one-act plays performed by school children. Throughout, the scenes of the performance are intercut with scenes of the Crash Test Dummies performing the song at stage side.

The first act, set at a city intersection, tells the story of a young boy who was involved in a car crash. His hair turned white due to the force of the crash.

The second act tells the story of a girl that never used to "change with the girls in the change room", until one day the other girls (portrayed in the act as three inquisitive detectives) force her to change with them, only to discover that her body was covered in birthmarks.

The final act tells of a boy that lives under the strict discipline of his austere parents and how his family attends a church, where church-goers shake and lurch during the services. During the verse, the "boy" nervously looks into the audience at a couple who seem uneasy with the subject, implying that the three are the family being sung about.

Reception

Although highly successful when it was released, "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" has since been frequently included on lists of bad songs. The song was number 15 on VH1's 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever, named by Rolling Stone the "15th Most Annoying Song",^[2] and ranked at #31 both on Blender's list of the "50 Worst Songs Ever"^[3] and, most recently, on AOL Radio's list of the 100 Worst Songs Ever (Matthew Wilkening called the song "Not only bad but amazingly monotone and depressing," and "Absolutely the last song to play for your sad friends").^[4]

In a 1994 essay in which he makes the case that modern life is better than life in the past, humorist P.J. O'Rourke wrote "Even the bad things are better than they used to be. Bad music, for instance, has gotten much briefer. Wagner's Ring Cycle takes four days to perform while "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by the Crash Test Dummies lasts little more than three minutes."^[5]

The track received a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, which it lost to "I Swear" by All-4-One.^[6]

Uses in the media

• "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied the song with "Headline News", which instead described three popular news events of 1993-1994.
• Appears in the European release of the PlayStation 2 video game SingStar 90s.
• Featured in the 1994 film Dumb and Dumber.
• Featured in episodes of I Love the 90s, Cold Case, How I Met Your Mother.
• Covered by The Rock-afire Explosion.^[7]

Charts and sales

Outside their home country of Canada, the single became the band's most successful song, reaching #4 in the U.S. and #2 in the UK -- the group's biggest hit in both countries. It also reached #1 on the Modern Rock Chart in the U.S. and in Australia.

In Canada, the song was a comparative flop. While the Crash Test Dummies had 6 singles reach the Canadian top ten, "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" was not one of them. In Canada, the single stalled at #14.

Peak positions Chart (1994) Peak position Australian ARIA Singles Chart[8] 1 Austrian Singles Chart[8] 3 Canada RPM Top 100 14 Dutch Top 40[9] 4 French SNEP Singles Chart[8] 5 German Singles Chart[10] 1 Irish Singles Chart[11] 3 New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart[8] 4 Norwegian Singles Chart[8] 1 Swedish Singles Chart[8] 1 Swiss Singles Chart[8] 7 UK Singles Chart[12] 2 U.S. Billboard Hot 100[13] 4 U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks[13] 25 U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks[13] 1 U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream[13] 6

Year-end charts Chart (1994) Position Australian Singles Chart[14] 14 Austrian Singles Chart[15] 11 Dutch Top 40[9] 29 French Singles Chart[16] 32 Swiss Singles Chart[17] 19 U.S. Billboard Hot 100[18] 35 Certifications Country Certification Date Sales certified Germany[19] Gold 1994 150,000 Norway[20] Platinum 1994 10,000 UK[21] Silver May 1, 1994 200,000 U.S.[22] Gold July 4, 1994 500,000

Chart successions

Preceded by "Loser" by Beck	Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single March 12, 1994 (1 week)	Succeeded by "God" by Tori Amos
Preceded by "Loser" by Beck	Norwegian VG-Lista number-one single 24/1994 - 29/1994 (6 weeks)	Succeeded by "Love Is All Around" by Wet Wet Wet
Preceded by "Without You" by Mariah Carey	Swedish number-one single June 3, 1994 - June 17, 1994 (3 weeks)	Succeeded by "Baby, I Love Your Way" by Big Mountain
Preceded by "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" by Prince	Australian (ARIA) number-one single June 11, 1994 - June 25, 1994 (3 weeks)	Succeeded by "Love Is All Around" by Wet Wet Wet
Preceded by "United" by Prince Ital Joe and Marky Mark	German number-one single July 15, 1994 (1 week)	Succeeded by "I Swear" by All-4-One

References

1. ^ http://www.crashtestdummies.com/faq/index.html#mmmwords
2. ^ The 20 Most Annoying Songs : Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily^{[dead link]}
3. ^ The 50 Worst Songs Ever! Watch, Listen and Cringe! from Blender.com (Retrieved May 3, 2008)^{[dead link]}
4. ^ Wilkening, Matthew (September 11, 2010). "100 Worst Songs Ever -- Part Four of Five". AOL Radio. http://www.aolradioblog.com/2010/09/11/100-worst-songs-ever-part-four-of-five/. Retrieved December 24, 2010. 
5. ^ O'Rourke, P.J. (1994), All the trouble in the world. The lighter side of famine, pestilence, destruction and death. Sydney (Picador), 3-4
6. ^ 37th Grammy Awards - 1995 from RockOnTheNet.com (Retrieved February 18, 2010)
7. ^ YouTube - Broadcast Yourself
   • "Amateur Transpnats" also parodied the song and depicts the story of a man who has a stroke.
8. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm", in various singles charts Lescharts.com (Retrieved April 26, 2008)
9. ^ ^{a b} "Single top 100 over 1994" (in Dutch) (pdf). Top40. http://www.top40.nl/pdf/Top%20100/top%20100%20-%201994.pdf. Retrieved 17 April 2010. 
10. ^ "Crash Test Dummies singles, German Singles Chart" (in German). musicline. http://www.musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/artist/Crash+Test+Dummies/single. Retrieved 17 April 2010. 
11. ^ Irish Single Chart Irishcharts.ie (Retrieved April 26, 2008)
12. ^ UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved April 26, 2008)
13. ^ ^{a b c d} Billboard Allmusic.com (Retrieved August 28, 2008)
14. ^ 1994 Australian Singles Chart aria.com (Retrieved April 20, 2008)
15. ^ 1994 Austrian Singles Chart Austriancharts.at (Retrieved August 28, 2008)
16. ^ 1994 French Singles Chart Disqueenfrance.com (Retrieved January 30, 2009)
17. ^ 1994 Swiss Singles Chart Hitparade.ch (Retrieved April 26, 2008)
18. ^ "Billboard Top 100 - 1994". http://longboredsurfer.com/charts.php?year=1994. Retrieved 2010-08-27. 
19. ^ "German certifications – Mmm+Mmm+Mmm+Mmm" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie. http://www.musikindustrie.de/gold_platin_datenbank/?action=suche&strTitel=Mmm%2BMmm%2BMmm%2BMmm&strInterpret=&strTtArt=alle&strAwards=checked. Retrieved April 24, 2008. 
20. ^ Norwegian certifications Ifpi.no (Retrieved August 28, 2008)
21. ^ UK certifications Bpi.co.uk (Retrieved August 28, 2008)
22. ^ U.S. certifications riaa.com (Retrieved April 24, 2008)

External links

• Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm at MusicBrainz