American Idiot (song)

"American Idiot"
Song

"American Idiot" is a song by American Rock band Green Day, and is the first single from their seventh album, American Idiot.

Released in 2004, the single peaked at #61 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Green Day's first chart entry (previous singles had not charted), helping revive the band's career. However, it should be noted that the appearance of "American Idiot" on the US singles charts occurred just prior to Billboard Magazine's inclusion of internet download purchases into their Hot 100 chart data, which would have made a significant difference in the song's peak had it benefitted from the new chart tabulation system. This most recent form of sales assessment has resulted in the far greater successes of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Holiday" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends".

"American Idiot" became Green Day's first Top 5 single in the United Kingdom, reaching #3, and peaked at #7 in Australia. It debuted at #1 in Canada, holding onto the zenith position for five weeks.

Song information

The song was written by all three members of Green Day, and was co-produced by Green Day and Rob Cavallo. It is in the key of A-flat major, and is widely known for the guitar riff that plays through the whole song, excluding the chorus.

"American Idiot" ridicules the U.S. government under George W. Bush, referring to such issues as gay rights, propaganda, media, and George Bush's southern background. American Idiot has also been certified as an RIAA Gold (500,000 downloads) along with Boulevard of Broken Dreams, American Idiot's second single.

The song helped pave the road for the future American Idiot singles, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" (which, in a great turnaround, would reach #2 in the U.S.), "Holiday" (a Top 30 hit worldwide), "Wake Me Up When September Ends" (which would reach #6 in the U.S. and the Top 20 worldwide), and "Jesus of Suburbia".

Singles

Two separate singles for the song were released. One single contains the song "American Idiot", as well as two B-sides, "Shoplifter" and "Governator". The latter two songs were both recorded in 2003 and never intended to be used on the American Idiot album. Another single exists with only one B-side, the song Too Much Too Soon.

There are two separate single covers as well, one shows the mom and the dad holding a kid while running, and the other shows them swinging him over a bear trap. The mom and dad may be the "Mom" and "Brad" characters from Jesus of Suburbia.

Trivia

• The song was featured in the trailer for the 2005 film Wedding Crashers.
• The song features on the soundtrack of the American Football video game Madden NFL 2005.
• The song was parodied by "Weird Al" Yankovic on his album Straight Outta Lynwood. The parody is called "Canadian Idiot" and is a satirical commentary on American nationalism and the stereotypical American view of Canadians.
• Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covered this song into a lounge style on their 2005 album Aperitif for Destruction.
• The intro to the song is said to be borrowed heavily from Dillinger Four's "Doublewhiskeycokenoice", from their 1998 album "Midwestern Songs of the Americas"
• The song was the closing theme song for the first season of the "Andy Milonakis" show.