"Blurry" is a song by American rock band

Puddle of Mudd Puddle of Mudd is an American post-grunge band formed in Kansas City, Missouri in 1992. The band has sold over seven million albums. Their major-label debut, '' Come Clean'' (2001), spawned the single " Blurry", which peaked at number 5 on the ...

. It was released on October 16, 2001, as the second single from the band's debut album '' Come Clean'' (2001). It was 2002's most successful rock song in the United States, topping the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Mainstream Rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent a cross between classic rock, active rock and alternativ ...

and

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...

charts as well as their year-end listings. "Blurry" also found success outside the US, reaching the top 20 in Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. It appears in the opening trailer,

end credits Closing credits, aka end credits or end titles, are a list of the cast and crew of a particular motion picture, television show, or video game. While opening credits appear at the beginning of a work, closing credits appear close to or at the ve ...

, and fourth mission

cutscene A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...

("First Flight") of the 2004 video game Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War.

Background

Puddle of Mudd played small shows in the Kansas City area for most of the 1990s with little mainstream success. However, singer Wes Scantlin got a demo tape to

Limp Bizkit Limp Bizkit is an American nu metal band from Jacksonville, Florida. Its lineup consists of lead vocalist Fred Durst, drummer John Otto (drummer), John Otto, guitarist Wes Borland, turntablist DJ Lethal and bassist Sam Rivers (bassist), Sam ...

singer

Fred Durst William Frederick Durst (born Frederick Allen Mayne III; August 20, 1970) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, and director. He is the frontman and lyricist of the nu metal band Limp Bizkit, formed in 1994, with whom he has release ...

when Limp Bizkit were in town on October 12, 1999, on the

Family Values Tour The Family Values Tour was an annual rock and hip hop tour held by the American nu metal band Korn since 1998. The first tour took place in 1998 and the second tour in 1999, but the tour took a hiatus in 2000 due to heavy competition from the An ...

, and Durst's label

Flawless Records Flawless Records was a record label formed by Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst as a division of Geffen Records. It has signed such bands as Puddle of Mudd, The Revolution Smile, and Ringside. Artists * Big Dumb Face * Kenna *Puddle of Mudd * She ...

signed him to a recording contract. Unimpressed with Scantlin's bandmates, Flawless Records scrapped them all, rebuilt the group with musicians Scantlin had never seen before, and flew him out to Los Angeles in late 2000 to record with them. He spent his days fiddling with his acoustic guitar in a hotel room on

Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It runs through the Hollywood, East Hollywood, Little Armenia, Thai Town, and Los Feliz districts. Its western terminus is at Sunset Plaza Drive in the Hollyw ...

, where he reworked a previous Puddle of Mudd song called "Electron Moon" into "Blurry". “’Blurry’ was basically about being flown to freaking Los Angeles and y’know, I didn't have any friends so they had put me into a hotel room,” Scantlin told ''American Songwriter''. “I didn't know anybody at all. And I was just missing my family and son, I missed my grandma and stuff.”

Composition

The song is written in the key of

E minor E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp, on the F. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major. The E natural minor scale is: Change ...

with a moderately slow

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

of 78 beats per minute. The song follows a chord progression of C–D–Em, and the vocals in the song span from D₃ to A₄.

Commercial performance

"Blurry" is Puddle of Mudd's most successful song, reaching the number-one spot on the ''Billboard''

Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock is a music chart published by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States. It is an administrative category that combines the " active rock" and " heritage rock" ...

and

Hot Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...

charts for 10 and nine weeks, respectively. This soon propelled the single to mainstream success, reaching the number five spot on both the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 Airplay and ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number three on the

Pop Songs Pop Airplay (also called Mainstream Top 40, Pop Songs, and Top 40/ CHR) is a 40-song music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played on a panel of Top 40 radio stations in the U ...

chart. "Blurry" was the eighth-most played song on radio in Canada in 2002. The song is also the band's highest selling U.S. single ever, with sales of 753,000 copies, as of 2010. Additionally, the song's writers, Wes Scantlin,

Doug Ardito Douglas John Ardito (born March 10, 1971) is an American musician who was a member and played guitar as well as bass guitar for the band Puddle of Mudd. He is a Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Fender Musical Instruments endorsed artist. ...

, and Jimmy Allen, won

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

(American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) Song of the Year and Pop Song of the Year for this tune. "Blurry" also won two ''Billboard'' Awards in 2002, for Modern Rock Track of the Year and Rock Track of the Year. It also received the

Kerrang! Award for Best Single The ''Kerrang!'' Award for Best Single is an honor presented at the Kerrang! Awards, ''Kerrang!'' Awards, an annual ceremony established in 1993 to recognise achievements in rock music. The award was renamed 'Best Song' for the 2018 ceremony onwar ...

. "Blurry" reached number eight on the UK Singles Chart on its release there in June 2002, becoming the band's highest-charting single in the United Kingdom.

Music video

The music video shows Scantlin playing with his son Jordan, interspersed with shots of the band playing in a garage. Towards the end of the video, a man and a woman (presumably Jordan's mother and stepfather) are shown driving away with Jordan in the back seat as Wes watches sadly. The video was directed by

vocalist

Accolades

Track listings

Australian CD single # "Blurry" (radio edit) # "Abrasive" # "Nobody Told Me" European CD single # "Blurry" (album version) # "All I Ask For" UK cassette single # "Blurry" # "All I Ask For" (demo) UK CD1 # "Blurry" # "All I Ask For" (demo) # "Out of My Head" (live) # "Blurry" (video) UK CD2 # "Blurry" # " Control" (live) # "Bring Me Down" (live)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Uses in media

* This song is used as the title theme for the video game '' Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War''. * This song is used in the trailer for the 2003 film '' A Man Apart''. * On June 21, 2011, this song was released as downloadable content for the

rhythm game Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to pres ...

Rock Band 3 ''Rock Band 3'' is a 2010 rhythm game developed by Harmonix. The game was initially published and distributed by MTV Games and Electronic Arts, respectively, on October 26, 2010. Mad Catz took over both roles and re-released the title on Novembe ...

''. * The song is used in the American television show ''

The Secret Life of the American Teenager ''The Secret Life of the American Teenager'' (often shortened to ''Secret Life'') is an American teen drama television series created by Brenda Hampton. It aired on ABC Family from July 1, 2008, to June 3, 2013. The series features an ensemble ...

'' in the series finale.

Covers

* P.M. Dawn appeared on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's '' Hit Me, Baby, One More Time'', performing "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss", and covered

's "Blurry". Despite the fact that Prince Be was still suffering the effects of this stroke, they beat

Animotion Animotion is an American synth-pop band from Los Angeles, California, best known for the songs "Obsession (Animotion song), Obsession", "Let Him Go (song), Let him go", "I Engineer, I engineer", and "Room to Move, Room to move". Formed in 1983 ...

, Missing Persons,

Juice Newton Juice Newton (born Judith Kay Newton; February 18, 1952) is an American pop and country singer, songwriter, and musician. Newton has received five Grammy Award nominations in the Pop and Country Best Female Vocalist categorieswinning once in 198 ...

and Shannon to claim the $20,000 charitable prize, which they contributed to the

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) is a type 1 diabetes (T1D) research and advocacy organization. Breakthrough T1D funds research for the development of new therapies and treatments for type 1 diabetes. The organization advocates for federal resear ...

, as Prince Be was a diabetic. In June 2019, P.M. Dawn collaborated with musician Tommy Marz on a studio version of Blurry dedicated to the memory of Attrell Cordes * On May 21, 2021,

country rock Country rock is a music genre that fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal sty ...

singer-songwriter

Hardy Hardy may refer to: People * Hardy (surname) * Hardy (given name) * Hardy (singer), American singer-songwriter Places Antarctica * Mount Hardy, Enderby Land * Hardy Cove, Greenwich Island * Hardy Rocks, Biscoe Islands Australia * Hardy, ...

released a cover of "Blurry" with an accompanying music video on YouTube.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2000 songs 2001 singles Puddle of Mudd songs Geffen Records singles Music videos directed by Fred Durst Rock ballads 2000s ballads Songs about parenthood Songs written by Wes Scantlin Songs written by Doug Ardito Songs written by Jimmy Allen (musician)