Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

"Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm"

Single by Crash Test Dummies

from the album God Shuffled His Feet

Released

October 1, 1993

Format

CD single

Recorded

1993 (Music Head Recording in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin)

Genre

Alternative rock,folk rock

Length

3:55

BMG/Arista

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 song by the Canadian folk rock group Crash Test Dummies, It was released in October 1993 as the first single from their second album God Shuffled His Feet. It was very successful all around the world, peaking at number one in Germany, Australia and on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart. It also became a top five hit in both the UK Singles Chart and the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

As the VH1 program Pop-Up Video pointed out, Roberts decided to hum the "refrain" rather than to sing it because humming "sounded more resigned." Likewise, he never wrote lyrics for the refrain. Roberts himself became one of the few bass-baritones to be featured in popular music in "the rock era."

Each verse describes the isolation and suffering of a child, two of whom have a physical abnormality. In the first verse, a boy is injured in a car accident and misses school for an extended period; when he returns to class, his hair has changed color from black to white. In the second verse, a girl refuses to change clothes in the presence of other girls due to the birthmarks that cover her body. The third child is a boy whose parents make him come directly home after school; during services at their church, they "shake and lurch" across the floor. During a 2010 live performance for the Dutch radio station Kink FM, Brad Roberts whispered "Pentecostal" during the third verse, suggesting this is the denomination of the church.

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.

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 video director had nicknames for each of the key characters, as revealed when the selection was featured on Pop-Up Video; these are cited after the respective acts.

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Wikipedia