The Story Behind: "All The Small Things" by blink-182
All The Small Things is a song by the American pop punk band blink-182. It was released as the second single from their third studio album Enema of the State, which was released on June, 1 1999.
Background
After the release of their second album Dude Ranch, the band began to receive some fame with their lead single Dammit and began touring in the summer that year. After the tour the band was extremely exausted and needed a break. Tom DeLonge stated: "When we did our longest tour stretch, it was right when I started dating my fiancee, We were all new and in love, and I had to leave. It was just, 'Hey, I'll see you in nine months.”
Besides the hefty touring the band also experienced some tension because drummer Scott Raynor wanted to finish college, taking his homework around during the tour, leaving him and his members very stressed. After February 1998 Scott decided to leave the band for a while to focus on college. The duo then recruited drummer Travis Baker, whom was at the time in a ska punk group called the Aquabats. Baker amazingly learned all the drum tracks in under an hour before the show, which was the thing that got him in the band permanently. The band later let Scott Raynor go, due to the heavy drinking. DeLonge said in an interview: "One show he dropped his sticks 10 times. It was so disturbing to see someone ruining himself."
Writting Process/Lyrics
The song was written when the trio started writing material for their third album Enema of the State. The song was actually the last song written for the album, because DeLonge thought the album needed one more really catchy and simple song to release as a single. "I remember thinking, 'The label's gonna want a song for the radio, so here's one'" said DeLonge.
The song wasn’t much fun to play in the beginning, but after the band put the song together and recorded it knew it was going to be a huge hit: "Once we recorded this song and heard it, it gave us the chills. We just looked at each other and knew we had this little piece of magic. We knew that thing was going to be a gigantic thing, I don't know how, but we just felt it straight away." Tom DeLonge stated in an interview.
The lyrics of the song talk about Jennifer Jenkins, DeLonge's longtime girlfriend, whom he later married. The line "She left me roses by the stairs / Surprises let me know she cares" are based on a true story when his girlfriend left roses on the stairs after DeLonge returned home after the band finished recording the record. The song also features "na na na” backup vocals, which was an ode to the punk-rock band the Ramones.
The Music Video
The music video for the band was a parody of boy bands and many pop videos. It features the trio making fun of boy-bands Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync, 98 Degrees, Britney Spears’ video of the song Sometimes and Christina Aguilera’s video of Genie in a Bottle. At the rehearsals the bassist Mark Hoppus also met his future wife Skye Everly, when she was introduced to him by DeLonge after saying to her: 'Hey, you wanna go on a date with Mark?' to which she responded “No.” Hoppus later married her in late 2000.
The video quickly became the most successful music video of the year and had constant airplay on MTV. It was later named the best video at 2000 Kerrang! Awards and Best Group Video and at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards.