"Paint by Numbers" is a song by American

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre and form of rock music characterized by a strong commercial appeal, with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock musi ...

band

Self In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes. The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...

, released on July 21, 1998 as the lead single of ''

Breakfast with Girls ''Breakfast with Girls'' is the third studio album by American pop rock band Self, released on July 13, 1999, by DreamWorks Records and Spongebath Records. It is the band's first and only published album on DreamWorks. Its songs were mainly wr ...

'' (1999). Distributed through

Dreamworks Records DreamWorks Records (often referred in copyright notices as SKG Music, LLC) was an American record label founded in 1996 by David Geffen, Mo Ostin, his son Michael Ostin and Lenny Waronker as a subsidiary of DreamWorks Pictures. The label opera ...

and

Spongebath Records Spongebath Records was an independent record label based in Murfreesboro, Tennessee during the mid-nineties. During its heyday, Spongebath was often viewed as the vibrant center of Murfreesboro/Nashville's (and the Southeast's) music scene with a ...

, it first appeared in the soundtrack for the

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

film ''

Dead Man on Campus ''Dead Man on Campus'' is a 1998 black comedy film starring Tom Everett Scott and Mark-Paul Gosselaar. It centers on the urban legend that a student gets straight As if his roommate commits suicide (''see'' pass by catastrophe). Two failing fr ...

'' (1998). The track was later nominated for Song of the Year by the Nashville Music Association Awards.

Background

"Paint by Numbers" was written by

Matt Mahaffey Matt Mahaffey is an American multi-instrumentalist, record producer, composer, and recording engineer best known for his band Self (band), Self and his composer collective Cake in Space. Early and personal life Mahaffey grew up in Kingsport, T ...

as commentary against bands who simplify songwriting and chase trends after becoming a

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with ...

, particularly inspired by

Smash Mouth Smash Mouth is an American Rock music, rock band from San Jose, California. The band was formed in 1994 and was originally composed of Steve Harwell (lead vocals), Kevin Coleman (drums), Greg Camp (guitar), and Paul De Lisle (bass). Harwell's ...

's career after their debut single "

Walkin' on the Sun "Walkin' on the Sun" is a song by American rock band Smash Mouth from their first album, ''Fush Yu Mang'' (1997). Smash Mouth released it as their debut single in June 1997, the song was Smash Mouth's first major single, reaching 1 on the US '' ...

". The song was included on the soundtrack of the film ''

'' (1998), which released through

and

DreamWorks Records DreamWorks Records (often referred in copyright notices as SKG Music, LLC) was an American record label founded in 1996 by David Geffen, Mo Ostin, his son Michael Ostin and Lenny Waronker as a subsidiary of DreamWorks Pictures. The label opera ...

on July 21, 1998. Director Alan Cohn picked "Paint by Numbers" as a theme for the main character, Josh Miller (

Tom Everett Scott Thomas Everett Scott (born September 7, 1970) is an American actor. His film work includes a starring role as drummer Guy Patterson in the film '' That Thing You Do!'', the protagonist in '' An American Werewolf in Paris'', and notable roles i ...

). It was later included as the sixth track of the band's third studio album, ''

'' (1999), released through Dreamworks and

Reception

Ben Wener of ''

The Orange County Register ''The Orange County Register'' is a paid daily List of newspapers in California, newspaper published in California. The ''Register'', published in Orange County, California, is owned by the private equity firm Alden Global Capital via its Digit ...

'' praised the styling of "Paint by Numbers", observing a resemblance to instrumentation prominent in Latin music. Jeremy Fleishman of ''

The Daily Texan ''The Daily Texan'' is the student newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin. It is one of the largest college newspapers in the United States, with a daily circulation of roughly 12,000 during the fall and spring semesters, and is among th ...

'' declared the song "destined for radio play", lauding its diverse influence and the track's inclusion of other techniques used on ''Breakfast with Girls''.

Robert Wilonsky Robert Elliott Wilonsky (born October 24, 1968) is an American journalist, and the former host of ''Higher Definition'', an interview program on the cable television network HDNet. Biography Early life Wilonsky was born in Dallas, Texas to Marg ...

of ''

Dallas Observer ''Dallas Observer'' is a free digital and print publication based in Dallas, Texas. The ''Observer'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music, and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue circ ...

'' noted that the song's commercial success was hindered by

Weezer Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Brian Bell (guitar, keyboards, backing ...

and

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi mus ...

's recent success within

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

, but stated that it deserved a much larger audience. Gerald Dih of '' AudioPhix'' listed the track as one of the best

surf rock Surf music (also known as surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is inst ...

songs of the 1990s, commending its succinct approach to "great guitar interplay and punchy drums".

Rivers Cuomo Rivers Cuomo ( ; born June 13, 1970) is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Weezer. Cuomo was born in New York City and raised in several Buddhist communities in the northeaste ...

discovered "Paint by Numbers" on

Napster Napster was an American proprietary peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing application primarily associated with digital audio file distribution. Founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, the platform originally launched on June 1, 1999. Audio shared ...

due to the service's prevalence of mislabeled files, with the song being listed under his band

. He positively likened the track to his own style, calling Self his "new favorite band" and expressing interest in touring with them.

Accolades

At the 1999 Nashville Music Association Awards, Self received a nomination in the Song of the Year category for "Paint by Numbers", ultimately losing to

Faith Hill Audrey Faith McGraw (; born September 21, 1967), known professionally as Faith Hill, is an American Country music, country singer. She is one of the most successful country music artists of all time, having sold almost 50 million albums worldwide ...

's " This Kiss".

Personnel

Self *

– lead vocals, instruments * Mike Mahaffey – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass * Mac Burrus – bass * Chris James – piano, B-3, vox * Jason Rawlings – percussion Technical * Matt Mahaffey –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

Hugh Padgham Hugh Charles Padgham (born 15 February 1955) is an English record producer and audio engineer. He has won four Grammy Awards, for Producer of the Year and Album of the Year for 1985, Record of the Year for 1990, and Engineer of the Year for 199 ...

–

mixing engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...

Bob Ludwig Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists, including Led Zeppeli ...

–

mastering engineer Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the Audio mixing (recorded music), final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source ...

*Richard Williams – executive producer *

Richard Dodd Richard Dodd (born April 25, 1965) is an English cellist, recording artist and musician. He has appeared on numerous records beginning from The Three O'Clock's Album Sixteen Tambourines, and spanning different musical genres in Pop, with acts ...

– engineer *Bobby Dufresne Jr. – engineer *Jeff Balding – engineer *

Ken Andrews Ken Andrews (born Kenneth Andrew Doty; June 18, 1967) is an American musician, record producer, and songwriter. He was born in Seattle and attended film school in Los Angeles before his band Failure received a record deal from Slash Records. Ca ...

– engineer *Shawn McLean – engineer *Joe Baldridge – engineer *Chris James – engineer *Glenn Spinner – assistant engineer *Aaron Swihart – assistant engineer *Joe Costa – assistant engineer *Brian Garten – assistant engineer *John Saylor – assistant engineer

Notes

References

{{authority control Self (band) songs 1998 songs 1998 singles Songs written by Matt Mahaffey