Boss Of Me
From This Might Be A Wiki
| song name | Boss of Me |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | Boss Of Me (Single), Music From Malcolm In The Middle, 2001 Radio Sampler No. 1, Mink Car [international CDs and 2022 rerelease], Dial-A-Song: 20 Years Of They Might Be Giants, TMBG Clock Radio, A User's Guide to They Might Be Giants: Melody, Fidelity, Quantity, 50,000,000 They Might Be Giants Songs Can't Be Wrong, The Spine Surfs Alone: Rarities 1998-2005 |
| year | 2000 |
| first played | February 4, 2000 (272 known performances) |
| run time | 2:56 |
| sung by | John Flansburgh |
Trivia/Info
- "Boss Of Me," which won TMBG their first Grammy, was the theme to the FOX TV series Malcolm In The Middle. It became the first TV theme ever to win a Grammy for Best Song Written for a Movie or TV Show.
- In a 2016 article, Flansburgh spoke about being approached to write the theme:[1]
The creator of the show is Linwood Boomer, who, if you are the age of my wife exactly, is a name you would recognize instantly because he played the blind boyfriend on Little House on the Prairie as a child actor. The office called, and my wife took a message, and she said, ‘This guy Linwood Boomer wants to talk to you.’ And she was like, ‘I don’t know how many people were named Linwood Boomer, but I get the feeling he was on Little House on the Prairie. He created the show and had a very clear idea of what he wanted. He wanted something very high energy that really captured the tussle of a family of brothers. We just sort of grabbed that track out of a stack of half-finished songs and contoured the lyric to the show.
- When asked in a 2002 interview in Altercation why "Boss of Me" wasn't on the 2001 album Mink Car, Flansburgh replied:[2]
It was our choice. You know, we like the song, and it was actually on the European version of the record as a bonus track, but I think when we were making Mink Car, we kinda wanted to get out of the shadow of the song. We worked really hard on the album, and "Boss of Me" had just been dominating our lives for like a year and a half. It came out on the show, and then the show was a hit, then it was a chart hit in the UK and Australia, so we were just kind of like 'Next.' I don't know, maybe it was a mistake not putting it on the record. A lot of people are still looking for it. It was on the Malcolm in the Middle soundtrack, but I think a lot of people are picking up our record expecting it to be on there.
- TMBG did, however, put Boss of Me as a bonus track in their Mink Car 2022 vinyl/digital re-release.
- "I wrote a thirty-second song that I couldn't finish for a year." - Flansburgh
- The song is an extended version of the original 35-second version on the What We Did This Summer EP.
- The single contains another version of the song with an additional 9-second intro.
- Although this version of the song eventually came to be considered the "normal" version, when it was originally released as a single, it was called the "edit" version of the song, labeled "Boss Of Me (Edit)," while the version with the extra 9-second intro was considered the "normal" version (i.e. listed as "Boss Of Me").
- When TMBG performs this song live, Flansburgh has sometimes said that it is about his older brother, Paxus.
- At kids' shows, this song is sometimes performed in a mellow country format with acoustic guitar, accordion and snare drum.
- This song was parodied on MADtv, as part of a Malcolm in the Middle parody sketch. Watch it here.
- The song was covered by Florida ska punk band Less Than Jake on their 2010 EP, TV/EP.
Song Themes
Aversion To Work, Eyes, No, Occupations, Questions, Size, TV And Movie Themes, Yes
Videos
- Watch it on
- Live "country" version on The Early Show
Current Rating You must be logged in to rate this. You can either login (if you have a userid) or create an account with us today. Boss Of Me is currently ranked #187 out of 1021. (126 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.72) |
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