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Do the Bartman

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"Do the Bartman"
Song

"Do the Bartman" is a pop rap song from The Simpsons' 1990 album The Simpsons Sing the Blues. The song was performed by Nancy Cartwright and it was released on November 20, 1990. It was written by Michael Jackson and Bryan Loren, although Jackson did not receive any credit because he was under contract to another record label. That was until FOX aired the song's music video as the "couch gag" for a re-airing of the episode Wedding for Disaster on June 28 2009 in memory of him, having died 3 days earlier. Jackson was a fan of The Simpsons, especially Bart, and had called the producers one night offering to write Bart a number one single and do a guest spot on the show, which is how the song came about.

Although the song was never officially released as a single in the United States, it was very successful internationally, reaching the top of the singles chart in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom. It also reached the top ten in Sweden and the Netherlands.

Background

Michael Jackson, a huge fan of Bart, wrote the song "Do the Bartman".

The album The Simpsons Sing the Blues was released in September 1990. The first single from the album was the pop rap song "Do the Bartman", performed by Bart Simpson's voice actor Nancy Cartwright and released on November 20, 1990.[1] Rumors began spreading in the summer of 1990 that Michael Jackson would write a song for Bart on the album. The song was reported early on to be "Do the Bartman", but executive producer James L. Brooks issued a press release in September 1990 apologizing for the misunderstanding and stating that song was actually written by one of Jackson's friends, Bryan Loren.[2] However, The Simpsons' creator Matt Groening revealed during an appearance at the 1998 World Animation Celebration convention in Pasadena, California that "Do the Bartman" was actually co-written and produced by Jackson,[3][1] but he could not receive credit for it because he was under contract to another record label.[4] Groening told a crowd at the convention that had gathered for a "The Simpsons tribute" that it had "always [been] amazing to me that no one ever found out that Michael Jackson wrote that song. [...] He was a big fan of the show."[5]

Jackson was a fan of The Simpsons, especially Bart,[6] and had called the producers one night offering to write Bart a number one single and do a guest spot on the show.[7] Jackson eventually guest-starred in the episode "Stark Raving Dad" (season three, 1991) under the pseudonym John Jay Smith.[8] He also wrote a song for that episode called "Happy Birthday Lisa", which was later included in the album Songs in the Key of Springfield.[9]

Reception

Nancy Cartwright provides the voice of Bart Simpson.

Critical reviews of the song were mostly positive. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly described the song as "not bad", and commented that Bart's high voice "echoes the beats nicely".[10]The Daily Vault's Benny Balneg liked that the song disengaged itself from the album's "blues tag" and incorporated more "contemporary elements" into its sound. He added that he thought the song had a "catchy beat" and an "infectious chorus".[11] Monika Bartyzel of Cinematical called the song a "cheesy number".[12] Long Beach Press-Telegram's Patricia Smith called the song a "surprisingly funky tune".[13]

While the song was never officially released as a single in the United States, it was very successful in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom, countries where it peaked at number one on the singles chart. In 1991 it was the number one song in the UK for three weeks from February 16 to March 9 and was the seventh best-selling song of the year. [14] It sold half a million copies and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry on February 1, 1991.[15] The song's success in the United Kingdom was remarkable, given that at that time The Simpsons had not yet been shown on British terrestrial television, and was not for a further five years.[16][17] In Ireland, the song spent nine weeks at number one on the Irish Singles Chart. Only six singles have ever managed a longer run at number one in that country.[18] "Do the Bartman" was also the best-selling single of 1991 in Australia and New Zealand, as well as the second best-selling single in Holland.[19]

The song and its music video has become study material for sociology courses at University of California Berkeley, where it is used to "examine issues of the production and reception of cultural objects, in this case, a satirical cartoon show", and to figure out what it is "trying to tell audiences about aspects primarily of American society, and, to a lesser extent, about other societies."[20]

Music video

The music video features the typical plot of Bart rebelling against authority when he decides to put his own spin on a rigidly choreographed dance presentation at Springfield Elementary School. The music video for "Do the Bartman" was directed by Brad Bird, with dance choreography by Michael Chambers. Nobody from the staff of The Simpsons wanted to direct it because they were busy doing the show, but Bird finally agreed to do it after having been asked four times. He had an "unbelievably" short amount of time to finish the video because it was supposed to coincide with the release of The Simpsons Sing the Blues. The whole video was storyboarded in only two days in the United States. Bird then got on a plane to Budapest, Hungary, where the video was animated by Varga Studio. They thought the video was going to be animated as simply as the original The Simpsons shorts, so when Bird told them that it was going to be done in full animation with no repeated scenes, they "went into deep shock". The animators added the wraparound at the beginning to set Bart against the crowd and put the video in "some sort of context."[3]

The video was nominated for Best Special Effects at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards.[21][22] "Do the Bartman" was the number one music video on rotation on American MTV network between January and March 1991.[23] Following the death of Michael Jackson on June 25, 2009, the music video was broadcast by Fox on June 28, 2009, ahead of a rerun of "Wedding for Disaster" and featured a title card paying tribute to Jackson.[24]

Charts

Chart (1991) Peak
position
Austrian Singles Chart 17[25]
Australian ARIA Singles Chart 1[26]
Dutch Top 40 3[27]
Irish Singles Chart 1[28]
New Zealand Singles Chart 1[29]
Norwegian Singles Chart 1[30]
Swiss Singles Chart 12[31]
Swedish Singles Chart 3[32]
UK Singles Chart 1[33]

References

  1. ^ a b "Michael Jackson Update: News From Korea, Poland And Groening". MTV. 1998-02-23. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  2. ^ 'Simpsons' head to recording studio
  3. ^ a b Season 2 DVD commentary for the special feature "Do the Bartman".
  4. ^ "Bart Simpson's secrets revealed". Enquirer.com. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
  5. ^ By. "Gloved one secret 'Simpsons' fan". Variety. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
  6. ^ Cartwright, pp. 115–117
  7. ^ Brooks, James L. (2003). Commentary for "Stark Raving Dad", in The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  8. ^ Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Stark Raving Dad". BBC. Retrieved 2008-10-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ Jean, Al. (2003). Commentary for "Stark Raving Dad", in The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  10. ^ Tucker, Ken (1990-12-14). "The Simpsons Sing the Blues". Ew.com. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
  11. ^ "The Daily Vault Music Reviews : The Simpsons Sing The Blues". Dailyvault.com. 2007-05-21. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
  12. ^ Bartyzel, Monika (2007-08-10). "'Powder Blue' Adds The Swayze". Cinematical. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
  13. ^ Smith, Patricia (December 11, 1990). "Funky Bart". Long Beach Press-Telegram. pp. D7. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  14. ^ "All the Number 1 Singles–1990s". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2008-12-01.
  15. ^ "Certified awards". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  16. ^ "Simpsons celebrate 10 years". BBC News. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
  17. ^ "Telly's first family". Manchester Evening News. 2008-05-05. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
  18. ^ "Do the Bartman - UGO's World of Simpsons". Simpsons.ugo.com. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
  19. ^ Michael Jackson - The solo years
  20. ^ Thomas B. Gold (2008). "The Simpsons Global Mirror" (PDF). University of California Berkeley.
  21. ^ "1991 Video Music Awards". MTV. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
  22. ^ Hastings, Deborah (1991-07-29). "R.E.M. leads nominations for Video Music Awards". The Deseret News. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ "The evolution of 'The Simpsons'". PopMatters. 2007-07-23. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
  24. ^ Snierson, Dan (June 27, 2009). "Michael Jackson: 'The Simpsons' to re-air 'Do the Bartman' video in tribute on Sunday". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 28, 2009.
  25. ^ The Simpsons - Do The Bartman - austriancharts.at
  26. ^ australian-charts.com - The Simpsons - Do The Bartman
  27. ^ dutchcharts.nl - The Simpsons - Do The Bartman
  28. ^ irishcharts.com - The Simpsons - Do The Bartman
  29. ^ charts.org.nz- The Simpsons - Do The Bartman
  30. ^ norwegiancharts.com - The Simpsons - Do The Bartman
  31. ^ The Simpsons - Do The Bartman - hitparade.de
  32. ^ swedishcharts.com - The Simpsons - Do The Bartman
  33. ^ Chart Stats – Simpsons - Do The Bartman

"Do the Bartman" at UGO

Preceded by UK number-one single
February 10 1991 for 3 weeks 		Succeeded by
Preceded by RIANZ number-one single (second run)
February 8 1991 for 2 weeks 		Succeeded by
Preceded by RIANZ number-one single (first run)
25 January 1991 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Irish Singles Chart number-one single
24 January 1991 for 9 weeks 		Succeeded by
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