Trouble
by Pink

Album: Try This (2003)
Charted: 7 68
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • If you happen to see Pink walking your way, you'd better run because she's trouble - at least that's the message she's sending on this pop friendly punk-rock tune. "It's not like a high-concept song, 'Trouble,' it's just a fun song and it's about attitude," she explained in MTV's Making The Video.
  • This won the Grammy award for Pink for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
  • The video, directed by Sophie Muller, features the LA dance troupe The Pussycat Dolls when they were known for their old-fashioned burlesque routines rather than as the recording artists into which they evolved. In the clip, Pink plays an uppity Old West vixen who rides into Sharktown to seek revenge for something that happened to her there in the past. When she spots some men abusing a horse, she launches into attack mode. (Pink has a soft spot for animals and was outraged by the poor treatment of an elephant during the making of her "Just Like A Pill" video.")

    Avengers actor Jeremy Renner plays the sheriff who hauls Pink to jail when she incites a bar fight. Kelsey Lewis, who starred in Pink's "Family Portrait" video, also makes a cameo appearance as the little girl who sees Pink's arrival.
  • This was the second single from Pink's third album, Try This, following "Feel Good Time."
  • Pink teamed up with Tim Armstrong of the punk-rock band Rancid for Try This. Armstrong initially wrote it for Rancid's 2003 album, Indestructible, but they didn't end up using it, so he and Pink reworked it. The pair wrote 10 songs together in two weeks, with nine of them ending up on the album. Armstrong told MTV News of their sessions: "We could just sit down and my voice would be all f---ed up, and she would sing like an angel. She can stack, like, five harmonies real quick. She's a very talented singer and a very talented lyricist."
  • Pink invited Armstrong to co-write her album after she toured with his side project, the Transplants. A collaboration with a pop star didn't sit well with diehard Rancid fans, who were already irked at the once-indie band for signing a major label deal that same year. But Armstrong didn't care if anyone gave him grief over working with Pink. He told MTV: "All I know is that if people are gonna give me s--t for working with the best woman vocalist in the world right now, then let them give me s--t," he said. "Pink is the s--t, and working with her has been all positive."
  • Going into her sessions for Try This, Pink's goal was to have fun. Her previous album, the breakthrough smash Missundazstood, brought the singer's childhood woes to the forefront in the song "Family Portrait," which detailed her feelings about her parents' divorce. After touring in support of the album, she was tired of dredging up her family drama and was desperate for some levity. She told Variety in 2019: "I had gone around the world for two years promoting and touring that record and every single interview was a therapy session about my parents' divorce. I was so burnt out by the end of that cycle that I didn't care. I didn't want to talk about anything personal. I didn't want to write about anything deep. I just wanted to make a fun f--king record with Tim Armstrong from Rancid and the Transplants, who I love. He was awesome and I didn't care what anybody thought."
  • Pink performed this on the December 6, 2003 episode of Saturday Night Live.
  • This was used in these TV shows:

    Warehouse 13 ("Instinct" - 2013)
    RuPaul's Drag Race ("Queens Behind Bars" - 2012)
    Psych ("Extradition: British Columbia" - 2009)
    Smallville ("Magnetic" - 2003)

    And in these movies:

    Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011)
    Derailed (2005)
    Ice Princess (2005)
    Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous (2005)
    The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004)
    White Chicks (2004)
  • In 2005, a version by Welsh singer Shakin' Stevens peaked at #20 in the UK.
  • Armstrong recorded this in 2012 as Tim Timebomb.
  • Although Try This earned a Platinum certification for 1 million copies sold, it was Pink's lowest-selling album.

Comments: 4

  • Kenne from Phoenix, Az"Trouble" is the only song that Pink has won a Grammy for that she sung without other famous singers to date (2013) for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in 2004. She also was a partial winner for Lady Marmalade and Imagine, which she collaborated on.
  • Kenne from Phoenix, AzJeremy Renner plays the sheriff in this video. He later went on to star in movies such as Avengers, Hurt Locker, and Bourne Legacy.
  • Sara from Traverse City, MiI love pink she is one of my faviort singers beacuse she keeps it real and isn't fake.
  • Stacy from Sunbury, AustraliaI love this song, it is one of my favourites of P!NK's. GO P!NK!!!!! CHICKS RULE!!!!!
see more comments

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