Song Of The Week: 7/22/12

Song: "One For The Razorbacks"

Artist: Green Day

Album: "Kerplunk"

Year: 1992



"One For The Razorbacks" appears to be a song about trying to win the heart and hand of a girl who has just come off a painful break-up with someone else. He knows he's not perfect or anything like that, but he's trying hard to win her over. She's just finding it too hard to get over the lies and mistrust of her previous relationship. Green Day formed as a band back in 1987, hailing from Berkeley, California. The band started out on small label Lookout Records, which released their first album, 1990's "39/Smooth" as well as their second album, 1992's "Kerplunk". While the band was formed by vocalist/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and bassist Mike Dirnt, it was on "Kerplunk" that the band rounded out it's line-up adding drummer Tre Cool. In 1994, Green Day caught the wave of the punk revival movement, signed to a major label, Reprise Records and released the hugely successful album "Dookie". "Dookie" was a monstrous success for Green Day, selling more than ten million albums in the U.S. alone. Suddenly, the music world began having major interest in the Green Days, Offsprings, Rancids and Bad Religions. Punk was once again vital. Green Day's next two albums, 1995's "Insomniac" and 1997's "Nimrod" weren't nearly as successful as "Dookie" but still achieved double platinum status. 2000's "Warning" had people wondering if Green Day had finally run it's course as a band. It had it's moments, but continued a downward trend of record sales for Green Day. In 2003, Green Day were preparing to record an album which was titled "Cigarettes & Valentines" but all the master recordings were stolen leaving the band wondering if they should scrap the entire project. The stolen recordings actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Green Day however, as the band would begin to work on their most ambitious project to date, 2004's "American Idiot". "American Idiot" gave Green Day a whole new audience of younger fans as well as bringing back the older ones. The album was a rock opera. Green Day was becoming a band closer resembling The Who than when they used to be more like The Ramones. "American Idiot" would sell more than five million records in the U.S. In 2009, Green Day released their eighth studio album, yet another ambitious concept project called "21st Century Breakdown". Where Green Day started out kind of snotty, slacker punks, now they were writing songs which were geared towards social and political issues. All in all, Green Day has sold more than 65 million records worldwide, making them one of the biggest rock and roll bands out there today. Their success has also earned them five Grammy Awards as well. Currently, Green Day is about to release three albums in a span of five months. "Uno!" will be released in September of 2012, "Dos!" will be released in November of 2012 and "Tre!" will be released in January of 2013.