Jimmy Olsen's Blues by Spin Doctors

Album: Pocket Full of Kryptonite (1991)

Charted: 40 78

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Songfacts®:

This song is written from the perspective of Jimmy Olsen, a character in the Superman comic books. Olsen is a young photographer who in this song is envisioned with a case of depression, as he feels overshadowed by his co-workers, Clark Kent and Lois Lane. It's one of the few Superman songs that isn't about the man in the red suit.
The album title also has a Superman theme: kryptonite is substance from Superman's home planet that takes away his powers. Explaining the phrase "pocket full of kryptonite," lead singer Chris Barron said: "No matter who you are, how good-looking you are, how strong you are or what nationality you are, somewhere in your soul there's a kernel of uniqueness, goodness and beauty. The pocket full of kryptonite is a metaphor for the gem at the bottom of every soul."
A band composition, this was the third Spin Doctors single. It reached its peak chart position in America in October 1993, more than two years after the album was released.
Chris Barron was 19 years old when he wrote this song. "I was doing an internship in Providence, Rhode Island, at a country/western radio station," he said in an interview promoting the 20th anniversary release of the album. "I had some friends that went to Brown University and I was staying with them, so I was spending a lot of time at Brown and I was broke. So, I came up with this ruse to eat. I stole an apron from the cafeteria and I would put the apron on and I would walk through the cafeteria like I worked there. Once I got out into the eating area, I would take the apron off and I would just start eating. I'm an essentially honest person, so I didn't feel good about basically stealing food from the cafeteria. I was sitting there feeling kind of bad, but also being glad to not be hungry anymore. A young woman walked in and looked just like Lois Lane, so my songwriter mind was working. I was looking at her and thinking if she's Lois Lane, I'm certainly not superman, who am I in this drama. I thought I'm more like that nerdy photographer guy, Jimmy Olsen, and that was the beginning of that song."

Comments: 1

Monti from Usa Loved the originality of the Spin Doctors from the first time I saw them perform on SNL. I think they’re downfall was this was their peak. I know surgery slowed em down but I still listen to Pocket Full Of Kryptonite

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