Minimum Wage
From This Might Be A Wiki
| song name | Minimum Wage |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | Flood, Birdhouse In Your Soul (EP) [European 12" EP], Dial-A-Song, Dial-A-Song: 20 Years Of They Might Be Giants, A User's Guide to They Might Be Giants: Melody, Fidelity, Quantity, Flood + Apollo 18 |
| year | 1990 |
| first played | April 23, 1990 (214 known performances) |
| run time | 0:47 |
| sung by | John Flansburgh |
Trivia/Info
- Roger Moutenot, who recorded and mixed much of Flood, provided the whipcrack sound. On the mechanics of the sound, Flansburgh tells, "The wind sound of the whip coming from Linnell's decaying Moog synthesizer, and the actual crack sound created by a wet towel snapped in the air and some creative miking from Roger. He was kind of revealing his inner-jock with that move" (Rolling Stone, 2009).
- The song's musical track is largely based on Frank Sinatra's cover of the Petula Clark hit "Downtown." At times, the backing track is almost completely identical to the Sinatra recording arranged by Nelson Riddle.
- The song's opening likely references the opening to the 1940s cowboy song "Mule Train," first made famous by Frankie Laine, which begins "Mule traaain, hyah hyah!"
- The minimum wage for U.S. workers at the time of this song's release was $3.35 an hour.
- Usages on television and radio:
- It was the theme to Jake Fogelnest's short-lived MTV show, Squirt TV.
- Featured in episode 1 of 30 Days, in which host Morgan Spurlock and his fiancée live and work on a minimum wage salary.
- Featured briefly in an episode of British comedy radio series On the Hour.
- Referenced in episode 5 of season 1 of The Bachelor by lead Alex Michel.
- Featured in the opening of the episode "Work" in Adult Swim's surreal anthology series Off the Air.
Song Themes
Accents, Album Lead-Ins, Aversion To Work, Money, Occupations, Problems With Liner Notes, References To Other Songs Or Musicians, TV And Movie Themes
Videos
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