More Than You Bargained For: The Story of Fall Out Boy's 'Sugar We're Goin' Down'

Ah the many faces of pop punk… 

Here on Encore we’ve explored a wide range of songs that fall under the genre’s umbrella; from the sounds of Green Day’s Rock-Opera-Political thriller American Idiot to SUM 41’s metal-worshipping, Jackass-inspired Fat Lip, to Avril Lavigne’s quirky and jealousy ridden hand-clapping Girlfriend - Pop Punk is a big ol’ tree with a whole lotta branches. 

In 2005, mainstream pop punk tied its wagon a lot closer to the traditional sounds of Rock N Roll, with heavy guitars and stadium-like bravado that kept the Rock-radio airwaves happy.

Emo; the emotional side of pop-punk was usually relegated to the sounds of the underground. 

The ‘scene’ was filled with bands across North America that were a little pop, a little punk, a little goth, and honestly, a little twee. 

If you were a band having deep, overdramatic feelings about life, love, and fitting in, and treated music as if it was your own personal confessional for all of the above - that was fine - you’d probably find yourself a fanbase - but you certainly weren’t going to find yourself a hit.

Coalescing with the rise of internet culture at the time - emo and screamo bands were massively popular on myspace - with filesharing doing a lot of the word of mouth heavy-lifting both virtually and in real life. 

In a time where everyone was making CD mixtapes - you could easily sneak a (legally or otherwise obtained) mp3 of your favourite emo band on a custom-curated disc - and it started to influence culture at large.

While a ton of emo bands eventually broke through, perhaps the very first of their kind was Fall Out Boy - and while they started off like many other subculture sweethearts of the era - in just a few short years - they would become one of the hottest bands in the world.

This is the Story of Fall Out Boy's Sugar We're Goin' Down

Written by Clayton Taylor for iHeartRadio

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hold on, I have to sweep my two long bangs
to the side before we start. I'm Ruby Carr and
this is the story of Fallout Boy Sugar, We're Going Down.
You know the songs. Just making people feel something. It's
been a pleasure to work on this song with her,
but do you know the history to struggle making any
kind of record? I don't always have the direction or concept.
This is Encore, an in-depth look at the stories behind

(00:24):
the music. Here's IR Radio's Ruby Carr.
Ah, the many faces of pop punk. Here on Encore,
we've explored a wide range of songs that fall under
the genre's umbrella, from the sounds of Green Day's, rock opera,
political thriller, American Idiot, to some 41's metal worshiping jackass

(00:46):
inspired fat lip, to Avril Lavigne's quirky and jealousy ridden
hand clapping girlfriend. Pop punk is a big old tree
with a whole lot of branches.
In 2005, mainstream pop punk tied its wagon a lot
closer to the traditional sounds of rock and roll with
heavy guitars and stadium-like bravado that kept the rock radio

(01:09):
airwaves happy, that's for sure. Emo, the emotional side of
pop punk, was usually relegated to the sounds of the underground.
The scene was filled with fans across North.
America that were a little pop, a little punk, a
little goth, and honestly, a little twee. If you were
a band having deep over dramatic feelings about life, love,

(01:29):
and fitting in and treated music as if it was
your own personal confessional for all of the above, that
was fine. You'd probably find yourself a fan base, but
you wouldn't necessarily find yourself a hit.
And it goes without saying that the same goes for
emo music's raging older brother Screamo, you know, emo music,
but with screams. The distillation of the agony and rage

(01:52):
that came with such despairing musical thoughts often turned mainstream
audiences off, quite frankly, because the sound was seen as
too loud, too dramatic, and nowhere.
Near melodic enough. With that being said, I'm sure Canada's
greatest screamo export, Alexis on Fire, would like a word
on this. Coalescing with the rise of internet culture at
the time, Emo and Screamo bands were massively popular on MySpace,

(02:17):
with file sharing, doing a lot of the word of
mouth heavy lifting both virtually and in real life.
In a time where everyone was making CD mixes, you
could easily sneak a legally or otherwise obtained MP3 of
your favorite emo band on a custom curated disc, and
it started to influence culture at large. And come on,

(02:38):
don't act like you didn't have burned CDs in your
car with your favorite emo lyric written on it in
Sharpie or like Kelsey's mix with three X's. Now, while
a ton of
emo bands eventually broke through. Perhaps the very first of
their kind was Fallout Boy. And while they started off
like many other subculture sweethearts of the era, in just

(02:58):
a few short years, they would become one of the
hottest bands in the world. Formed in the suburbs of
Chicago in 2001, Fall Out Boy was founded originally by
songwriter and bassist Pete Wentz and guitarist Joe Troman. The
22-year-old Wentz was making his
Name a bit of a local scenester celebrity trying his
hand at and getting notoriety in punk adjacent projects in

(03:22):
the hardcore and metalcore scenes before growing tired of his
early bands and teaming up with Troman to form a
yet to be named pop punk side project that he
hoped would be a bit more straightforward and a bit
more fun. Patrick Stump would join the band soon thereafter,
originally hoping to audition to be the band's drummer.
Stump was the son of a folk singer and had

(03:44):
way fewer ties to the local emo scene than Joe
or Pete, preferring jazz, soul, or quirky alt pop stars
like Elvis Costello. Before Stumpf's audition, Troman listened to some
acoustic demos that Patrick had uploaded to his MP3.com page
and encouraged him to bring his guitar along to the
tryout to also audition for a lead singer role.

(04:05):
After playing a few songs from Emo Gods Saves the
Day's influential record through being cool, both Wentz and Troman
agreed they had found their voice. Still technically without a name,
Fallout Boy would court eventual drummer Andy Hurley to join
the group early on, but he would hold out on
the guys for the better part of two years before joining,

(04:26):
but we'll get to that.
After months of arguing over band names, including pretentiously long
ones that would eventually become the band's calling card in
their song titles, the band would tentatively settle on the
tongue in cheek Simpsons reference Fallout Boy for a university
show that also featured an early project of fellow Chicagoan
Tim from Rise Against. As legend has it, Went actually took.

(04:49):
The stage and introduced his band as whatever pretentious idea
he was lobbying for. But when a fan in the
crowd yelled out, that your Fallout Boy, the name caught
the ear of Tim, who thanked Fallout Boy later on
in the night for their set. Whence, Stump, and Troman
idolized Tim, and so if it was good enough for him,
it was finally good enough for them and the name stuck.

(05:12):
Now, quick side note, I had the pleasure of interviewing
Tim and Rise Against earlier this year, and it turns
out Rise Against also had some tragically bad band names
before settling on Rise Against. It's too good. You can
watch that interview and you should watch that interview on
the iHeartRadio Canada YouTube channel. It was so much fun.
I just love those guys and our set will give

(05:34):
you some home decor ins.
Fallout Boy's first EP Fall Op Boys Evening Out with
Your Girlfriend was recorded in 2002 for indie label Uprising Records.
The album was low budget, low effort, and would be
shelved for quite some time by Uprising, which in all honesty,
suited Fallout Boy, who still didn't have a permanent drummer

(05:54):
and didn't love the output on the album. Soon after
recording Girlfriend, the
would travel to Madison, Wisconsin to record some songs to
use as demos on split seven inch EPs with fellow
scene stalwart's 504 plan. Sean O'Keefe, who was engineering the project,
suggested that the still drummerless fallout boy recruit Andy Hurley

(06:14):
to fill in on drums for the project, and this time,
Hurley agreed, traveling from Chicago to Madison to record his parts.
The EP never saw the light of day, but the
recording sessions proved fruitful. Hurley, as a drummer and O'Keefe
as a producer engineer had clear chemistry with Fallout Boy,
transforming their sound and growing the group into a more

(06:36):
professional sounding outfit. Hurley would join Fallout Boy on a
mini tour with band Spiel Field, and O'Keefe agreed to
record more music with the group to try and finally
attract some interest from more established labels.
The band would leave uprising Records, secure Hurley's permanent services,
find themselves a manager, and begin negotiations with a variety

(06:57):
of punk leaning labels before getting a cold call from
a relatively unknown label called Fueled by Rain. And yes,
if that name sounds familiar, Fueled by Rain is the
label Fun would sign with about a decade later, as
we discussed earlier this season. Listen to that episode too
if you haven't already.
The label has had plenty of success over the years,

(07:19):
but its success would truly start to ramp up when
they would eventually sign Fallout Boy and release what most
fans consider their real first album. Around the same time
of the Ramen negotiations, in what feels like a bizarre
turn of events, Fallout Boy would also.
Receive a call from the world famous Island Records, who
had an interesting proposition for the band. Island offered to

(07:43):
incubate Fallout Boy by funding their move to Fueled by
Ramen and letting the rival label release Fallout Boy's debut
with far lower stakes than if the young band signed
for a major label right out of the gate.
If they liked what they heard and thought that they
had something worth investing in, they'd transition the young punks
to Ireland and put them on the path to world domination.

(08:06):
Sounds simple, right? Well, yeah, it wasn't. Now on Fueled
by Rain, Fallout Boy reunited with Sean O'Keefe back in
Wisconsin to record Take This to Your Grave, their proper
debut album, which they wrote in about 9 days.
With $40,000 invested from Poppa label Island Records and a
clear vision to create something as seamless as the aforementioned

(08:29):
Save the Days through being cool and plenty of ideas
to work with from the outside, it all looked pretty straightforward.
But the first issue that plagued the band is a
fairly obvious one that I've been waiting for the right
moment to bring up.
You see, Fallout Boy, for all intents and purposes was
a Pete Wentz band, but Patrick Stumpf was the lead

(08:49):
singer and literal voice of the band. When Stump joined
the group, he quickly took over a majority of the
lyric writing duties from Pete, and although he was constantly
collaborating with Wentz on things like melody and song structure,
more often than not, the two clashed over lyrical content.
The two de facto bandleaders had actually already almost fallen

(09:11):
out before signing with Fueled by Ramen and getting serious
about their music, but now with the stakes higher than ever,
there was no hiding their growing resentment.
The band would admit to alternative press writer Ryan Downey
in 2013 that the recording of Take This to Your
Grave was mired by arguments. Some confess that he was

(09:31):
an artsy fartsy dude who didn't want to be in
a pump punk band and that he didn't take his
lyricism for Fallout Boy all too soon.
Curiously back then. Whence, on the other hand, who had
once had his own reservations about what Fallout Boy even
could become, had recommitted himself to his band in a
major way and wanted every lyric on the album to

(09:51):
be just perfect, or more specifically what his idea of
perfect was.
Wentz would soon begin criticizing and picking apart Stump's lyrics
to the point where Stump would write the song, scrap
his lyrics, then attempt to fit Wentz's lyrics where his were.
Stump was more concerned with the melodies, including the rhythm, syncopation,

(10:12):
and alliteration of words, while Wentz felt none of it
mattered if the lyrics themselves lacked meaning.
Allegedly fighting all the way down to the syllable, the
band would recall, we fought for 9 days straight, all
while not sleeping and smelling like shit. It was one
long argument, but I think some of the best moments
are the result of that. With O'Keefe adding, they would

(10:34):
go through 10 revisions for one song. I thought I
was gonna lose my mind with both of them.
But eventually the album was done up to spec to
what everyone in the band was comfortable with and ready
for a May 2003 release with a considerable amount of hype,
which is when Fallout Boy were confronted with problem number two.
Despite the band themselves thinking it was a giant piece

(10:57):
of garbage, Fallout Boy technically already had a debut album recorded, produced,
and waiting for a release, 2002's Evening Out with Your Girlfriend.
Yes, the band's original uprising Records EP, according to the
label's owner, was always being primed for release, and Fallout
Boy just got too popular before they had a chance

(11:18):
to release it. But wouldn't you know it? A mere
2 months before Take This to Your Grave dropped in
March 2003, Uprising Records took their chance and released their
secret weapon, very much against Fallout Boy's wishes.
Legally, there wasn't much anyone could do to stop the release,
but luckily, the albums shared just one track, Calm Before

(11:41):
the Storm, so there was very little creative overlap. As
you might expect, the messy uprising release pretty much stumbled
out of the gate. The label didn't really have the
means to properly promote it, and since the band themselves
disowned it, it's not like they were going to give
it any love publicly. So
Some fans may have been confused, the Fallout Boy project
lost little to no steam. Take this to your grave,

(12:04):
on the other hand, did wonders for Fallout Boy's career
with Allmusic calling the album spectacular and a smart collection
of emo-influenced pop punk tunes. Alternative press raved even harder
for the album, going as far as saying the album
shines so brightly at times you have
To look really hard to find the imperfections. Even Rolling Stone,

(12:25):
who were far more critical of the album, admitted Fallout
Boy shows a knack for mixing caffeinated uptempo tunes with sensitive,
tortured lyrics before adding, Overall, it's the run of the
mill stuff you'd hear from just about any other warp
tour act. Speaking of the warp tour, like many pop
punk powerhouses before.
The Fallout Boy joined the iconic tour for 5 dates

(12:47):
in 2004. The band was so popular on their respective stops,
the stage collapsed when they were only 3 songs in
due to the massive crowd. This was a common occurrence,
according to Wentz, who claimed the band was banned from
multiple venues due to the riot-like crowds that would rush
their stage shows.

(13:07):
With the fever for Fallout Boy at an all-time high,
Island Records decided to pull the trigger, and from that
moment on, Fallout Boy was fucked. That's F UCT fucked.
You'll get it in a second.
Now Island record recording artist Fallout Boy entered the studio

(13:29):
in late 2004 with producer Neil Avron. As legend has it,
Fallout Boy were actually having quite a bit of difficulty
securing the services of an industry-leading record producer, but it
was hearing unpolished melodies of what would eventually become Sugar,
We're Going Down that eventually sealed the deal with Neil.
Avron, who had worked with artists like Everclear, Newfound Glory,

(13:52):
and Yellow Card, was open to the challenge of creating
a pop punk masterpiece that would stay true to the
band's style but really break through into the mainstream. Eventually
titled From Under the Cork Tree, inspired by a 1936
children's book and eventual 2017 film starring John Cena about a.
Fighter bull that doesn't want to fight called the Story

(14:12):
of Ferdinand. On the obscure title with the accidentally obscene
acronym F UCT, We would say that it represented where
Fallout Boy were in their career, noting, it's like you
could be the giant bull, but you don't have to
take part in everything that's going on. You could live
under the cork tree and live out your days, I guess.
To be honest with you, I still don't fully get

(14:33):
the link.
The first order of business for Fallout Boy was to
create clear delineations between who exactly was responsible for what
when it came to the songwriting for Quarktree. After plenty
of back and forth, it basically shook down like this.
Patrick Stump would write the music and Pete Wentz would
write the lyrics, no questions asked. Stump would rather diplomatically

(14:55):
explain this decision to much.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
I don't know, it's one of those things where, um,
I think.
Uh, everybody focuses on their strengths, or when everybody focuses
on their strengths, you get better stuff done, like flowers
randomly show out of pockets and um.
So, so instead of me trying to make lyrics that
aren't any good, I'm gonna focus on music and he's

(15:18):
going to focus exclusively on lyrics and whatever, you know
what I mean, like, and we're all going to focus
on our strengths and then it's going to be a
better product.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
Admittedly, while this did help keep egos in check, it
also created what sounds like a lot more work for
the band as MTV profiled in an aptly titled.
2004 article Fall Out Boy's sound has changed, but the
weirdly long song titles remain writing. When they started writing
new songs, Fallout Boy knew exactly what they didn't want
to sound like, but they weren't exactly sure what they

(15:45):
did want. In fact, just two weeks before they started recording,
they scrapped 10 songs and wrote 8 more, including the
first single, Sugar, We're Going Down.
Now on a major label with pop stardom in sight,
Fallout Boy wanted to enhance their sound to set them
apart from their underground emo contemporaries. While Take This to
Your Grave was very much the most promising pop punk

(16:08):
emo record to come out of the scene, from under
the cork tree it needed to transcend the very genre
that birthed it.
Whence would tell MTV a lot of bands in the
scene are about the competition rather than the music. They're
all trying to get famous like taking back Sunday or something,
and they don't really hold their weight. A lot of
that music oversaturates the listener and waters down the bands

(16:31):
that are doing it for real, so we chose not
to compete and decided to do something different.
One thing the band didn't do differently was change the
way they titled their songs. Of the 13 songs on
the record, at least 7 of them are incredibly verbosely titled.
Some favorites include Track 1. Our lawyer made us change

(16:52):
the name of this song so we wouldn't get sued.
Track 9, champagne for my real friends, real pain for
my sham friends. Track 10, I slept with someone in
Fallout Boy, and all I got was this stupid song
written about me.
And of course, track 11 and eventual single A Little
less 16 Candles, a Little More Touch Me.

(17:12):
Sure, it was a bit cringy and eventually poked fun
out by fans and critics alike, but honestly, it was
part of the charm. Behind the titles were emotionally fraught
songs of love, loss, self-loathing, cynicism, and relatably maudlin subject matter,
all tied up in pop punk melodies that were not
only catchy but borderline gleeful sounding.

(17:32):
The entire record was emo music personified, treading the line
between caring and creepy, heartfelt and hopeless, translating, they just
don't understand into this is my favorite band.
On sophomore slump or comeback of the year, for example,
when's stu sang lyrics proudly proclaim, We're the therapists pumping

(17:53):
through your speakers delivering just what you need, and their
fans agreed. Admittedly, the expression of themselves through their lyrics
were not always the healthiest.
of coping strategies with the band admitting too much. Now,
a little thing, you said that you're more comfortable writing
to 3 million people than you are having a close,
like personal conversation with someone, which I find interesting. I

(18:14):
talked to a lot of artists like that that feel
that they can put themselves up for their lyrics instead
of talking to people that they're close to.
Yeah, I think it's kind of weird. It's, uh, it's
probably something sometimes people feel is attractive, but I think
it's kind of a psychosis that you should probably talk
to a doctor about. Come on, honestly, no, it's a
good thing because you, you get your, your, your emotions. No,

(18:37):
because I think it's like you kind of like portray
yourself as a distinctly unlikable person and for some reason
people yell for you to come outside.
But like if they read the lyrics, it's like you're
distinctly unlikable. Oh, you're very likable, Pete. You're all very likable. For, Sugar,
We're Going Down was always intended to be the kind
of centerpiece of the album. The aforementioned juxtaposition of happy,

(19:00):
sweet sounding melodies with dark wallowing lyricism is found all
over the track, with Wentz telling Rolling Stone.
I wrote the lyrics in Chicago. I was with my
dad and we were listening to the old music where
they'd always say sugar and honey, stuff like that. I
was like, why doesn't anyone do that anymore? The kind
of doomed yet still fighting nature of the song was relatable,

(19:21):
catchy as hell, and captured the moment of the bubbling
under emo scene.
In the most commercially viable way since Blink 182 broke
through with all the small things, one lyric in Sugar
that raised a few eyebrows was the final line of
each refrain. I think you know the one, I'll be
your number one with a bullet, loaded God complex, cock
it and pull it. On the feisty wordplay, the band

(19:44):
told much.
But, uh, uh, to me like the chorus was the
State of the Union of Fallout boy at the time.
It's kind of like where we were and where what
people were gonna be saying about us a year from
there I guess. I don't know. I'm really excited because
uh when we were recording that song, our record label
showed up, some people from it were like, there's no
way um a song with the lyric Loaded Gu Complex
could ever do well and no one's ever gonna care

(20:06):
about the song. You should consider changing the lyrics.
And I just wanted to thank our fans everywhere for
proving them wrong. That's awesome. That's great. That's good that
you didn't have to change. While the label didn't make
them censor the lyric, somewhereheus is just shaking their fists
at the sky. Everyone involved was a little bit worried
that the line might come off too wordy and self-serving
for even an emo song. Stump, however, had a solution

(20:28):
for that, perhaps born out of the.
fights they had over the ghosts of lyrics past, he
decided to kind of slur the whence penned words to
make them sound better. He told Rolling Stone, I was
trying to do a straight punk song for fun, and
I saw those lyrics and just kind of barked them out.
But there was something about the rhythm of it where

(20:48):
I was like, hmm, that actually might be too good
for just a shitty punk song.
While the actual lyric itself became instantly iconic, Taylor Swift
told Rolling Stone it's one of her favorite lyrics ever,
by the way. The line also became a bit of
a meme thanks to Stumpf's purposeful slurring.
On first listen, fans could not figure out what the

(21:11):
hell he was singing. I mean, what was it again? Uh,
here are some of the misheard renditions I found online.
I'll be your number one with a bullet, a Mardi
Gras contest, cork it and fill it, or I'll be
your number one with a bullet, a robocop contest chock
full of mullet, and of course I'll be your number

(21:31):
one with a bullet, a loaded gun complex stuck in
the pudding.
And the lyrics weren't the only quirky aspect of Sugar,
We're Going Down. The music video was quite the antler,
I mean, eyebrow razor as well. If you've ever seen
the Matt Lensky directed video, you are in for a
surreal treat or nightmare. I'm not sure. The video tells

(21:53):
the story of an awkward young lad who was growing
up in a small town looking for love and happiness, but, um,
he has antlers. We don't know why, he just does.
We see him bullied by schoolchildren before a sweet young
lady gets her kite all tangled up in his horns.
The two develop crushes on each other, and Antler Boy
and his sweetie pie do cutesy, wholesome things all around town.

(22:16):
That is until Antler Girl's bigoted anti-antler dad catches wind
and makes it his mission to hunt our protagonist like
a deer.
At the last second with a crossbow cocked at our hero,
the girl's father gets hit by a car, saving Antler
Boy from impending doom. In the accident, the father's shoes

(22:37):
get blown clean off, and it is revealed that this
no good papa has hooves for feet. The irony, the tragedy.
In the end they all survive teaching us a valuable lesson.
Follow Boy recognized that tying the video to the narrative
of the song was a bit of a stretch, but
enjoyed the Wes Anderson-esque quirkiness of it all. As we've

(23:01):
mentioned countless times on Encore, when it came to music videos,
you really just had to be there in the early 2000s.
A video that stood out could transform a song from
good to great, and everyone loved the Antler Boy video. Heck,
Fallout Boy actually sell the sweater he wears in the
video on their website. It's not even a particularly.
Interesting sweater, but it's the sweater from that video, you know,

(23:24):
people want it. OK, now we do have to switch
gears here. So just before we start this next segment,
I want to give a quick heads up that it
deals with topics of depression, anxiety, and suicide. So if
these are topics that are triggering to you, uh, I'm
gonna make sure to put a time stamp to skip
past the difficult parts, OK?
It truly felt like all of the stars were aligning

(23:45):
for Fallout Boy. They were the subject of praise from
both the underground that raised them and the mainstream that
were finally catching on, a true lightning in a bottle
moment for a band who admittedly were still figuring out
the kinks of playing live shows night after night, and
you can't really blame them. The band was less than
5 years old. With the album almost finished, Pete Wentz

(24:06):
entered a serious bout of depression.
Then in February of 2005, just two months before sugar
were going down hit airwaves while suffering from self-described black clouds,
Whence found himself sitting in a Best Buy parking lot
overwhelmed by his dark thoughts.
The musician took a massive handful of anxiety pills and

(24:26):
admits that while it could be defined as a suicide attempt,
at the very least it was what he called hypermedicating.
Whence would tell the UK Independent, I just wanted to
have my head shut up. I didn't really think about
whether I slept or died. I was either.
Totally anxious or totally depressed, it's particularly overwhelming when you're
on the cusp of doing something very big and thinking

(24:48):
that it will be a big flop. I was racked
with self-doubt. Whence collapsed but would make it to a
hospital and get his stomach pumped, leading to a week-long
stay in the hospital to recover. He would temporarily move
back in with his parents in Wilmotte, Illinois, while the
rest of Fallout Boy, Shocked, fulfilled touring obligations in the UK.

(25:09):
Of Pete's absence, Joe Troman admitted that the hardship did
bring the young band closer together through solidarity. We couldn't
latch on to Pete, so we had to grow some
balls and like talk on our own on stage, he
would tell Rolling Stone. Finally, as Wentz recovered and returned
to the band From Under the Corkree was released on
May 3, 2005.

(25:29):
Originally selling a respectable 68,000 copies in its first week,
ranking it at number 9 on the Billboard 200, the
album really hit its stride as the year came to
a close, as little emo boys and girls all over
America likely woke up to the sounds of Fallout Boy
on Christmas morning as it bounced up to over a
quarter million copies sold over the week of the festive period.

(25:53):
Sugar, We're Going Down would spend a resounding 42 weeks
on the Billboard Hot 100 peaking at number 8 in
September of 2005. What's actually kind of stunning about the song,
and I admittedly only learned this in the research for
this episode, is that it has been unbelievably consistent in
its popularity in the 20 years of its existence. We're

(26:14):
truly talking timeless status here.
Get this. So the song went gold by January 2006,
double platinum by 2009, and 4 times platinum by 2015.
Then in 2016, as the recording industry switched from individual
downloads as a metric to streaming equivalents, where 150 track
listens is equal to one purchase, the song continued to grow,

(26:38):
hitting 8 times platinum status in 2023 and then 9
times platinum status just this past August.
Mainstream coverage of the album was relatively tepid at the time,
with Rolling Stone admitting even with its demented, inscrutable lyrics, Sugar,
We're Going Down will likely still be blasting from radios
10 years on.
Respectively, however, Fallout Boy has certainly gotten their flowers for

(27:01):
bursting the floodgates open with Sugar, We're Going Down and
Cork Tree as a whole. In 2016, Rolling Stones's Brittany
Spanos declared Fall Out Boy changed the course of emo punk,
pop punk, and pop itself with From Under the Cork Tree,
which brought the scene mainstream in a list that put
the album as one of the greatest emo albums of
all time.

(27:23):
Just this year, as this episode is being written, Rolling
Stone released their definitive guide to the 250 best songs
of the century so far. Coming in at a respectable
number 79, Sugar, We're Going Down is the highest ranking
emo song in the entirety of the list. After Sugar,
We're Going Down, Fallout Boy would release two more singles

(27:43):
off From Under the Corkree, the infinitely danceable Dance Dance,
and A Little Les 16 Candles, a Little More Touch Me.
In 2006, they'd be nominated for Best New Artist at
the Grammys before roaring back quickly with 2007's Infinity on
High and the thumping second single, This Ain't ace. It's
an Arms race. I was obsessed with that song.

(28:07):
But the trials and tribulations of success unfortunately cracked away
at the members of Fallout Boy. And after an understated
third album release, Folly Aduh in 2009, the band would
go on a four-year hiatus. By 2013, the group reunited
with Save Rock and Roll, debuting at number one.
On the Billboard chart and a positive critical response with

(28:27):
Rolling Stone declaring their return to form a rather stunning renaissance.
In 2015, Fallout Boy released the sample-heavy American Psycho, also
a number one debut, which featured their most recent top
10 Billboard Hot 100 hit Centuries.
Their 2018 album Mania would receive a Grammy nomination for
Best Rock Album, and in 2023 they released their most

(28:50):
recent album So Much for Stardust. On the supporting tour,
the band would play a surprise song every night that
had more often than not, never been played live before,
where they finally played a song off their long forsaken
first album, performing Honorable mention for the first time in
more than 15 years.
By the time you're listening to this, Fallout Boy will

(29:12):
have just released the 20th anniversary of From Under the
Cork Tree, including a 3 LP version with 4 alternative
versions of Sugar, We're Going Down, including an instrumental version.
So if you want to sing a Robocop contest chock
full of mullet, you can. I'm Ruby Carr. Thank you
so much for listening to Encore and the story behind

(29:33):
Fallout Boy, Sugar, We're Going Down. Encore is an I
Heart Radio Canada podcast.
Download the free IR Radio app and subscribe. Thank you,
thank you so much for coming.