Spoonman
"
Spoonman" is a hit
song by the band
Soundgarden. It was originally written for the soundtrack to the film
Singles. More famously though, it appeared on the band's 1994 album
Superunknown and was the first single released from it. It would later appear on their greatest hits album
A-Sides. The song is credited as having launched Soundgarden's career into the mainstream, although attempts to do so with previous works had been made.
Previous to the creation of the song, Soundgarden, along with fellow
grunge band
Pearl Jam, was working on the soundtrack for
Cameron Crowe's film
Singles. Pearl Jam's bassist,
Jeff Ament, had been put in charge of creating the name for a fictional band that would appear in the film. Before finally choosing Citizen Dick for its name, Ament had compiled a list of potential names which included the name "Spoonman". The name was inspired by
Artis the Spoonman, a street performer from
Santa Cruz, California and later
Seattle, who played music with a set of
spoons.
Soundgarden vocalist and songwriter
Chris Cornell eventually used the list to create songs for the film with names from the list. "Spoonman" was among these, and an acoustic song was created from it. This early version of the song can be heard in the background in a scene of the film. Rather than just leave the song on the film's soundtrack, Soundgarden began working on an electric version of "Spoonman", which became the flagship single for their breakthrough album
Superunknown. Before the album's release they would play it while on their 1993 tour with
Neil Young. With hype building around the album, Soundgarden released the single a month before the album's release.
The song's inspiration, Artis the Spoonman, played a prominent role in the song itself. The final version of the song featured Artis the Spoonman playing his spoons as part of the song's instrumental. The
music video for the song also featured Artis prominently, making him the focus of the video instead of the band. The call-and-response style is reminiscent of "
Black Dog" by
Led Zeppelin.
Shortly after the single's release, the song became widely popular, reaching high positions on rock charts. It would later go on to win the 1995
Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.
Spoonman was also the name of an unrelated song by
Underworld, released on their 1993 album
dubnobasswithmyheadman.
| Year | Single | Chart | Position | | 1995 | Spoonman | Official Irish Singles Charts | No. 23 |
| 1994 | Spoonman | Mainstream Rock Tracks | No. 3 |
| 1994 | Spoonman | Modern Rock Tracks | No. 9 |
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All Music Guide review
