What a Catch, Donnie
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"What a Catch, Donnie" is Fall Out Boy's second digital download single and third radio single from their fifth studio album Folie à Deux (2008). It was released as part of the build up to the new album on iTunes on October 14, 2008 and charted on the US and Canadian singles chart. The track features numerous musicians performing cameo appearances in the song, singing lines from other Fall Out Boy songs.[1] Bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz has said that he wrote the song to remind himself of vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump. As one of the very few ballads performed by the band, Fall Out Boy performed the song live on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.[2]
Music video
The music video was dedicated to Atlanta rapper Dolla who was shot and killed a few months before the song's release. The band shot the video for the song on July 1, 2009 with Alan Ferguson. On June 30, bassist Pete Wentz posted on his Twitter that the band had 'wrapped up' a video for "What a Catch, Donnie". On July 2, guitarist Joe Trohman stated via Twitter that they had finished shooting the video, editing will take place in the next couple days, and the video was released on MTV on August 6, 2009.
The video also includes Spencer Smith and Brendon Urie from Panic! at the Disco. The two also appeared in the official music video for Fall Out Boy's "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me" as some of the dandies, and were also featured in the video for "Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet".
Pete Wentz said in a press statement: - "It is my time to say that we haven't done a video like this before, a video dedicated to someone's death, the death of our best friend and rapper, Dolla (Roderick Anthony Burton II). We hope to shoot the video for "What a Catch, Donnie" in the same place he was shot and also bring our friends round for the climax."
The official music video was released August 6, 2009 on MTV, MTV2, mtvU, and MTV Hits.
The video depicts lead singer Patrick Stump alone at sea trying to find his way home. Throughout most of the video he is fishing, reading in his cabin, playing the piano and suffering from loneliness. Eventually, he finds a seagull trapped in ropes on his ship. He frees and befriends the bird and so the two set sail together and Patrick is no longer lonely. Towards the end of the video, Patrick starts to fish again but finds strange objects such as deer antlers (from Antler Boy in "Sugar, We're Going Down"), a black and white striped jacket (the jacket Patrick wore in "Dance, Dance"), and a bass drum (one of Andy Hurley's drums). Finally, he comes across a sign featuring the letters F, O, and B (the sign from "Thnks fr th Mmrs"). He then looks up and spots a white casket (from the music video for "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race") as well as a sinking ship. He immediately turns the boat around to rescue the survivors on the lifeboats (who include Joe Trohman, Andy Hurley, Spencer Smith, Brendon Urie, and everyone else (except Pete Wentz) who has worked with Fall Out Boy over the past few years). After all of the survivors are on the boat celebrating because they were rescued, Patrick looks out at the sinking ship. In the top right corner you can see a man assumed to be the captain in a white uniform saluting. This man is supposedly Pete Wentz, and he had a close up in the original video but was edited out. Once all of the survivors are on the boat, and getting closer to shore, Patrick sets free his Seagull friend and watches him fly off with his family into the coast. At the end of the song it also depicts some of their greatest hits. In the background they sing chorus lines from their songs "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy", "Sugar We're Goin Down", "Dance, Dance", "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race", "Thnks fr th Mmrs", and "Growing Up".
The version of this video was that released on iTunes is missing the portion where Pete Wentz says "Thank You" to Patrick Stump. On the commentary of the Believers Never Die - Greatest Hits bonus DVD, the band states that this part was left out because of the poor CGI special effects.
It's also considered as one of the only official ballads Fall Out Boy has ever released and/or written. As said in an interview, Pete Wentz said that the song was written in thoughts of his friendship with the lead singer Patrick Stump. He wanted to show his fondness towards 'one of his best friends in the business'. Even though the band is on a unknown hiatus, Wentz and Stump still support their album releases and new music.
Cameo appearances
"What a Catch, Donnie" features a long line-up of guest artists. Towards the end of the song from 3:48 - 4:25, lead singers from other Decaydance bands can be heard singing lyrics from other Fall Out Boy singles, behind the main vocals. The songs and artists are as follow:
- 3:45 "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy" featuring Gabe Saporta (of Cobra Starship and Midtown).
- 3:54 "Sugar, We're Going Down" (while "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy" fades) featuring Travis McCoy (of Gym Class Heroes).
- 4:00 "Dance, Dance" (while "Sugar, We're Going Down" fades) featuring Brendon Urie (of Panic! at the Disco).
- 4:08 "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" (while "Dance, Dance" fades) featuring Doug Neumann.
- 4:15 "Thnks fr th Mmrs" featuring Alex DeLeon (of The Cab).
- 4:22 "Growing Up" (while Thnks fr th Mmrs fades) featuring William Beckett (of The Academy Is...).
At 3:00 Elvis Costello sings the overture "I will never end up like him, behind my back I already am...." of Fall Out Boy's song "Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet". On the band's Believers Never Die - Greatest Hits album, Fall Out Boy vocalist Patrick Stump sings the line on the song as the legal agreements were not made in time.
Also, the title of the song is a reference to Donnie Hathaway and his writing partner, Roberta Flack, is mentioned several times throughout the song.
Chart performance
| Chart (2008) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canadian Hot 100[3] | 95 |
| US Billboard Hot 100[3] | 94 |
| US Billboard Digital Songs[3] | 53 |
References
- ^ Poster that comes with the Limited/Deluxe Edition of Folie à Deux
- ^ girlbehindthecurtain (August 12, 2009)See "What A Catch, Donnie" Live FallOutBoyRock.com. Retrieved August 4, 2011.
- ^ a b c "Digital Songs Week of November 1, 2008 by Biggest Jump". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
