When I Come Around

"When I Come Around" is a song by American rock band Green Day. It is the 10th track on their third studio album, '' Dookie'' (1994), and was shipped to radio in December 1994 before being physically released as the fourth single from that album in January 1995 by Reprise Records. It was played live as early as 1992.

"When I Come Around" peaked at number six on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 Airplay chart, which ties it with "Wake Me Up When September Ends" as their second-highest song on this chart, behind only " Boulevard of Broken Dreams". It also topped the ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks chart for seven weeks, and reached number two on the ''Billboard'' Album Rock Tracks chart. Worldwide, it became a top-10 hit in Australia, Canada, Iceland, and New Zealand. Mark Kohr directed the song's music video. As of August 2010, "When I Come Around" has sold 639,000 copies. This makes it the band's second best-selling single of the 1990s, behind their 1997 hit "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)". In late 2023, for the 35th anniversary of Modern Rock Tracks (which by then had been renamed to Alternative Airplay), ''Billboard'' ranked the song as the 19th-most successful in the chart's history.

Composition

The song is performed in 4/4 time and has a verse-chorus song structure. Most of the song is based around a sequence of four chords in the key of G flat major. Fred Thomas of ''AllMusic'' described the track as "a slacker punk answer to the power ballad."

Critical reception

David Stubbs from ''Melody Maker'' felt the band is "threatening to get caught up in the tramlines of Rainbow's ' Since You've Been Gone' in the opening chords f the song" Pan-European magazine ''Music & Media'' commented, "We asked Nick Lowe, what's the difference between then and now? He answered: 'Green Day can really play.' Life is sometimes so simple." A reviewer from ''Music Week'' gave 'When I Come Around' three out of five, writing, "The fourth track to be lifted from their gold-selling '' Dookie'' album lacks the character and charm of ' Basket Case' but shouldn't harm their chart fortunes if their US success is anything to go by." Sylvia Patterson from ''NME'' named it "their least frantic rouser to date ..but nonetheless it's a mutant sun-ripe beef tomato of a pop guitar romp featuring the rhyming of "''loser''" with "''user''" and — heck! — "''accuser''" just like they were The Monkees." Also Leesa Daniels from ''Smash Hits'' gave it three out of five, saying, "This is much slower than 'Basket Case', but it's still got that really catchy hook-line."

Music video

The music video for the song is directed by Mark Kohr. It shows the band walking to different places, like the Mission District, Broadway, and the BART Powell Street Station in San Francisco and Berkeley, California at night, along with various scenes of people doing common things all inter-related. One of the first scenes of the video eventually leads back to the scene at the end. The band's touring guitarist Jason White can be seen in the video with his girlfriend.

Before the video was filmed, MTV aired a live performance of the song by the band at the 1994 Woodstock Festival. MTV's Ultimate Albums: ''Dookie'' special credited the simple horizontally-striped sweater worn by Armstrong in the video for starting a fashion trend of similar sweaters.

Track listings

Initial pressing
# "When I Come Around" – 2:58
# "Coming Clean" (live) – 1:36
# " She" (live) – 2:14
* All live tracks were recorded on November 18, 1994, at Aragon Ballroom, Chicago

Australian single
# "When I Come Around" – 2:58
# " Longview" (live) – 3:30
# "Burnout" (live) – 2:11
# "2,000 Light Years Away" (live) – 2:48
* All live tracks were recorded on March 11, 1994, at Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg, Florida. Tracks two and three are the same on the ''Live Tracks EP''. Track four has an extended intro but is the same performance.

7-inch picture disc
:A. "When I Come Around" – 2:58
:B. "She" (live) – 2:14

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Use in media

*"When I Come Around" was featured in ''South Park'' episode " Hummels & Heroin", sung in the style of a barbershop quartet.
*It was also featured in the Green Day-themed ''Rock Band'' game '' Green Day: Rock Band''.
*It has been featured in multiple media such as the trailer for '' Blast from the Past'' and the episode in '' Hindsight''.
*Green Day performed the song at FireAid to help with relief efforts for the January 2025 Southern California wildfires.

References

Citations

Sources

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{{Authority control

1993 songs
1995 singles
Green Day songs
Reprise Records singles
Song recordings produced by Rob Cavallo
Songs written by Billie Joe Armstrong