“Dammit” by blink-182

"Dammit" was the second single from blink-182's second album, Dude Ranch, released on MCA in September 1997, and it's the one that took the skate punks out of the van and onto the radio. Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Scott Raynor wrote it together, with Hoppus singing, and Mark Trombino produced, recorded and mixed it.

Hoppus dreamed up the story in a single burst, and unlike most of the band's early material, it's a made-up breakup rather than his own. The riff started out on an acoustic guitar that was missing two strings, which is how he stumbled on that instantly familiar intro. What follows is four chords, a racing beat and a lyric about the frustration and exposed nerves of a teenage breakup, all delivered with a shrug and a lump in the throat.

It was their first real hit, climbing to number 11 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart, and heavy airplay spread their name internationally. A video from Ken Daurio and Darren Doane helped, and so did a spot in the 1998 film Can't Hardly Wait. It's still how blink-182 end their shows, and it has become one of the defining songs of pop-punk.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.