You've sung it. I've sung it. Pretty much everyone you know this side of Aunt Bev has sung it. (Yes, even Homer Simpson has sung it.)
"Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba is one of the all-time best sing-along songs. It's so great that it has two distinct sing-along choruses, the "I get knocked down" chorus, and the "I drink a whiskey drink" chorus. It's really surprising that the song only reached #6 on the Billboard charts. I doubt there are five more memorable songs came out that whole year.
But that's par for the course for Chumbawamba. The band had been together since 1982, but I had never heard of them until "Tubthumping" grabbed my attention in 1997. Because I liked the song so much, I bought the album it came from, "Tubthumper." (1997 was in that no-man's land when if you liked a song you had to buy the entire album, because it was after the time of 45 singles, after the time even of cassette singles, but before the time of iTunes.) (Sure, there was a Napster time in there somewhere, but not for me because I was too computer illiterate and not hip enough to steal music off of the interwebs.)
When I listened to most of the songs on the album, I wasn't overly impressed. Chumbawamba was an odd group, and they filled in the moments between songs with strange rantings and bizarre noises. That said, I did find two other songs on the album to be quite good. One of them, "Amnesia," was the song Chumbawamba released as the official follow-up to "Tubthumping." It's a solid song with some good horn work, some rocking guitar, and a nice tempo, but it was only able to reach #60 on the charts. (The people of 1998 were too busy gettin' jiggy with the song from Titanic to pay attention to an actual good song.) To be fair, though, the chorus of "Do you suffer from long-term memory loss?" is not as sing-alongable as "I get knocked down."
But, as much as I like "Amnesia," the song that really should have been a big hit was "Scapegoat." Again, this song has some rocking guitars, nice use of some horns, and a very danceable techno beat. (Well, danceable by someone who can actually dance, I'm assuming.) And then there are the lyrics, which are quite applicable in today's society, with a chorus of "There's always someone else for you to blame."
So, who do we blame for Chumbawamba's one-hit wonder status? Someone else, because "Scapegoat" and "Amnesia" are both quite worthy of being mega-hits.
Chumbawamba kept releasing albums until finally calling it quits in 2012. That's thirty years together as a band, with only one real hit. I've taken a quick listen to a few of their songs from before they thumped any tubs, and there's some decent stuff, like "I Never Gave Up," "The Digger's Song," and "Enough Is Enough." And, after they thumped their tubs, they had a few more good songs, like "El Fusildo," "She's Got All the Friends That Money Can Buy," and "Add Me." Chumbawamba had a good sense of humor, fine songwriting ability, and excellent musicianship.
Verdict: Chumbawamba should have thumped many more tubs than they did.
