“One Week” by Barenaked Ladies
One way of looking at Barenaked Ladies’ “One Week” is as a dual-themed song. Most identifiably it features Steven Page as a narrator, detailing this sort of tumultuous relationship he has with his lady. And although their disagreement sounds really serious at first, it ultimately reads as if they regularly go through such break-up and make-up episodes. Meanwhile the raps, as relayed by Ed Robertson, have absolutely nothing to do with said narrative. Rather they are freestyles which made it into the final product virtually untouched from the time of their conception.
So for this instance, “One Week” has been noted for possessing a number of pop-culture references. This would likely be so because people like “Harrison Ford”, “Sting”, LeAnn Rimes” and “Aquaman” were amongst the first things, along with the likes of “Chinese chicken” (and by extension Busta Rhymes), “Sailor Moon”, “Snickers” and the “X-Files”, to pop into the Robertson’s head at the time. Indeed the raps themselves don’t make any sense nor are apparently intended to.
And concerning the song’s title, that goes back to the narrative about the relationship. And basically, from the time the couple gets into the featured fight to the time they makeup lasts about “one week”.
Facts about “One Week”
This was the Barenaked Ladies best performing song in Anglo-America, where it topped the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number 5 on the UK Singles Chart. It also fared well in the band’s homeland of Canada, though it has been noted that some of their other tracks did better up north.
And just note, as even Ed Robertson has been able to joke about, “One Week” literally lasted on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for just one week. It has also been pointed out that the fact the Barenaked Ladies were so crowd-friendly (in terms of promoting the tune) contributed to the track’s success stateside.
And concerning its success, this track has gone on to be used in a number of movies, TV shows, commercials, videogames, etc. throughout the year. Indeed it even earned the distinction of being parodied by Weird Al Yankovic in 1999, on a song he called Jerry Springer.
“One Week” came out on 7 July 1998 as part of the Barenaked Ladies’ fourth-studio album, Stunt.
The Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson authored “One Week”. He had laid down the chorus first and was prompted by his bandmate and co-vocalist, Steven Page, to do the freestyles.
Meanwhile the entire Barenaked Ladies crew, who were five-deep at the time, produced the track. They did so alongside the following producers:
- Susan Rogers
- David Leonard
Concerning the aforementioned indirect reference to Busta Rhymes, such actually earned an interpolation credit for the track it was derived from. And that would be 1992’s “Scenario” by A Tribe Called Quest (ft. Leaders of the New School), with Busta being a member of the latter group at the time.
Music Video
The music video to this track, which features a number of pop references itself, was directed by American filmographer/musician McG. It also features an appearance by Carmit of the Pu**ycat Dolls.
pu**ycat dolls? what? when did pussycat become a swear word. are you a child whose mommy thinks pussycat is obscene? i bet she goes crazy when she hears someone mention a titmouse or a woodcock!