Throwback Thursday ‘Come Out and Play’ by The Offspring (1994)

This song works in two ways for my Pandemic themed Throwbacks. Here in South Dakota, we are slowly reopening, so it is somewhat OK to 'come out and play', however, you still have to be smart about it. In other places in the country, they are still under stricter rules, so they are still 'keeping separated.'

"Come Out and Play" by The Offspring is sometimes mistakenly called 'Keep 'Em Separated.' It was released in 1994 and was the first single from their album, Smash. Later it would be included on their Greatest Hits album in 2005.

The Offspring is a band out of Garden Grover, California. They formed in 1984.

The music video for "Come Out and Play" was the first music video ever for The Offspring. It debuted on MTV in May of 1994. The music video helped the song and The Offspring become well known on the alternative/punk scene. "Come Out and Play" is considered the band's breakthrough song.

The Offspring faced legal ramifications for an Arabian guitar phrase in this song. According to Wikipedia, "In 1994, Posh Boy Records owner Robbie Fields submitted a written claim to Epitaph Records via the Harry Fox Agency, alleging that the two-bar Arabian guitar phrase repeated throughout "Come Out and Play" copied the guitar solo from "Bloodstains", a song by the Fullerton, California punk rock band Agent Orange written in 1979 to which Fields, as the song's publisher, owned the copyright."

No lawsuit was ever filed.

"Come Out and Play" went to #1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and #10 on the Mainstream Rock chart.