"Snail Shell" is a song by American alternative rock band They Might Be Giants. It was released on August 15, 1994 as the lead promotional single off of their fifth album, '' John Henry''. It peaked at 19 on 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 advertise ...

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

. This was a commercial disappointment for the band, as the song was perceived by the band as having the potential to be as successful as their breakthrough hit, Birdhouse in Your Soul. The day after the single's release, the group put out the E.P. '' Back to Skull'', which features the song along with a version remixed by The Dust Brothers entitled "Snail Dust". The song, if taken literally, regards a snail who wishes to direct gratitude to an unknown person for, as he puts it, "putting me back in my snail shell".

Lyrics

The song is written in first-person. The title snail states that he "fell out of my right place again." He politely attempts to get the attention of its savior, before profusely thanking them for returning him to his shell.

Music video

The song's video, which was directed by Nico Beyer in July 1994,"Music Videos"
Billboard, July 30, 1994 was filmed in a television museum in Berlin during a heat wave. Brian Doherty and Tony Maimone, respectively the drummer and bassist on the track, would have been replaced by German actors

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their parts, had they not realized the day before the shoot that they didn't have plane tickets.

Track listing

; CD single # "Snail Shell" – 3:20

Personnel

* John Flansburgh – guitar, vocals * John Linnell – keyboards, vocals * Brian Doherty – drums * Tony Maimone – bass

References

External links

* " Snail Shell" at This Might Be A Wiki * '' Snail Shell'' Single on This Might Be A Wiki {{Authority control 1994 singles They Might Be Giants songs 1994 songs Elektra Records singles Songs written by John Linnell Songs written by John Flansburgh