Why Can't We Be Friends? (song)

"Why Can't We Be Friends?"
Single by War
from the album Why Can't We Be Friends?
B-side	"In Mazatlan"
Released	1975
Format	7"
Recorded	1974
Genre	Funk, R&B
Length	3:49
Label	ABC, United Artists Records
Writer(s)	Papa Dee Allen, Harold Ray Brown, B. B. Dickerson, Lonnie Jordan, Charles Miller, Lee Oskar, Howard E. Scott
Producer	Jerry Goldstein
War singles chronology
"Ballero" (1974) "Why Can't We Be Friends?" (1975) "Low Rider" (1975)

"Why Can't We Be Friends?" is a song by the band War. The song has a simple structure, with the phrase "Why can't we be friends?" being sung four times after each two-line verse amounting to over forty times in under four minutes. It was played in space when NASA beamed it to the linking of Soviet cosmonauts and U.S. astronauts in 1975. "Why Can't We Be Friends?" charted at number six in 1975.^{[citation needed]}

Use in film and television

"Why Can't We Be Friends?", in its various versions and sometimes versions created for the film itself, has been featured in a number of Hollywood films, including: Dazed and Confused (1993), BASEketball (1998), Lethal Weapon 4's (1998) end credits (combined with pictures of the cast and crew from all four movies), Cheats (2002), Welcome to Mooseport (2004), Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005), Bridge to Terabithia (2007), College Road Trip (2008), Semi-Pro (2008), The Final Destination (2009) as well as the animated short, The ChubbChubbs! (2002), and animated television series, The Simpsons (in the 1996 episode "The Homer They Fall") and King of the Hill (in the 2006 episode "Hank Fixes Everything"). It was featured in a TV commercial for XM Satellite Radio, and was used again for a 2010 ad for Pepsi Max. It was also used in the television show Everybody Hates Chris.

Tom DeLay and Cheryl Burke danced Samba to it on Dancing with the Stars, with DeLay's outfit representing Republicans and Burke's representing Democrats. The song is also used in the end credits of the 2010 film Cats and Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore.

Cover versions

• The song was later covered by Smash Mouth on their album Fush Yu Mang. This version was used in trailers for Ice Age (although it was not heard in the movie), on an episode of Lizzie McGuire, Cartoon Network UK commercials and in the movies BASEketball and Wild Things.
• It was covered by ska/soul band The Pietasters.
• The Muppets did a cover as part of the opening number on The Muppet Show episode featuring guest star John Denver. This version was set in the trenches of the First World War and featured various Muppets in costume from different periods of war (e.g. Napoleonic Wars, World War I, American Civil War).
• It was covered by reggae artist Jacob Miller on his album Tenement Yard.
• Keef G and Krayzie Bone of Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony used the song as the main hook of their 2011 song, "Smoking Weed Again". In their song, a narrator describes his tenuous relationship with marijuana, but eventually decides to embrace it as a friend, keeping with the thematic message of the original song.

Use in other songs

• The song is mentioned in the Dave Matthews Band song "Funny the Way It Is" from their 2009 album Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King.

Chart positions (Smash Mouth version)

Chart (1998)	Position
Netherlands Singles Chart	89
New Zealand Singles Chart	39
Swedish Singles Chart	29
U.S. Billboard Alternative Songs	28