I’ve Gotta Hand It to Hanson

A little research gave me a new appreciation for “MMMBop.”

It was weird.

I hadn’t heard “MMMBop” by Hanson in a long time, and I heard it twice on my birthday — on my car radio and in a store.

Two thoughts occurred to me when I heard it:

1. This song makes me happy. It’s straight-up sugary, feel-good pop, sung with youthful energy.

2. I have no idea what it’s about. I tend to focus in on lyrics and can sing along to most pop songs. When I like a song, I usually learn the lyrics quickly so I can sing it. With this song, I can pick out one or two words in the verses and sing “MMMBop” in the chorus. That’s about it. The rest of the time, I’m like a little kid sloppily making up some half-baked approximation of syllables.

I wanted to know what this song was about, once and for all.

Turns out, it’s a bit more introspective than I thought. It’s about sowing the seeds of relationships and nurturing the ones that are of quality because life is over quickly — in an MMMBop. These lyrics gave me pause:

“So, hold on to the ones who really care

In the end they’ll be the only ones there

When you get old and start losing your hair

Can you tell me who will still care?”

Gulp.

I thought to myself, I’m sure some adult wrote these lyrics. What kind of kids think about who will be there for them when they get old — or about losing their hair, for that matter?

The Hanson brothers, that’s what kind of kids. They wrote the music and lyrics themselves. No adult help. And they were 10, 12, and 15 years old.

Dang.

I thought about what I was doing at those ages (I wasn’t writing hit songs) and developed a new respect for this trio. Whether you like the song or hate it, these kids deserve some credit for writing, singing, and playing their own songs.

I was too far beyond the age of Hanson’s fan base to pay much attention to them at the time (1997), other than “MMMBop,” which was hugely popular. It’s only taken me 25 years to learn more about them.

I searched for videos of the song and discovered this early demo of the song from 1996, played at a slower tempo:

I also found this acoustic version from 2021. Those little boys are, of course, grown men. Not having followed them at all over the years, though, it was still a shock to see them as adults — and a happy discovery that they still sound great!

My birthday seemed like an appropriate time to examine this seemingly frivolous song more closely. I thought of the people who cared enough to call or send me texts and cards to wish me a happy birthday. I want to hold onto those people.

And despite being another year older, I found a temporary fountain of youth each time I sang along to the chorus. In my car, nodding to the beat, I belted out my own fudged version of their nonsense words like a babbling toddler.

Yeah-ee-yeah-a!

Here are some more music stories, if you’d like to take a peek: