Songfacts®:

• Guitarist D. Boon wrote "Corona" following a trip to Mexico on Independence Day in 1982 with his fellow Minutemen bandmates. The band fell asleep on the beach, and when they awoke, they saw a Mexican lady collecting their empty beer bottles, which she could then return to the distributor for a very small cash reward. Moved by what he saw, Boon wrote this song for the Mexican people living in poverty.
• An instrumental version of this song was used as the theme tune for both the Jackass television series and film franchise. >>>

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• The song title derives from the Mexican beer of the same name.
• Minutemen were not your average hardcore punk band. In fact, "Corona" leans more towards polka-rock than it does punk. The double album from which the song is lifted, Double Nickels On The Dime, is marked for its eclectic sound palette. Nowadays, it is regarded as one of the most influential alternative albums of the 1980s. Minutemen bassist, Mike Watt told Songfacts that Double Nickels... was the best record that he has ever played on: "That was a peak of ours. And now looking back even more so."
• The song was produced by Ethan James, who worked on the entire Double Nickels on the Dime album. James produced and engineered Double Nickels on the Dime at his own Radio Tokyo Studio in Venice, California. Alongside Minutemen, James produced and engineered albums for other prominent artists like Black Flag and the Bangles.
  
  Mike Watt told Mojo magazine: "We recorded Double Nickels over two three-day sessions, months apart, on an 8-track Otari machine for $1,100 and Ethan James mixed the whole thing in one night."
• The album title refers to driving exactly at the speed limit, 55 mph, in response to the Sammy Hagar song, "I Can't Drive 55."
  
  "We were gonna drive safe and make crazy music, while that clown was gonna drive crazy and make safe music," Watt told Mojo. "We went in the studio and played like it was a gig, but with the tapes rolling. And we let it all out, this weird, weird collection of things – everything we were about."