Songfacts®:

• Denny Randell and Sandy Linzer wrote this song for The Toys, who recorded it on their 1966 debut album along with 10 other Randell/Linzer compositions, including "A Lover's Concerto." It was later recorded by The Four Seasons, but it was a version by ? & the Mysterians ("96 Tears") that gave it a swinging rock sound. In 1985, a British group called The Colourfield recorded it, and in 1998 Smash Mouth became the first group to bring it into the Top 40 when they released it as the lead single from their Astro Lounge album.
  
  When we spoke with Denny Randell, he told us the Smash Mouth version was his favorite, and explained, "I felt, as with many songs, they could be performed in more than one way, and it was the first time that the song had been done in a rock bag. I think that was really the basis for it moving on from there, because what Colourfield did in the '80s, they performed it similarly, although the sound of the group was different - they were a great group. And the same thing with Smash Mouth. They're a phenomenal group and really hit it out of the park with our record. But it's interesting the way song just kept growing and getting into different bags."
• Lyrically, this is similar to many of the hit songs The Four Seasons recorded in the '60s, in that the singer was just crazy for the girl. Denny Randell tells us that he and Linzer came up with the title and went from there, knowing it was a great lyrical theme. Randell and Linzer wrote some of the Four Seasons' hits, including "Let's Hang On!" and "Working My My Back To You."
• This song first appeared on the soundtrack to the 1998 movie Can't Hardly Wait, and was used in the film along with another Smash Mouth song, "Walkin' On The Sun." Can't Hardly Wait starred pre-famous Jennifer Love Hewitt and Seth Green, who both appeared in the music video. The video was directed by McG, who also went big-time a few years later, directing the first two films in the Charlie's Angels franchise.
• This was the first single from Smash Mouth's second album, Astro Lounge; it was followed by their ubiquitous er, smash, "All Star." Smash Mouth did a popular cover of "Why Can't We Be Friends?" by War on their first album and later covered "I'm A Believer" by The Monkees.
• Running just 2:29, this was the shortest Top 40 hit of 1998.
• This was used in commercials for the Pizza Hut P'Zone, which caused a rift between Smash Mouth guitarist Greg Camp and the other members of the band. Camp didn't like using their songs in commercials, but was usually outvoted.