Flagpole Sitta
| "Flagpole Sitta" | ||||||
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| Single by Harvey Danger | ||||||
| from the album Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? | ||||||
| B-side | "The Ballad of the Tragic Hero (Pity and Fear)" | |||||
| Released | April 21, 1998 | |||||
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| Recorded | 1996 | |||||
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| Length | 3:37 | |||||
| Label | Slash | |||||
| Writer(s) | Sean Nelson, Jeff J. Lin, Aaron Huffman, Evan Sult | |||||
| Producer(s) | John Goodmanson, Harvey Danger | |||||
| Harvey Danger singles chronology | ||||||
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"Flagpole Sitta" is a song by American rock band Harvey Danger from their 1997 debut album, Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? According to drummer Evan Sult, the song was written as a response to the Seattle music scene of the 1990s and its effect on mainstream culture. The song's title is a version of the expression, "flagpole sitter," a test-of-endurance fad that was popular in the mid-to-late 1920s.
It was released as a single in April 1998. The song gained popularity after Sean Nelson gave a copy of the album to a KNDD DJ. Shortly after this, it was picked up by KROQ-FM. It then appeared at #38 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart. A music video was produced to promote the single. The song is regarded as a power pop single by MTV and a post-grunge anthem by author Ericka Chickowski.PopMatters describes the single as "a hyper-literate alt-rock dissection of the stupidity of the modern age". Music journalist Rob Sheffield also considers the song as "nineties pop-punk rage at its loudest".
The song was used in the films Disturbing Behavior, American Pie and My Dead Boyfriend.
The song has been the theme song for the British comedy Peep Show since its second series. It also appeared briefly in the first series as background music in a bowling alley. In 2008, Harvey Danger singer Sean Nelson stated that Peep Show is "...the only pop culture item the song has been associated with that feels like a kindred spirit to the original attitude of the lyric." In 2016, he reaffirmed his pleasure at the use of the song in the show, stating "It’s a joy to be affiliated with something that’s so smart and so funny and so kind of rude and weird."
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