Green Day Dookie released

Dookie Green Day

Released: February 1, 1994 Peak: 2 US, 13 UK, 18 CN, 113 AU Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, 0.9 UK, 20.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: punk rock

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Burnout Having a Blast Chump Longview (2/1/94, 36 BA, 87 CB, 35 RR, 13 AR, 1 MR, 30 UK, 33 AU, 9 DF) Welcome to Paradise (9/24/94, 56 BA, 7 MR, 20 UK, 44 AU, 31 DF) Pulling Teeth Basket Case (7/16/94, 26 BA, 23 GR, 20 RR, 9 AR, 1 MR, 7 UK, 12 CN, 85 AU, 15 DF) She (4/15/95, 41 BA, 18 AR, 5 MR, 23 DF) Sassafras Roots When I Come Around (12/3/94, 6 BA, 4 RR, 2 AR, 1 MR, 27 UK, 3 CN, 7 AU, 7 DF) Coming Clean Emenius Sleepus In the End F.O.D./All by Myself Total Running Time: 39:35 The Players: Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar) Mike “Dirnt” Pritchard (bass Frank “Tré Cool” Wright (drums)

Rating: 4.340 out of 5.00 (average of 33 ratings) Quotable: “A stellar piece of modern punk that many tried to emulate but nobody bettered.” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Green Day formed in 1987 and over the next five years released two albums and three EPs. Major labels started courting them and they signed with Reprise Records in 1993. Their third album and major label debut, Dookie, proved to be a landmark. “On their first couple records, they showed promise, but with Dookie, they delivered a record that found Billie Joe Armstrong bursting into full flower as a songwriter, spitting out melodic ravers that could have comfortable sat alongside Singles Going Steady, but infused with an ironic self-loathing popularized by Nirvana, whose clean sound on Nevermind is also emulated here.” AMG The album was “nearly as revolutionary as Nevermind.” AMG “Like Nevermind, this was accidental success, the sound of a promising underground group suddenly hitting its stride just as they got their first professional, big-budget, big-label production. Really, that’s where the similarities end, since if Nirvana were indebted to the weirdness of indie rock, Green Day were straight-ahead punk revivalists through and through.” AMG It became “one of the defining albums of the 1990s and punk rock in general.” WK It sent “a wave of imitators up the charts” AMG that included Blink-182, Sum 41, and Fall Out Boy, but Dookie stood out as “a stellar piece of modern punk that many tried to emulate but nobody bettered.” AMG In 2017, Rolling Stone named it the greatest pop-punk album of all time. WK “Where Nirvana had weight, Green Day are deliberately adolescent here, treating nearly everything as joke and having as much fun as snotty punkers should.” AMG The album brought “melodic rock sound to the mainstream with relatable lyrics” WK about “boredom, anxiety, relationships,” WK “masturbation, sexual orientation, …divorce, domestic abuse and ex-girlfriends” WK “that reached a universal audience.” WK The themes were heavily based on singer Billie Joe Armstrong’s personal experiences. WK The first single released from the album was Longview. Armstrong said the song’s main character was based on himself during his time living in Rodeo, California. He said there was nothing to do there. The character “does nothing but watch television, smoke mariuana, and masturbate, and has little motivation to change these habits despite tiring of the same cycle of behaviors.” WK The song features a signature bassline from Mike Dirnt that he wrote under the influence of LSD. WK The second single was Basket Case. Like its predecessor, it topped the alternative rock chart and was a top 40 hit on the Billboard airplay charts. “The song deals with Armstrong’s anxiety attacks and feelings of ‘going crazy’ prior to being diagnosed with a panic disorder.” WK Welcome to Paradise first appeared on Kerplunk!, the band’s second studio album. It was one of three earlier songs that the band re-recorded, but it was the only one to make the album. “It bears noticeable improvements in sound quality.” WK It was the third single released from Dookie. The song She was written by Armstrong about Amanda, a former girlfriend. She showed him a feminist poem with the same title and he in turn wrote lyrics and showed them to her. The song is similar to “Basket Case” but slightly faster. It was released as the fourth single from the album. “They demonstrate a bit of depth with When I Come Around, but that just varies the pace slightly, since the key to this is their flippant, infectious attitude – something they maintain throughout the record.” AMG It was the fifth and final single from the album. It was inspired by Adrienne, Armstrong’s former girlfriend and future wife. Armstong left her after they had an argument to spend time alone.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Green Day AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/28/2011; last updated 12/8/2023.