All Star (song)

"All Star"
Song

For the record label, see All Star Records

"All Star" is a single by Smash Mouth. It was featured on their album Astro Lounge and is the group's most successful song. The music video for the song featured cameos from Jim Carrey, Ben Stiller, Kel Mitchell and, relatively unknown at the time, Dane Cook. The video was produced to promote the film Mystery Men and was directed by McG.

Lead singer Steven Harwell has said that his first instinct after recording the song was not to release it as a single but to sell it to advertisers.

Soon after its release the song became quite ubiquitous in pop culture. In addition to Mystery Men, it was included in the opening credits to the film Shrek (where it was originally scratch music), and Smash Mouth performing the song closes out the film Rat Race. In Canada it was featured in the album Big Shiny Tunes 4. The song was also featured in the soundtrack to Digimon: The Movie and is the last song played before the movie ends. The song was also performed live at the 1999 MLB All Star Game. The song was also featured in one scene in the movie Inspector Gadget.

On July 11, 2006, "All Star" was the wakeup song on the Space Shuttle Discovery. It was also featured in the North American release of the video game Donkey Konga 2.

The song reached number 2 on the Modern Rock Tracks and number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Personnel

*Steven Harwell - Lead vocals

• Greg Camp - Guitar, additional keyboards, main songwriting, backing vocals from Europe
• Paul De Lisle - Bass, backing vocals
• Kevin Coleman - Drums
• Jacquire King - Remixing, Mixing, Recording, Pro-Tools
• Eric Valentine - Producer, Engineer, Mixer

Lyrical references

• The line "with her finger and her thumb in the shape of an 'L' on her forehead" refers to the popular mocking hand gesture "Loser".

• The line "all that glitters is gold" is probably a parody of the proverb, "All that glitters is not gold." It may also be a parody of the well-known line from the Led Zeppelin song Stairway to Heaven.

• Given that it accompanies other metaphorical references to weather, and is followed by a line referring to a "hole in the satellite picture" (probably a reference to the hole in the ozone layer), the term "meteor man" in the line "but the meteor men beg to differ" most likely refers to television meteorologists. It may or may not also be a pun referring back to the line "only shooting stars break the mold", since a meteor is also referred to as a "shooting star".

• The second verse is as follows:

"It's a cool place, and they say it gets colder. You're bundled up now, wait til' you get older. But the meteor men beg to differ judging by the hole in the satellite picture.

The ice we skate is getting pretty thin. The water's getting warm, so you might as well swim. My world's on fire, how bout yours? That's the way I like it and I never get bored"

When viewed from a scientific perspective, this aspect of the song seems to be indirectly referring to global warming.

In Other Media

• In the Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends episode One False Movie, the song Wilt sings in Bloo's movie sounds very similar to all-star.

• In the movie Rat Race, Smashmouth appears in the final scene and performs All Star as the credits roll.