Teenage Dirtbag
Encyclopedia
"Teenage Dirtbag" is the title of a song recorded by American alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 group Wheatus
Wheatus
Wheatus are an American rock group from Northport, New York. They are known for their 2000 single "Teenage Dirtbag" which was featured in the movie Loser, as well as in the HBO miniseries Generation Kill.-1995-2002: Formation and Wheatus:...

. It was released in July 2000 as the lead single from their eponymous
Wheatus (album)
Wheatus is the self-titled debut album by American alternative rock band Wheatus. The album was released on August 15, 2000. Three singles were released from the album - "Teenage Dirtbag," which reached number two on the UK Singles Chart; "A Little Respect", which peaked at #3; and a double A-side...

 debut album. It was included on the soundtrack of the movie Loser
Loser (film)
Loser is a 2000 American romantic comedy film starring Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari and Greg Kinnear. It is about a small town teenager who is accepted into New York University and must cope with the pressures of college life and the big city...

. The single was massively successful in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, spending four weeks at number-one and becoming the second-highest selling single of the year. It also reached number 2 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and Germany.

Background

The song was ranked number 69 on the Top 100 Greatest Pop Songs Of All Time countdown by British music channel, "The Hits". When the group arranged a joint tour with MC Frontalot
MC Frontalot
Damian Hess , better known by stage name MC Frontalot, is a Brooklyn-based hip hop musician and self-proclaimed "world's 579th greatest rapper". He is best known in nerdcore hip hop and video game culture, for naming the nerdcore subgenre, and performing at Penny Arcades annual Penny Arcade Expo...

, MC Frontalot contributed a nerdcore rap verse to the song. For the radio version of the song, the sentence "He brings a gun to school" has been removed due to the Columbine High School massacre
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...

. It is replaced with the line "He brings his mates to fights", or alternately replaced with an inhale sound. The part where the girl sings is also performed by singer Brendan B. Brown, as is the rest of the song. In March 2011 it entered back into the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

 at number 43 and climbed to number 35 the following week, nearly 11 years after its release. Bigtop40.com suggest this is due to a promotion on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

.

Track listing

US CD Single
  1. "Teenage Dirtbag" (Clean Single Version) – 4:17
  2. "I'd Never Write A Song About You" – 3:38
  3. "Pretty Girl" – 4:29


European CD Single
  1. "Teenage Dirtbag" (Explicit Album Version) – 4:01
  2. "I'd Never Write A Song About You" – 3:38
  3. "Sunshine" (Remix) – 2:52


French CD Single
  1. "Teenage Dirtbag" (Explicit Album Version) – 4:01
  2. "I'd Never Write A Song About You" – 3:38


UK CD Single
  1. "Teenage Dirtbag" (Explicit Album Version) - 4:01
  2. "I'd Never Write A Song About You" - 3:38
  3. "Hey Mr Brown" (With Club Audience) - 2:22
  4. "Teenage Dirtbag" (Video)

Critical reception

Ayhan Sahin, of Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

magazine reviewed the song favorably, calling it a "gritty, on-the-edge track " and saying that its "keen melody, inventive production, and cool lyric about those who have felt like underlings during high school will entice listeners who prefer hanging out behind the gym with a smoke to Latin club." He goes on to say that it "stands strongly on its own as an emphatic anthem and a song many teens will be proud to push hard from their car speakers."

Music video

The video clip alludes to the film Loser
Loser (film)
Loser is a 2000 American romantic comedy film starring Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari and Greg Kinnear. It is about a small town teenager who is accepted into New York University and must cope with the pressures of college life and the big city...

, with Jason Biggs
Jason Biggs
Jason Matthew Biggs is an American actor who is best known for his role as Jim Levenstein in the American Pie series of teen comedy films.-Personal life:...

 playing a nerdy character similar to that in the movie and Mena Suvari
Mena Suvari
Mena Alexandra Suvari is an American actress, fashion designer, and model. Shortly after beginning her career as a model, she appeared in guest roles on 1990's television shows such as Boy Meets World and High Incident...

 as the love interest who, unexpectedly invites the protagonist to an Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...

 concert. In some versions of the music video a large glitter ball falls from the ceiling and strikes him on the head, after which he wakes up having fallen asleep while doing his homework. Alas, his brief romance with Suvari was but a dream. Both Biggs and Suvari appear in the movie American Pie
American Pie (film)
American Pie is a 1999 teen comedy film written by Adam Herz. American Pie was the directorial film debut of brothers Paul and Chris Weitz, and the first film in the American Pie film series...

and its sequel American Pie 2
American Pie 2
American Pie 2 is a 2001 comedy film and sequel to American Pie and is the second film in the American Pie film series. It was written by Adam Herz and David H. Steinberg, and directed by J. B. Rogers. The film picks up the story of the four friends from the first film as they reunite during the...

, causing the popular misconception that the song appears in one of these movies. There are two versions of the video. The first video received airplay on MTV channels in the UK and is the one without the Loser slogan, whereas the second version got airplay on EMAP channels across the UK, and is the one with the Loser slogan.

In popular culture

The song appears in the HBO miniseries Generation Kill at the end of episode four, Combat Jack. While driving away from a road block, U.S. Marines Sgt. Brad Colbert, Cpl. Ray Person, LCpl. James Trombley, Cpl. Walt Hassar, and Rolling Stones embedded reporter Evan Wright
Evan Wright
Evan Wright is an American writer, journalist, author and television writer and producer. He has reported extensively on subcultures for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. His latest work is American Desperado, a book he co-wrote with Jon Roberts, who was featured in the documentary the Cocaine...

 (all occupants of the point Humvee) bust out singing it. When they are done singing it Colbert says "Thank you, Ray" and Ray responds, "Thank you, Sergeant." British girl group Girls Aloud
Girls Aloud
Girls Aloud are a British and Irish pop girl group based in London. They were created through the ITV1 talent show Popstars The Rivals in 2002. The group consists of Cheryl Cole , Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. They are signed to Fascination Records, a Polydor...

 performed a cover of the song on their first UK tour for their album
What Will the Neighbours Say? Live
What Will the Neighbours Say? Live is Girls Aloud's first concert tour, in support of the group's second studio album What Will the Neighbours Say?...

 What Will The Neighbours Say? in the spring of 2005. They later recorded a studio version of the track for BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

's 40th anniversary compilation Radio 1 Established 1967
Radio 1 Established 1967
The compilation album Radio 1 Established 1967 is a collection of covers especially recorded for Radio 1 by a number of artists. The album celebrates the 40th anniversary of BBC Radio 1. There are 40 songs recorded by 40 different artists . Each artist was given a year, and were allowed to cover a...

.

Charts

> >
Chart (2000-2001) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart 1
Austrian Singles Chart 1
Belgian Singles Chart (Flanders) 1
Belgian Singles Chart (Wallonia) 3
Danish Singles Chart 6
Dutch Singles Chart 14
Finnish Singles Chart 9
France Singles Chart 62
German Singles Chart 2
New Zealand Singles Chart 27
Norwegian Singles Chart 6
Swedish Singles Chart 2
Swiss Singles Chart 3
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks 7
UK Singles Chart 2
Chart (2011) Peak
position

Decade-End Charts

Chart (2000–2009) Peak
position
UK Top 100 Songs of the Decade 42
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