Throwback Thursday ‘Flagpole Sitta’ by Harvey Danger (1997)

"Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger was the first single off of the band's debut album, Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone?.

Yes, you read that correctly, Harvey Danger was a band, not just one guy.

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The band originated in Seattle, Washington, and was made up of members Sean Nelson, Jeff J. Lin, Aaron Huffman, and Evan Sult. They were all journalism students from the University of Washington. I mean this in the nicest way, after watching the video again, they all look like journalism majors.

"Flagpole Sitta" was a huge critical and commercial success. The song peaked at #38 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it went all the way to #3 on the Alternative Airplay chart. Rolling Stone ranked the song at  #25 on their list of the best songs of the 1990s.

According to Wikipedia, "The title of the song was inspired by the 1930 Marx Brothers film Animal Crackers, which features a line of dialogue about the pole sitting fad of the 1920s.^[2] The band was inspired to spell "sitter" as "sitta" by the Pavement song "Fame Throwa" and the N.W.A album Straight Outta Compton."

How boring were the 1920s that people sat on poles for entertainment?

The band has said that "Flagpole Sitta" was written as a response to all the grunge music coming out of Seattle and the way it affected pop culture.

You may have heard "Flagpole Sitta" in American Pie or Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

The band released their last music together in 2011.