Dookie is the third studio album and major-label debut by the American rock band Green Day, released on February 1, 1994, by Reprise Records. The band's first collaboration with producer Rob Cavallo, it was recorded in 1993 at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California. Written mostly by the singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, the album is largely based on his personal experiences and includes themes such as boredom, anxiety, relationships, and sexuality. It was promoted with four singles: "Longview", "Basket Case", a re-recorded version of "Welcome to Paradise" (which originally appeared on the band's second studio album, 1991's Kerplunk), and "When I Come Around".
After several years of grunge's dominance in popular music, Dookie brought a livelier, more melodic rock sound to the mainstream and propelled Green Day to worldwide fame. Considered one of the defining albums of the 1990s and of punk rock in general, it was also pivotal in solidifying the genre's mainstream popularity. Its influence continued into the new millennium and beyond, being cited as an inspiration by many punk rock and pop-punk bands, as well as artists from other genres.
Dookie received critical acclaim upon its release, although some early fans accused the band of being sellouts for leaving its independent label (Lookout! Records) and embracing a more polished sound. The record won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards in 1995. It was a worldwide success, peaking at number two on the Billboard 200 in the United States and reaching top ten positions in several other countries.
Dookie was later certified double diamond (20 times platinum) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It has sold over 20 million copies worldwide, making it the band's best-selling album and one of the best-selling albums of all time. It has been labeled by critics and journalists as one of the greatest albums of the 1990s and one of the greatest punk rock and pop-punk albums of all time. Rolling Stone placed Dookie on all four iterations of its "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list, and at number 1 on its "The 50 Greatest Pop-Punk Albums" list in 2017. In 2024, the album was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Background
thumb|left|The exterior of [[924 Gilman Street in West Berkeley. Green Day played the venue until they were banned in September 1993 for signing with a major label.]]
With the success in the independent world of the band's first two albums, 39/Smooth (1990) and Kerplunk (1991), which sold 30,000 units each, a number of major record labels became interested in Green Day. Among them were Sony, Warner Bros., Geffen and Interscope. Representatives of these labels attempted to entice the band to sign by inviting them for meals to discuss a deal, with one manager even inviting the group to Disneyland. The band declined these advances; Armstrong believed that the labels were more than likely looking for something that resembled a grunge band, namely "second- and third-rate Nirvanas and Soundgardens", After Green Day's September 3 gig at 924 Gilman Street, the venue banned the group from entering or playing. They would not return to the venue until 2015, when they played a benefit concert there. Reflecting on this period in 1999, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong told Spin magazine: "I couldn't go back to the punk scene, whether we were the biggest success in the world or the biggest failure [...] The only thing I could do was get on my bike and go forward."
Recording and production
thumb|[[Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, where most of Dookie was recorded]]
Following the band's last Gilman Street performance, Green Day demoed the songs "She", "Sassafras Roots", "Pulling Teeth" and "F.O.D." on Armstrong's four-track tape recorder and sent it to Cavallo. After listening to it, Cavallo sensed that "[he] had stumbled on something big." However, he recognized that the band members were struggling to play their best; he reasoned that they were anxious because the most time they had previously spent recording an album was three days while recording Kerplunk. To lighten the mood, he invited them to a Mexican restaurant and bar down the street from Fantasy Studios, even though the drummer Tré Cool was not of legal drinking age at the time. Armstrong confirmed the band's anxiety in an interview years later, describing the group feeling "like little kids in a candy store" and fearing that the band would lose money on work being scrapped by the label for not meeting standards. Despite this, they focused on making the most of the new production resources at their disposal; unlike their previous albums where the band had to rush to complete them to save money, the band took their time to perfect the quality of their output. Armstrong noted that he learned "how to dial in good sounds, get the best guitar tones. I was able to take a little time doing vocals." but the band found the result of this approach to be an unsatisfactory original mix. Cavallo agreed, and it was remixed at Devonshire Sound Studios in North Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the remixing process, the band took to Music Grinder Studio in Los Angeles to re-record the tracks "Chump" and "Longview" as the original recordings had been "plagued by an inordinate amount of tape hiss".
Music and lyrics
Stylistically, the album has been categorized primarily as punk rock, Additionally, Loudwire stated that the album represented scene music in the 2023s.
NME characterized the album's sound by "crashing drums, razor-wire guitars, [and] a double helping of fuck you attitude", and Arielle Gordon of Pitchfork stated that the album "made apathy sound apoplectic". Many of the album's tracks have brief runtimes; Fred Thomas of AllMusic noted, "the way the tracks fly by nervously in barrages of buzzing guitars and half-sung, half-sneered vocals from Billie Joe Armstrong intentionally aims to obscure how precise their arrangements are." Jason Chow of the National Post characterized the tracks themselves as "furious but sweet melodies".
Lyrically, the album is characterized by its "irreverent attitude", PopMatters summarized the album's theme as "a record that speaks of the frustrations, anxieties, and apathy of young people". The song revolves around a mentally ill character who plans to use explosives to kill himself and others. This was not regarded as a serious issue at the time, as the social climate could allow the song to be viewed as "mere cathartic fantasy", but later incidents such as the 1999 Columbine High School massacre have made the song the "most uncomfortable track" on the album. On "Chump", Armstrong takes the perspective of someone who shows prejudice, insulting another person without actually knowing them. At the end of the song, it is revealed that the disliked person in question matches Armstrong's description of himself. "Chump" is also the first of three songs that allude to Amanda, a former girlfriend of Armstrong's. In an interview with Guitar World in 2002, Armstrong described the character in the song as based on himself when he lived in Rodeo, California: "There was nothing to do there, and it was a real boring place." To entertain himself, the character does nothing but watch television, smoke marijuana, and masturbate, and has little motivation to change these habits despite tiring of the same cycle of behaviors. "Pulling Teeth", one of the album's slower songs, uses dark humor about domestic violence. The typical victim and perpetrator are reversed; the male narrator is at the mercy of his female partner. The band's inspiration for this song came from a pillow fight between Dirnt and his girlfriend that ended with the bassist breaking his elbow. The second single, "Basket Case", which appeared on many singles charts worldwide, was also inspired by Armstrong's personal experiences. The song deals with Armstrong's panic attacks and feelings of "going crazy" before being diagnosed with a panic disorder. In the second verse, "Basket Case" mentions soliciting a male prostitute; Armstrong said, "I wanted to challenge myself and whoever the listener might be. It's also looking at the world and saying, 'It's not as black and white as you think. This isn't your grandfather's prostitute – or maybe it was.'"
Songs 8–14
"She" was written about Amanda, who showed him a feminist poem entitled "She". Amanda is also referenced in the next track, "Sassafras Roots". The tenth track, "When I Come Around", was the album's final single. It was inspired by Adrienne Nesser, Armstrong's girlfriend and eventual wife. Following a dispute between the couple, Armstrong left Nesser to spend some time alone.
The song "Coming Clean" deals with Armstrong's coming to terms with his bisexuality as a teenager. At the time, he was still looking for himself sexually and had no well-defined sexual orientation. In his interview with The Advocate magazine, he said that although he has never had a relationship with a man, his sexuality has been "something that comes up as a struggle in me". "Emenius Sleepus", written by Dirnt, is about two old friends who meet by chance, and the narrator realizes that they have both changed a lot as people. Played in a quick staccato-styled rhythm, Armstrong wrote the song "In the End" about his mother and stepfather, and the reproach Armstrong felt toward his mother for choosing his stepfather as a partner. "F.O.D.", an acronym for "Fuck Off and Die", begins calmly with Armstrong alone on acoustic guitar, before the band suddenly arrives in a louder, full-force fashion. The theme of the song centers around the singer's grudge for another individual, and wishing misfortune upon them.
A hidden track, "All By Myself", with vocals and guitar by Cool, plays after "F.O.D." ends, and is about masturbation.
Title and artwork
thumb|right|Telegraph Avenue in downtown Berkeley, circa 2010. The street is the setting of the album cover artwork, drawn by East Bay artist Richie Bucher. The cover depicts [[Patti Smith showing off her armpit as shown on the cover of her album Easter (1977), a shootout surrounding Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton, the woman on Black Sabbath's self-titled debut album, Angus Young of AC/DC, and the Sather Tower. Friends of the band members are among the foreground figures on whom dogs and monkeys throw their excrement. A dog pilots the plane that drops bombs with the words Dookie written on them, while the name of the group is written in brown in the center of the explosion. Oil refineries in Rodeo, California, can be seen in the distance. Despite promising demand from the quick depletion of the album's initial supply, it initially resulted in modest total sales as strategies were adjusted to meet demand, and only after the music video for "Longview" debuted on MTV on February 22 did the album begin to attract stronger attention, first entering the Billboard 200 rankings at number 127.
In March, the group made appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Jon Stewart Show and 120 Minutes on MTV. Sales for Dookie rose greatly following these performances, peaking at number two on the Billboard 200 in the United States. In October, Warner proposed "Welcome to Paradise" to be the third single, noting potential to make good sales. However, Armstrong refused because the song evoked a part of his life and he did not feel capable of promoting it with a music video. The song was ultimately only broadcast on the radio domestically, being met with great success despite not being sold to the public. An exclusive United Kingdom single release for the song did proceed on October 17. The band had been nominated in four Grammy Award categories: Best Alternative Music Album, Best New Artist, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal with "Basket Case", and Best Hard Rock Performance with "Longview". They won only the former of the categories. In the meantime, "When I Come Around" had been quickly climbing the charts; it held the top of the Billboard Modern Rock Chart for seven weeks and peaked at number six of the Hot 100 Airplay chart, becoming the band's most successful single from the album. By 2024, the RIAA had certified it 20× platinum — double diamond — for twenty million copies sold in the United States alone.
| rev2 = Alternative Press
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| rev3 = Billboard
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| rev4 = Chicago Sun-Times
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| rev5 = Chicago Tribune
| rev5score =
| rev6 = NME
| rev6score = 7/10
| rev7 = Pitchfork
| rev7score = 8.7/10
| rev8 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide
| rev8score =
| rev9 = Spin Alternative Record Guide
| rev9score = 8/10
| rev10 = The Village Voice
| rev10score = A−
Dookie was released to critical acclaim. In early 1995, Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote, "Punk turns into pop in fast, funny, catchy, high-powered songs about whining and channel-surfing; apathy has rarely sounded so passionate." Rolling Stones Paul Evans described Green Day as "convincing mainly because they've got punk's snotty anti-values down cold: blame, self-pity, arrogant self-hatred, humor, narcissism, fun". Jesse Raub, writing for Alternative Press, praised "Burnout" for immediately opening with a "huge, polished production value without abandoning their scrappy, loose punk playing" which consistently shines through the rest of the album's tracks. A 2017 review from Pitchforks Marc Hogan summarized the album's material as "buzzing, hook-crammed tracks that acted like they didn't give a shit", but resounded so well with its audience because in truth "on a compositional and emotional level they were actually gravely serious", praising the album's outlandish artwork for helping ease the tense nature of the music. The band did not respond initially to these comments, but later claimed that they were "just trying to be themselves" and that "it's our band, we can do whatever we want".
Legacy
Green Day's Dookie—along with the Offspring's Smash, released two months later—has been credited for helping bring punk rock back into mainstream music culture. NME argues, "Dookies success proved to record label, film and TV [executives] that the teen rock revolution they had been witnessing for much of the early '90s didn't have to be all gloomy nihilism and angsty sonics. Dookie made rock fun again." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described Dookie as "a stellar piece of modern punk that many tried to emulate but nobody bettered".
In 2014, its twentieth anniversary, the album received several list accolades. In April 2014, Rolling Stone placed the album at No. 1 on its "1994: The 40 Best Records From Mainstream Alternative's Greatest Year" list, ahead of Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral and Weezer's self-titled debut. A month later, Loudwire placed Dookie at No. 1 on its "10 Best Hard Rock Albums of 1994" list. Guitar World ranked Dookie at number thirteen in their list "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" that July. Rolling Stone cited it as one of the greatest punk rock albums of all time in 2016, NME also listed "Welcome to Paradise" as a top-50 song for the year.
A 30th-anniversary deluxe edition of the album, released on September 29, 2023, includes outtakes, demos, and two live concert recordings. On October 9, 2024, the band announced Dookie Demastered, a collaboration with the Los Angeles–based art studio BRAIN where each song on the album was ported onto an "obscure, obsolete and otherwise inconvenient" format, such as a wax cylinder and a Teddy Ruxpin; those who won in a drawing would be eligible to purchase each item.
In September 2025, Collider placed Dookie fifth on its list of "10 Pop-Punk Albums That Are Amazing From Start to Finish".
Accolades
200px|thumb|right|[[Deryck Whibley and his band Sum 41 are said to have been influenced by Dookie.]]
Dookie has appeared on many prominent "must have" lists compiled by the music media, including:
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! Publication
! Country
! Accolade
! Year
! Rank
|-
| Robert Dimery
| rowspan="10" | United States
| 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
| 2005
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | Rolling Stone
| The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
| 1994
| 1
|-
| 40 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time
| 2016
| 18
|-
| 1994: The 40 Best Records From Mainstream Alternative's Greatest Year
| 2010
| 30
|-
| Spin
| 100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005
| 2005
| 44
|-
| Pitchfork
| The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s
| 2022
| 111
|-
| Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
| The Definitive 200
| 2007
| 50
|-
| Kerrang!
| United Kingdom
| 51 Greatest Pop Punk Albums Ever
| 2015
| 2
|-
| Revolver
| United States
| 50 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time
| 2018
| 13
|-
| LouderSound
| United Kingdom
| The 50 Best Punk Albums of All Time
| 2018
| 11
|-
| LA Weekly
| United States
| Top 20 Punk Albums in History: The Complete List
| 2013
| 13
|-
| Loudwire
| United States
| The Best Hard Rock Album of Each Year Since 1970
| 2024
| 1
|}
Live performances
In mid-1993, while recording and mixing the album, Green Day opened for several Bad Religion concerts, allowing them to play new songs to a live audience. However, unlike their previous shows, the band was now playing before audiences of two to three thousand people. Two weeks after the release of Dookie, the band embarked on an international tour. In the United States, they traveled between shows in a bookmobile belonging to Tré Cool's father.
Further controversy followed the band only weeks later at a free concert in Boston. Alternative radio station WFNX hosted a free Green Day concert at the Hatch Memorial Shell concert venue on September 9, 1994. However, the promoters were accustomed to hosting reggae and acts of similar softness that drew smaller crowds, and were unprepared for the audience of 70,000 to 100,000 people. The fans in attendance were already chanting for Green Day during the show's opening act. After several calls for calm, including some from Armstrong, the group began their performance, but the singer let himself be carried away by the energy of the audience and jumped into the middle of it during "Longview", the seventh song of the set. The security forces, overwhelmed and fearing that the lighting fixtures would collapse, forcibly ended the concert by cutting off the power. A riot ensued and spilled into the streets, leading to numerous arrests and injuries. The Massachusetts State Police were called. Roughly 100 people were injured and 31 were arrested in the aftermath of the concert. In 2006, the Boston Phoenix would list the Green Day Hatch Shell "riot" concert as the sixth-greatest concert in Boston history.
When the band returned to Europe in October 1994, the venues in which they played were much larger, and the band was met with much more enthusiasm. Despite their new notoriety for live performances, the trio continued to sell tickets at affordable prices: $5 to $20 (equivalent to $ to $ in ). Warner proposed several groups to play as opening acts on this tour, but the band rejected these; instead, the band invited German punk band Die Toten Hosen and the American queercore group Pansy Division to join their shows. Following the European shows, the band returned home for one last show at the Z100 Acoustic Christmas at Madison Square Garden in New York. An AIDS benefit show, Armstrong performed the song "She" naked, using his guitar to cover himself.
In 2013, the band played Dookie in its entirety at some European dates as a celebration of the album's upcoming 20th anniversary. On October 19, 2023, at the Fremont Country Club in Las Vegas, Dookie was played in its entirety as part of the evening's 29-song set, including "All by Myself". The album was played in celebration of its upcoming 30th anniversary and announcement of the 2024 tour.
Track listing
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.
| 6
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!scope="row"|Europe (European Top 100 Albums)
| 3
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!scope="row"|Greek Albums (IFPI)
| 33
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!scope="row"|Italian Albums (FIMI)
| 10
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!scope="row"| Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| 32
|-
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Portuguese Albums (AFP)
|align="center"|4
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Spanish Albums (AFYVE)
|align="center"|6
|-
|-
|-
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Year-end charts
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+1994 year-end chart performance for Dookie
! Chart (1994)
! Position
|-
!scope="row"|Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)
|align="center"|32
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard 200
|align="center"|24
|}
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+1995 year-end chart performance for Dookie
! Chart (1995)
! Position
|-
!scope="row"|Australian Albums (ARIA)
|align="center"|10
|-
!scope="row"|Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)
|align="center"|4
|-
!scope="row"|Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)
|align="center"|36
|-
!scope="row"|Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)
|align="center"|28
|-
!scope="row"|Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)
|align="center"|2
|-
!scope="row"|Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
|align="center"|32
|-
!scope="row"|European Top 100 Albums (Music & Media)
|align="center"|7
|-
!scope="row"|German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
|align="center"|6
|-
!scope="row"|New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
|align="center"|4
|-
! scope="row"| Spanish Albums (AFYVE)
|align="center"|26
|-
!scope="row"|Swedish Albums & Compilations (Sverigetopplistan)
|align="center"|26
|-
!scope="row"|Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)
|align="center"|5
|-
!scope="row"|UK Albums (OCC)
|align="center"|53
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard 200
|align="center"|7
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+2001 year-end chart performance for Dookie
! scope="col"| Chart (2001)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
!scope="row"|UK Albums (OCC)
| style="text-align:center;"|199
|}
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+2002 year-end chart performance for Dookie
!Chart (2002)
!Position
|-
!scope="row"|Canadian Alternative Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)
|align=center|159
|-
!scope="row"|Canadian Metal Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)
|align=center|79
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+2005 year-end chart performance for Dookie
! scope="col"| Chart (2005)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
!scope="row"|UK Albums (OCC)
|style="text-align:center;"|154
|}
Decade-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+Decade-end chart performance for Dookie
!Chart (1990–1999)
!Position
|-
!scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| style="text-align:center;"|33
|}