History Repeating – Another Icon of Pop Music Dies Too Soon

By now, most of my readers are pretty sure that I was born several decades too late – but have decided to live there anyway. My tastes in popular entertainment were formed by those at least a generation before my time, and I write here quite a lot about music from the era before rock & roll was even a twinkle in anyone’s eye. In real life, however, my tastes can range quite widely and music from even relatively recently is something I can appreciate – if it has something to set it apart.

Most people can get a little snobby about “pop music”. For those with “discerning tastes” (and don’t we all think of ourselves as being in that group?) we can look down our noses at pop musicians who aren’t “rock” enough or aren’t “jazz” enough or aren’t “classical” enough. These musicians are not “authentic” and do not perform things that are musically original or impressive.

I will confess to you, however, that I am a fan of good pop music from almost any era. I say “good” pop music, which I count as pretty much anything that sets itself apart from the massive stream from which it comes. Much pop music is forgettable and for good reason. But some of it stands out, whether because of an uncommonly good musical hook, or memorable lyrics, or just from turning out an infectious beat. Every decade has those songs that go from ubiquity on the radio to becoming an anthem from its decade or era.

I could never have imagined a week ago that it would matter to me that Steve Harwell recently died at the age of 56. Harwell was the frontman and lead singer of the band Smash Mouth that was big in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Another confession: it has only been in the past few days that I knew who Harwell was. But in one of those odd coindences in life, I became aware of him just in time for him to pass away at a young age.

Marianne and I are always on the search for a good movie on one of the streaming services. While on such a search we came across one we had never seen: the 2001 film “Rat Race”. “Rat Race” is a modernized and re-imagined take on the 1963 classic “It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World”, and features an ensemble cast playing characters randomly chosen by a casino magnate to race to Silver City, Nevada for a bag of money in a bus station locker – all for the entertainment of some high-stakes gamblers who follow their progress.

“Rat Race” is not in the same league as its older inspiration, but was a fun watch, which ends up with the money-chasing participants on the stage during a performance by Smash Mouth. It was then that I put the name of the band (which I had heard before) with the song that is one of the anthems of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

“All Star” is one of those songs that was everywhere in a time when I had young children. The song was constantly on the radio in the summer of 1999, and was also prominently featured in the original 2001 version of the movie “Shrek” – which was a movie that was impossible to avoid for parents of the under-ten set. From that time on, “All Star” has been one of those songs that always seemed to come on at every party – and probably still does (although I have largely aged out of the kind of party where it is typically played).

Why some songs break out of the pack and become iconic is hard to figure sometimes – but not for All Star. In addition to the great musical hook with its danceable beat and high energy level, it features lyrics that encourages underdogs and outcasts to find success by going for it and by shining as the best versions of themselves.

According to Wikipedia, the song was one of the last written for the band’s second album (“Astro Lounge”) after the producer asked for a couple more tracks suitable for airplay. It was written in just a day or two by guitarist Greg Camp and was the last song they recorded for the album. It was the first single released from the album and spent the entire summer of 1999 high up in the charts, eventually being certified as “triple platinum” for selling three-million copies.

Watching the band perform the song at the conclusion of “Rat Race” was my first opportunity to see Harwell’s magnetism on stage. He kind of embodied that song as a guy of modest talents and a not-great singing voice who could get on (and command) the stage and lead the crowd into a really good time.

A 1999 performance on Late Night with David Letterman is a better version for those not familiar with the song. Or for those who are familiar with the song, for that matter. I like the no-nonsense vibe that the musicians put out – one where they didn’t waste time on costumes and effects.

Unless you like the “official” music video. I like this one too, except for the goofy nonsense in the first thirty seconds.

Sadly, Harwell was brought down by a struggles with substance abuse that combined with (or caused) other physical and mental problems that resulted in him leaving the band in 2021 after some increasingly erratic behavior. Harwell’s too-young death from liver failure adds his name to the century-long list of musicians who have lived like there was no tomorrow until the tomorrows stopped coming long before they should have.

It is sad that it took Harwell’s death to put me into a long-delayed 90’s pop groove, but I suppose that is the biggest salute anyone could give to him. It is a trite cliché, of course (is there any cliché that is not trite?), but Harwell’s talents will remain on display for decades to come as “All Star” and other Smash Mouth hits are played an enjoyed wherever good times are to be found.

16 thoughts on “History Repeating – Another Icon of Pop Music Dies Too Soon”

  1. I never knew who Harwell was either until I put the pieces together. Who died? What band? What song? Ohhhh, that guy.

    As with jazz musicians it’s either the lifestyle is hazardous, or the lifestyle attracts people predisposed to hazard, or both. Harwell seems like the same sort of guy as Doug Bennett of Doug and the Slugs (who you probably never heard of but they were a modestly successful Canadian band, and I’m always partial to a band with a lead singer named Doug) who met the same fate at age 52.

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    • You raise a great question on musicians and lifestyle. There is probably some of both in play.

      I was too busy marveling over how a “kids band” playing in the late 90s could consist of guys in their 50s now. Yikes!

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  2. The song is catchy, but this really was the beginning of the end for my willingness to tolerate the radio overplay. I was too young to be too old to put up with that BS… but I quickly grew tired of hearing ‘that stupid song’ everywhere.

    The comments about substance abuse instantly brought to mind Syd Barrett… someone who died long before he died. It’s altogether a too-common tale in their profession.

    Rat Race is a great movie. Okay, maybe not great. It definitely falls in that ‘guilty pleasure’ realm for me. John Cleese? Rowan Atkinson? Yes, I’ll watch that. The others (like Jon Lovitz) were merely icing on the cake. It’s not the best work of anyone in it, but it definitely gets some laughs.

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    • Radio overplay was a thing in the 80s, 70s and 60s, too. At least the way I remember it. I guess maybe I’m nostalgic for pop music that was musical and not rap.

      I agree – Rat Race was not great cinema but it was a fun watch. Like a movie version of pop music, I suppose.

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      • I’m sure it always has been a problem/thing. I sort of quit listening to the radio over 10 years ago because I got sick of commercials and the same 5 songs being rotated during the rare break from commercials.

        As a kid growing up in southern Colorado, after the sun went down, we used to get KOMA (AM radio) out of Oklahoma City (about 500 miles away)… it was oldies (60s, early 70s) and they played the same handful of songs too.

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  3. One of Smash Mouth’s songs (Walking on the Sun) was used as a theme song in the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse at the time. That was how I came to know about the group. I had not known the singer’s name, only his distinctive voice.
    R.I.P.

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    • I’m trying to figure how Walking on the Sun ties in with a team theme, but it’s a good song, so why not.

      I guess this is proof that we’re all getting older – some faster than others.

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  4. Without looking at the first photo closely enough I thought you were going to write about Jimmy Buffett. But there’s plenty about him in the mainstream media already. Smashmouth is absolutely worth acknowledging (including their version of “I’m A Believer”). In a similar vein, the other day I chose Spotify’s “80’s Love Songs” playlist and was instantly transported back to my college years.

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    • I think these guys kind of finished out the era that started with new wave rock in the late 70s and early 80s. Most of those groups understood the vibe of 60s pop and these guys did especially. As anyone who could successfully cover the Monkees demonstrates.

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  5. I had actually never heard of Smash Mouth and only heard of Steve Harwell when the national news said he was in hospice and the next day he died. Unlike Jimmy Buffet, where there were many clips of his famous songs last weekend along with the news of his death, I heard no clips of this song or other songs associated with Steve Harwell’s death.. I clicked on both versions of this song and yes, I’ve heard of it, but couldn’t have told you what group or singer it was attributed to. I actually never heard of the movie “Rat Race” either. I’d best brush up on my pop culture. 🙂

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    • I think Buffet was so much a part of Boomer culture that he got all the press. Harwell spoke to a younger demographic and wasn’t around as long.

      You almost would have had to be a parent of millennial kids for Smash Mouth to make your radar. They certainly would not have been on mine otherwise.

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  6. Smash Mouth was a band that had sort of weird position in the music world. There’s more than one band that covers the same territory as well. They “seem” like an “alt” band the tattoo and art crowd would follow, especially because of the name, but the success of the music for the iHeart radio crowd, and pop music chops mean that they really don’t track for that art crowd. Maybe a guilty pleasure with a large group of listeners, but many that wouldn’t admit it in public?

    I have to say I’m familiar with their big hit, but since I never listen to anything but college radio and jazz, it just shows you how ubiquitous they must have been. I recently watched a video doc on how national radio has gotten as bad, and “choiceless” as it is, through allowing super large media companies to buy multiple stations in the same market, and enter into distribution deals with large music companies, and especially tour sponsoring companies, resulting in limited playlists. It basically smacks of a new version of the old pay-o-la scandals clothed in multiple layers of business hi-jinks and contracts so that the optics make it seem legit. Smash Mouth certainly owned the radio waves for the commercial AOR stations for a certain period of time.

    Not to start a firestorm, but I personally cannot stand Fleetwood Mac, and never have been able to. I consider them the most over-hyped and “calculated” band in the history of American radio, with banal songs touting pedestrian emotional themes for the non-intellectual. And yet, turn on any commercial “alleged” rock radio station in any town, and you’ll hear a song of theirs within fifteen minutes, literally forty years after their peak! I can tell you, it can’t be explained away by “popularity”, as based on how radio used to work, they shouldn’t even be in rotation. One of my jazz buddies, who gets occasional airplay on what few jazz stations exist in the country today, and hence gets to pick up a check every once and a while for it (for about a nickel), tells me that the inexplicable and constant playing of bands like Fleetwood Mac, based on the way the music companies calculate airplay pay, just sucks a lot of money out of the system for everyone else, and nobody can figure out why they’re even in the system any more? Sorry for the rant, but the rise and fall of bands like Smash Mouth make more sense with understanding how that system works!

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    • I have listened to quite a few of Smash Mouth’s songs over the last several days, and I agree that they cover an interesting bit of the spectrum. Their pop chops were really good, but they still played with a bit of “alternative” flavor. I feel bad for guys like that – they started much edgier (some call their first hit Walking On The Sun as their best in terms of musical quality) but if you wanted the success, you had to chase the mass audience. I think they did it as well as any in their time.

      I’m right there with you on Fleetwood Mac. During my last time spent listening to hit radio (the mid 80’s) their music was not something that did a thing for me. But they were played all the time. It still does nothing for me.

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