Well, looks like this here’s another song that I have to thank the good people at EA Sports for. A long, long time ago I came into the possession of FIFA 2000 for the PC. As to how I did, I’m not so sure. But I want to say it was through my cousin. This happened such a long time ago that I can’t remember what age I was when I was usually playing it. Judging by the year, I’d assume I was four or five. But I also remember redownloading the game again some years later. What matters is, it had some decent tunes on there. One of them I’ve written about in the past. But then there were other bangers like Apollo 440’s ‘Stop the Rock’ and Robbie Williams’s ‘It’s Only Us’, which was specifically made for the game. They were good. But ‘Sell Out’ by Reel Big Fish was one of the couple that really left made its mark on me as the youngster I was.

First of all, I think it was all about that horn section. You would be navigating the game’s menus, choosing what team you wanted to play with, what weather you wanted to play in, what mode you wanted etc. etc. And amongst all that came those horns playing the catchy melody, which also acts as the song’s whole chorus pretty much. So I was always humming along to that. And I want to say that after a while I was singing along to the words too. There would have been a few mumbles on my part to account for the lyrics I hadn’t quite got. But if it had me even doing that, then it would most likely be a song that I wouldn’t forget for a while. So what’s the song about? The song’s narrator gets the offer of a lifetime. A chance to sign for a record label that gets them of their dead-end fast-food job. The narrator’s girlfriend warns them to think about it. The narrator signs it with no hesitation. He’s under the record company’s control. He could end up not being paid at all. If things go wrong, he can’t go back to his old job as he’s already quit. But the narrator has the utmost faith that things will be all right because the label said so.

This song’s considered to be the band’s signature tune, but it acts as a both a blessing and a curse in some ways for them. It was the only single of Reel Big Fish’s to make it in the charts, and there was a bit of a one-hit wonder situation that came along with it for a while. I’ve never gone out of my way to listen to a full Reel Big Fish album. Not because I think they don’t have better songs than ‘Sell Out’, but more because I like ska music in small amounts. But anyone can tell me an album that’s worth a go and I’ll be right on it. Maybe the only ever Reel Big Fish tune I’ve heard was their cover of the Toot & the Maytals song, ‘Monkey Man’. Think that showed up on Kerrang! or something one day. That is a bunch of fun, I gotta say, though it’s no something I’d probably seek out to listen to. ‘Sell Out’, though. That’s one for the ages.