All the Small Things

"All the Small Things" is a song by American rock band Blink-182. It was released in September 1999 as the second single from the band's third studio album, Enema of the State, through MCA Records. Built on bright, three-chord pop-punk and a "na na na" hook, the song was written primarily by guitarist Tom DeLonge as an ode to his girlfriend. He structured it as a deliberately simple, radio-ready pop song, drawing inspiration from the direct, melodic minimalism of the Ramones. The song was produced by Jerry Finn.

The accompanying music video, directed by Marcos Siega, became a defining element of the song's impact. It parodies the visual language of contemporary teen-pop acts such as the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, featuring exaggerated choreography, stylized beach photo shoots, and tongue-in-cheek recreations of boy-band tropes. The clip became a staple on MTV, where its self-aware comic sensibility and high rotation significantly expanded the band's audience. It also pushed the band into the pop spotlight they were skewering and sparked debate; some critics argued the line between spoof and participation had grown thin.

Upon release, "All the Small Things" quickly emerged as one of the era's most commercially successful pop-punk singles, charting internationally and propelling Blink-182 to mainstream stardom. It became the band’s highest-charting single in the United States, peaking at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, topping the Modern Rock Tracks chart, and reaching number two in the United Kingdom. It has since become a cross-generational pop standard, embraced as a karaoke staple and absorbed into popular culture through films, TV, video games, sports teams, and countless cover versions.

Background

By the end of the 1990s, Blink-182 were on their way to becoming one of the biggest rock bands of the turn of the century. The trio—composed of vocalist/guitarist Tom DeLonge, vocalist/bassist Mark Hoppus, and new addition drummer Travis Barker—had come up playing in Southern Californian punk clubs and on the Warped Tour festival circuit. Their penchant for off-color humor and fast-paced punk rock had caught the interest of Universal Music Group, which signed the band to its MCA label. With a higher budget and assistance from the veteran engineer Jerry Finn—who mixed Green Day's Dookie (1994)—the band set out to make their next album, which came to be called Enema of the State.

"All the Small Things" can be traced back to when the trio first began developing songs for the album at their rehearsal space at DML Studios in their hometown of San Diego, California. "I remember thinking, 'The label's gonna want a song for the radio – so here's one,'" said DeLonge. "It was obvious from the beginning it would fit that format." DeLonge had wanted to write a track including "na na na's" as an ode to one of his favorite bands, the Ramones. and the original working title of the track was "Babycakes-Buttermuffin".

DeLonge wrote the track about his girlfriend Jennifer Jenkins, to whom he was later married from 2001 to 2019.

Composition

"All the Small Things" has been called a pop-punk, punk rock, and power pop song. The song is credited to Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus. The song is two minutes and forty-eight seconds long. Lyrically, the song centers on small gestures of affection and reassurance within a romantic relationship.

The song combines upbeat punk instrumentation with polished pop songwriting and melodic hooks. Built around bright guitar riffs, driving power chords, and a steady mid-tempo drum beat from Barker, the song features a simple verse-chorus arrangement. F and G (I, IV and V in C), a familiar chord progression. The song utilizes short lyrical phrases in each verse, sometimes only four to five syllables. Before the chorus begins, the song features the lines "Say it ain't so / I will not go / turn the lights off / carry me home," which lead into a catchy "na-na-na" refrain. The chorus is further enhanced by a bright synthesizer part performed by Roger Joseph Manning Jr., a session musician known for his work with Beck and Jellyfish. Harmonically, the arrangement emphasizes diatonic major-key movement and simple chord relationships. "This was the song that took the band from theaters and clubs into arenas", observed Andy Greene at Rolling Stone. It has been credited with popularizing pop-punk in the mainstream. Initial critical reviews were positive. Q called the song "one of those power-pop tunes that the Americans get so right," joking, "[it] has more hooks than the Fishing Channel." while it was labeled "a pop punk watershed" by Jonah Weiner of Blender. while Mikael Wood, writing for the same publication, observed that the tune "deliver[s] a potent mixture of humor and melancholy, hope and resignation."

The song is now widely viewed as cross-generational classic. Maeve McDermott, for USA Today, called it the band's defining hit. Steven Hyden, writing for now-defunct culture website Grantland, said "I've come to view Blink as arguably the best radio singles band of its era; songs like "All the Small Things" stand the test of time as ace pop tunes." Amanda Petrusich, in a piece analyzing the band's longevity for The New Yorker, writes: "[Blink's] finest moments are barked in aggrieved-teen shorthand, like this verse from "All the Small Things": 'Late night / Come home / Work sucks / I know.'" Tom Breihan at Stereogum ranked the "soaringly sincere" ballad at a 10/10, while Jeremy Gordon at Pitchfork viewed the song as "surprisingly sensitive [...] the fizzy pleasure of the melody captures the Hallmark simplicity of young love."

Commercial performance

"All the Small Things" became one of Blink-182's biggest global crossover hits, achieving strong chart success across North America, Europe, and Oceania. The song performed exceptionally well in major English-speaking markets. In the U.S., the song first debuted at number 89 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of December 4, 1999 and eventually peaked at number six in January 2000, the highest the band received on the chart. It also peaked at number two in Scotland,

Sales

"All the Small Things" has since sold 2,400,000 copies in the UK and been certified quadruple Platinum.

Music video

Filming

The music video for "All the Small Things" was directed by Marcos Siega, and mocks boy bands and contemporary pop videos of that era.

Siega, who had roots in punk and hardcore, wanted the video to feel disruptive and counterculture, and figured the best way to achieve these goals was through parody. "We were being bombarded with the same music video for every boy band, every pop artist," he recalled in a 2025 podcast appearance. He wrote the song's treatment and submitted it to the band's label, MCA. The band were onboard: Tom DeLonge found the concept well-within the band's sense of humor, and Barker was willing to go along with anything, according to Siega. Bassist Mark Hoppus, however, was adamantly against the video. He felt the idea wasn't funny enough, Despite the label emphasizing the group as a major commercial priority, the members reportedly remained conscious of production costs. "They had come out of that same indie rock scene that we had done videos for, so while the label was talking about [a huge budget], the guys were smart," said producer Shirley Moyers. "They said, 'No matter what they're saying about throwing all this money around, we know that ultimately – somehow, somewhere – that money is coming out of us. So, think of us when you're budgeting.'" Once filming began, the trio committed fully to the comedic performances and choreography. Moyers later recalled that the band realized the concept would only succeed if they "went all out," while choreographer Donielle Artese stated the members enthusiastically learned and performed the synchronized dance routines. An additional film crew was there capturing footage for MTV's Making the Video, which debuted the clip on September 20, 1999.

Notably, the filming of the video was where Hoppus ended up meeting his future wife, Skye Everly, then a talent executive for MTV. According to a 2004 interview, Everly initially said no to dating Hoppus. "Tom [DeLonge] always used to embarrass me. Any girl he'd talk to, he'd say, 'Hey, you wanna go on a date with Mark?' He asked Skye [Everly], my wife, who looked at me and said 'No.' That's how it all started."

Popularity and commentary

"All the Small Things" quickly became the band's most successful music video, and cemented the band's image as video stars. and also nabbed Best Video at the Kerrang! Awards the same year.

The "All the Small Things" video drew extensive commentary for the way its satire blurred into reality. Despite being conceived as a spoof of late-’90s boy-band tropes, it pushed the band toward the same pop spotlight they were mocking. Director Marcos Siega later noted that instead of offending pop fans, the video helped cement the band at the same commercial level as their targets: "I was a little surprised it went over so well," he said. Others suggested the band's playful imitation ultimately became indistinguishable from the real thing. Matt Diehl, author of the book My So-Called Punk, called this basis for satire thin: "To seasoned ears, Blink-182 sounded and looked just as manufactured as the pop idols they were poking fun at." This dynamic resurfaced years later when One Direction, a boy band of a later era, filmed a video on the same beach. Retrospective commentary framed the video as prophetic, especially in context of the mall-punk rise. Kelefa Sanneh, writing for The New York Times, suggested that "in the [following] years top-selling punk-inspired acts like Avril Lavigne and Good Charlotte helped turn Blink-182's parody into reality as punk rock became the new teen pop."

For the band, this commentary felt both inaccurate and distracting. Already frustrated with being labeled “the naked band” after their previous video, they noticed their image was being misconstrued internationally. "The very thing we were mocking was beginning to embrace us. It got even stranger when we traveled abroad, and our image got lost in translation," Hoppus wrote. During a visit to TRL in Milan, they were greeted with the intensity of teen-idol fandom, while at the Independent Days Festival in Bologna they were met with hostility and pelted with bottles and rocks upon launching into "All the Small Things". These extremes highlighted for the band the need for greater control over their branding and presentation; according to Hoppus, they were "furious with [their] label" and determined to avoid being misrepresented in the future. The song has been a staple of the band's live performances since its release. Its ubiquity has made it complex for the threesome: Barker noted that over time, playing the song became tiresome. "With 'All the Small Things,' my band at one point were like, 'We never want to play that song, and we never want to hear it ever again.' And then it comes around, and you're like, 'This song is actually awesome.' And you're proud of what you wrote." Hoppus concurred: "It's a really simple song, we've played it billion times, everyone's sick of it. But now I just remember how lucky we are to be onstage playing them." DeLonge's voice has deepened over the years, leading him to mock the original recording in later years – in a 2022 interview, he compared his vocals on the song to Hanson and quipped, "I sound like I'm fucking four years old."

The song proved influential on the pop punk genre, with a host of young musicians emulating its sound. Former Simple Plan bassist David Desrosiers noted that the song "blended punk attitude with pop songwriting so much better than other bands."

The song has become a popular karaoke choice, particularly for millennials who came of age listening to the song. In a 2022 piece, GQ writer Chris Gayomali humorously suggests that "if you were born in the 1980s or early '90s, even if you were never a fan or a willful listener of a Blink song, the lyrics to their biggest hits—"All the Small Things", "I Miss You"—are somehow already encoded into your subconscious, sitting there, just a few blood-alcohol-content percentages away from being karaoke'd without a teleprompter." Billboard columnist Josh Glicksman ranked it among the best karaoke singalongs, observing: "Its communal nature affords it flexibility [...] Bring out every air instrument in the arsenal."

Accolades

{|class="wikitable"

! Region

! Country

! Accolade

! Year

! Rank

| NME

| United Kingdom

| 50 Most Explosive Choruses

| 2014

|align="center"| 16

| Rolling Stone

| United States

| 100 Greatest Pop Songs

| 2000

|align="center"| 94

| VH1

| United States

| Top 100 Greatest Songs of the 2000s

| 2011

|align="center"| 53

<nowiki>*</nowiki> denotes an unordered list

In popular culture

"All the Small Things" has seen extensive use in popular culture, covered by a number of artists from different genres, and soundtracking video games, movies, and television programs. The band has performed the song on several late-night talk shows, including twice on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno a decade apart, The song was synched for usage in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Boston Legal, Knuckles, and for the band's 2003 guest appearance on The Simpsons; it has also been referenced in the 2011 Family Guy season 9 episode It's A Trap!, where Peter Griffin (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) mistakes it as a Sum 41 song. In film, the song was licensed for use in Charlie's Angels (2000), Clockstoppers (2002), and Hope Springs (2003). The song has been used frequently in music video games; "All the Small Things" is a playable track in Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero: On Tour, Guitar Hero Live, Rock Band, Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1 and its iOS port, and Fortnite Festival. When the Guitar Hero series relaunched with Guitar Hero Live in 2015, it was among the game's most-played tracks on its online service. Covers are present in the video games Rock Revolution and Donkey Konga.

thumb|The song has come to be used by the [[Colorado Avalanche at home games.]]

A 2020 advertising campaign from Dunkin', announcing autumn drinks, used a pun alluding to the tune: "All the Fall Things". It was used that same year in a commercial for BMW. The song has been covered by All Time Low, Kelly Clarkson, Charlie Puth, GFOTY, Evan Stephens Hall, Kidz Bop, Nick and Joe Jonas, Avril Lavigne, Machine Gun Kelly, Middle Kids, Twenty One Pilots, Weezer, and Postmodern Jukebox (which is used in the 2022 John Lewis Christmas advert). It has also seen a dance remix by DJ Sharkoffs. The virtual band Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for their 2008 album Undeniable, and the song was used for the characters' live-action film and accompanying video game. The song's association with the characters has prompted Hoppus to joke at concerts, "Not to brag, [but] you might recognize this next song from the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie."

Like many famous rock songs, "All the Small Things" has come to be used in chants at sporting events. In 2019, the NHL team the Colorado Avalanche began playing the song during the third period of home games with a comfortable lead and after overtime wins. The tradition has gained more prominence as the 2021–22 team won the Stanley Cup Finals. The Athletic book about the 2021-22 team was titled Carry Me Home, a lyric from the song's refrain. Hoppus acknowledged the Avalanche's tradition on Twitter, calling it "amazing", and appeared at the 2022 home opener to lead the crowd in singing the song, and remarking, "Thank you so much for taking our band along or the ride, it means the absolute world to us."

Stand-up comedian Adam Devine referenced the song in a routine that aired on Comedy Central's Goddamn Comedy Jam, where he revealed that he had lost his virginity to the song in high school.

Track listings

All live tracks on the UK release were recorded at the Electric Ballroom, London, England, on November 30, 1999.

Credits and personnel

Original version

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Enema of the State.

Locations

Recorded at Signature Sound, Studio West, San Diego California; Mad Hatter Studios, The Bomb Factory, Los Angeles, California; Conway Recording Studios, Hollywood, California; Big Fish Studios, Encinitas, California
Mixed at Conway Recording Studios, Hollywood, California; South Beach Studios, Miami, Florida

Personnel

Blink-182

Tom DeLonge – guitar, lead vocals, songwriting
Mark Hoppus – bass guitar, backing vocals, songwriting
Travis Barker – drums

Additional musicians

Roger Joseph Manning Jr. – keyboards

Production

Jerry Finn – production
Tom Lord-Alge – mixing engineer
Sean O'Dwyer – recording engineer
Darrel Harvey – assistant engineer
John Nelson – assistant engineer
Robert Read – assistant engineer
Mike Fasano – drum technician
Rick DeVoe – management
Gary Ashley – A&R
Brian Gardner – mastering engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

!Chart (1999–2000)

!Peak position

!scope="row"|Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)

!scope="row"|European Radio Top 50 (Music & Media)

|14

!scope="row"|Iceland (Íslenski Listinn Topp 40)

!scope="row"|Poland (Music & Media)

|19

!scope="row"|Portugal (AFP)

|10

!scope="row"|Romania (Romanian Top 100)

!scope="row"|Spain (Top 40 Radio)

|align="center"|13

!scope="row"|UK Airplay (Music Week)

|align="center"| 9

{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

!Chart (2022)

!Peak position

Year-end charts

{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

!Chart (1999)

!Position

!scope="row"|US Modern Rock Tracks (Billboard)

|94

{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

!Chart (2000)

!Position

!scope="row"|Australia (ARIA)

|52

!scope="row"|Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)

|79

!scope="row"|Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)

|70

!scope="row"|Europe Airplay (Music & Media)

|100

!scope="row"|Germany (Media Control)

|71

!scope="row"|Ireland (IRMA)

|60