| Dookie | ||||
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| Released | February 1, 1994 (1994-2-1) | |||
| Recorded | September–October 1993 | |||
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| Length | 39:35 | |||
| Label | Reprise | |||
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| Singles from Dookie | ||||
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Dookie is the thirdstudio album by the Americanrock bandGreen Day, released on February 1, 1994, byReprise Records. The band's first collaboration with producerRob Cavallo, it was recorded in 1993 atFantasy Studios inBerkeley, California. Written mostly by the singer and guitaristBillie 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'sKerplunk), and "When I Come Around".
After several years ofgrunge'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 thedefining albums of the 1990s and ofpunk 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 manypunk rock andpop-punk bands, as well as artists from other genres.
Dookie received critical acclaim upon its release, although some early fans accused the band of beingsellouts for leaving its independent label (Lookout! Records) and embracing a more polished sound. The record won aGrammy Award forBest Alternative Album at the37th Annual Grammy Awards in 1995. It was a worldwide success, peaking at number two on theBillboard 200 in the United States and reaching top ten positions in several other countries.Dookie was later certifieddouble diamond (20-times platinum) by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It has sold over 20 million copies worldwide, making it the band's best-selling album and one of thebest-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 placedDookie on all four iterations of its "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list,[1] and at number 1 on its "The 50 Greatest Pop-Punk Albums" list in 2017.[2] In 2024, the album was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Recording Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[3]
With the success in the independent world of the band's first two albums,39/Smooth (1990) andKerplunk (1991), which sold 30,000 units each,[4][5] a number of major record labels became interested in Green Day.[6] Among them wereSony,Warner Bros.,Geffen andInterscope.[4][5] 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 toDisneyland.[7] The band declined these advances; Armstrong believed that the labels were more than likely looking for something that resembled agrunge band, namely "second- and third-rateNirvanas andSoundgardens",[8] and they did not want to conform to a label's vision. That changed when they met the producer andA&R representativeRob Cavallo ofReprise, a subsidiary of Warner Bros.[5][9] The band playedBeatles covers for him for 40 minutes, then Cavallo picked up his own guitar and jammed with them.[9][10] They were impressed byhis work with fellow Californian bandthe Muffs, and later remarked that Cavallo "was the only person we could really talk to and connect with".[7]
Eventually, the band left theirindependent record label,Lookout! Records, on friendly terms. They signed a five-album deal withReprise in April 1993. The deal secured Cavallo as the producer of the first record and allowed the band to retain the rights to its albums on Lookout!.[11][12][9] Signing to a major label caused many of Green Day's original fans to label themsell-outs, including the influential punk fanzineMaximumrocknroll[9][10] and the independent music club924 Gilman Street.[13][14] After Green Day's September 3 gig at 924 Gilman Street,[15] the venue banned the group from entering or playing.[7][16] Reflecting back on the period, the singer and guitarist,Billie Joe Armstrong, toldSpin magazine in 1999, "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."[17] The group returned in 2015 to play a benefit concert.[18]
Following the band's last Gilman Street performance, Green Daydemoed the songs "She", "Sassafras Roots", "Pulling Teeth" and "F.O.D." on Armstrong's four-tracktape recorder and sent it to Cavallo. After listening to it, Cavallo sensed that "[he] had stumbled on something big."[6][8] 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 recordingKerplunk. To lighten the mood, he invited them to a Mexican restaurant and bar down the street fromFantasy Studios, even though the drummerTré Cool was not of legal drinking age at the time.[19] 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."[8]
Recording took place over the course of three weeks at Fantasy, and the album was mixed twice by Cavallo and the producerJerry Finn.[7][19] Though the band took their time to make a quality product as a whole, Armstrong's vocals were still recorded very quickly; he recorded about 16 or 17 songs in two days, most of them in a single take.[20][21] Armstrong said the band at first "wanted it to sound really dry, the same way theSex Pistolsrecord or the earlyBlack Sabbath records sounded",[22] but the band found the result of this approach to be an unsatisfactory original mix. Cavallo agreed, and it was remixed atDevonshire Sound Studios in North Hollywood, Los Angeles.[23] 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 oftape hiss".[23] Armstrong later said of their studio experience, "Everything was already written, all we had to do was play it."[7][22] Among the material recorded but not included on the album was "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", which would later be re-recorded for the band's 1997 albumNimrod and become a hit in its own right.[24] The band also recorded new versions of the songs "Welcome to Paradise", "2000 Light Years Away"[23] and "Christie Rd." from their second albumKerplunk and "409 in Your Coffeemaker" from their second EP,Slappy, though only "Welcome to Paradise" would make it onto the final album.[25]
Much ofDookie's content was written by Armstrong, except "Emenius Sleepus", which was written by the bassistMike Dirnt, and thehidden track, "All by Myself", which was written byTré Cool. The album touched upon various experiences of the band members and included subjects such asanxiety andpanic attacks,masturbation,sexual orientation,boredom,mass murder, divorce,domestic abuse, and ex-girlfriends.[7]PopMatters summarized the album's theme as "a record that speaks of the frustrations, anxieties, and apathy of young people".[26] Stylistically, the album has been categorized primarily aspunk rock,[27][28][29] but also aspop-punk[26][30][31] and as a "power pop take" onskate punk.[32] Influences fromthe Ramones and the Sex Pistols were noted in Armstrong's guitar technique throughout the album; he recorded the album almost entirely with hisFernandes Stratocaster, which he named "Blue".[31]
Dookie opens with "Burnout", a "speedy, antsy rocker" centered around a central character's feelings of general apathy toward life.[26] Armstrong wrote the song "Having a Blast" when he was in Cleveland in June 1992.[33] 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 1999Columbine High School massacre have made the song the "most uncomfortable track" on the album.[34] 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.[35] "Chump" is also the first of three songs that allude to Amanda, a former girlfriend of Armstrong's.[22] The album's first single, "Longview", had a signature bass line that Dirnt wrote while under the influence ofLSD.[36] In an interview withGuitar World in 2002, Armstrong described the character in the song as based on himself when he lived inRodeo, California: "There was nothing to do there, and it was a real boring place."[37] To entertain himself, the character does nothing but watch television, smokemarijuana, and masturbate, and has little motivation to change these habits despite tiring of the same cycle of behaviors.[37]
"Welcome to Paradise", the third single fromDookie, originally appeared on the band's second studio album,Kerplunk!. The song was written about Armstrong's experiences living in bad neighborhoods aroundOakland, California.[38] "Pulling Teeth", one of the album's slower songs, uses dark humor aboutdomestic violence. The typical victim and perpetrator are reversed; the male narrator is at the mercy of his female partner.[24] 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.[39][40] The second single, "Basket Case", which appeared on many singles charts worldwide,[41][42] was also inspired by Armstrong's personal experiences. The song deals with Armstrong's anxiety attacks and feelings of "going crazy" before being diagnosed with apanic disorder.[22] Using apalm mute, Armstrong is the only one who plays on the song until halfway through the song's first chorus, with the other instruments' arrival representing panic setting in.[43] In the third 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.'"[8] The music video was filmed in an abandoned mental institution. It is one of the band's most popular songs.[44]
"She" was written about Amanda, who showed him a feminist poem entitled "She".[22] In return, Armstrong wrote the lyrics of "She" and showed them to her.[22] When Amanda broke up with Armstrong in early 1994 and moved toEcuador to join thePeace Corps, Armstrong decided to put "She" on the album.[45] Musically, "She" is similar to "Basket Case", although it is slightly faster, and draws inspiration from the Beatles. The song's beginnings mirror those of "Basket Case"; whereas Armstrong was the only one to play as "Basket Case" began, Armstrong's guitar does not enter until later in "She" while his bandmates provide a musical backdrop. The song tells the story of a young woman who feels trapped in an unsatisfactory life.[40][46] Amanda is also referenced in the next track, "Sassafras Roots".[22] Sonically closer to the band's material onKerplunk!,[40] it is an unconventional love song that uses irony and sarcasm in an effort to avoid being direct, and centers on a couple wasting time together in a romantic relationship.[47] 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.[6] Described as the closest thing to aballad on the album,[40] "When I Come Around" is driven by a recognizable two-bar, palm-muted guitar riff of four chords, while Dirnt's bass part stands out by adding additionalpulled-off andhammered-on portions to the guitar's accompaniment. The song's lyrics highlight two meanings of its title: the narrator begins by talking to someone they believe they could address the needs of, having literally come around; in the second verse, the singer realizes they aren't what the other person needs, having "come around" figuratively.[48]
The song "Coming Clean" deals with Armstrong's coming to terms with hisbisexuality as a teenager. At the time, he was still looking for himself sexually and had no well-defined sexual orientation.[24] In his interview withThe 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".[49] "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.[24] Played in a quickstaccato-styled rhythm,[50] 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.[24] "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.[51]Ahidden track, "All By Myself", with vocals and guitar by Cool, plays after "F.O.D." ends, and is about masturbation.[52]
Dookie is American slang for feces. It is a reference to thediarrhea—"liquid dookie"—that the band members suffered while eating spoiled food on tour. Initially, the band aimed to name the albumLiquid Dookie, but this was shortened toDookie.[22] Asked in 2014 if the choice was a mistake in hindsight, Armstrong said it had been an impulsive "stoner thing": "We were smoking a lot of weed [and said] 'Hey, man, wouldn't it be funny if...'"[8]
For its cover art, the band commissioned artist Richie Bucher, who created a cartoon-like work depicting bombs being dropped on people and buildings. Bucher says Armstrong only told him the album's title, so he worked around the theme of fecal matter. As a child, Bucher had associated feces with dogs and monkeys, both of which appear prominently on the album's cover.[19]
The setting is a replica ofBerkeley's Telegraph Avenue. In the center, there is an explosion with the band's name at the top.[53] The cover depictsPatti Smith showing off her armpit as shown on the cover of her albumEaster (1977), a shootout surroundingBlack Panther Party co-founderHuey P. Newton, the woman onBlack Sabbath'sself-titled debut album,Angus Young ofAC/DC, and theSather 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.[54][19][8]
Armstrong has since explained the meaning of the artwork:
I wanted the art work to look really different. I wanted it to represent theEast Bay and where we come from, because there's a lot of artists in the East Bay scene that are just as important as the music. So we talked to Richie Bucher. He did a 7-inch cover for this band called Raooul that I really liked. He's also been playing in bands in the East Bay for years. There's pieces of us buried on the album cover. There's one guy with his camera up in the air taking a picture with a beard. He took pictures of bands every weekend atGilman's. The robed character that looks like theMona Lisa is the woman on the cover of thefirst Black Sabbath album.AC/DC guitaristAngus Young is in there somewhere too. The graffiti reading "Twisted Dog Sisters" refers to these two girls from Berkeley. I think the guy saying "The fritter, fat boy" was a reference to a local cop.[6]
When the trio went to Warner's offices in Los Angeles to discuss marketing for the album, label officials initially wanted the cover to feature a photograph of the comely young men, but the band refused. George Weiss, Warner's marketing director, noted that the band came from a distinctly different culture than most of their artists, and Green Day had gained the leverage with the label to insist on a different choice.[19] The back cover on early prints of the CD featured a plush toy ofErnie fromSesame Street, which was airbrushed out of later prints for fear of litigation;[54] however, Canadian and European prints still feature Ernie on the back cover.[7] Some rumors suggest that it was removed because it led parents to think thatDookie was a child's lullaby album or that the creators ofSesame Street had sued Green Day.[6]
While rehearsing in the house they rented in Berkeley at the end of 1993 in anticipation of a tour forDookie,[19] the band was invited to the Warner offices in Los Angeles to discuss the marketing strategy around the album with Weiss. The latter expected to meet three scornful young men with reputations in punk music, when in reality the band members were intimidated to even be invited to the meeting. They discussed the first single, "Longview", as well as projected goals for the album's sales: Cavallo hoped to sell at least 200,000 units, while Cool looked higher toward 500,000.[55] Demand was well underestimated; whenDookie was released on February 1, 1994, the album's first 9,000 produced copies quickly sold out.[54][56] "Longview" was released as the album's lead single simultaneously with the album.[57] 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 onMTV on February 22 did the album begin to attract stronger attention, first entering theBillboard 200 rankings at number 127.[54]
In March, the group made appearances onLate Night with Conan O'Brien,The Jon Stewart Show and120 Minutes onMTV.[54][58] Sales forDookie rose greatly following these performances, peaking at number two on theBillboard 200 in the United States.[59] The record became an international success as well; the album peaked in the top ten of theGerman,[60]Finnish,[61]Norwegian,[62]Dutch,[63]Italian,[64]Swedish,[65] andSwiss[66] charts, while it topped theAustralian,[67]Canadian,[68] andNew Zealand charts.[69] By June 14,Dookie was certified gold by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having sold more than 500,000 copies in the United States.[70] That month, an issue ofTime hailed the album as a work creating an impact comparable toNirvana'sNevermind (1991).[58]
On August 1, "Basket Case" was released as the album's second single.[71] The song's music video quickly became anMTV staple.[72][58] The following month, "Longview" was nominated in three categories at the1994 MTV Video Music Awards. Green Day performed the unreleased song "Armatage Shanks" at the ceremony, which would later appear on their following albumInsomniac (1995), but did not win any of the categories which they were nominated for.[73][74] 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.[75] An exclusive United Kingdom single release for the song did proceed on October 17.[76] Near the end of 1994,Don Pardo invited the band to perform onSaturday Night Live.[58]
Ahead of the37th Annual Grammy Awards, "When I Come Around" was released to radio as the album's final single in December 1994.[77] 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", andBest Hard Rock Performance with "Longview". They won only the former of the categories.[78] In the meantime, "When I Come Around" had been quickly climbing the charts; it held the top of theBillboardModern Rock Chart for seven weeks and peaked at number six of theHot 100 Airplay chart,[79][80] becoming the band's most successful single from the album.[48] Throughout the 1990s,Dookie continued to sell well, eventually receivingdiamond certification from the RIAA in 1999, signifying ten million copies sold.[70] By 2014,Dookie had sold over 20 million copies worldwide and remains the band's best-selling album.[81][82] By 2024, the RIAA had certified it 20× platinum — double diamond — for twenty million copies sold in the United States alone.[70]
| Initial reviews (in 1994/1995) | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Chicago Sun-Times |   [83] |
| Chicago Tribune | [84] |
| Select |   [85] |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 8/10[86] |
| The Village Voice | A−[87] |
| Retrospective reviews (after 1994/1995) | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | [27] |
| Alternative Press | [88] |
| Billboard | [89] |
| NME | 7/10[90] |
| Pitchfork | 8.7/10[91] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [92] |
Dookie was released to critical acclaim. In early 1995, Jon Pareles ofThe 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."[93]Rolling Stone's 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".[94] Jesse Raub, writing forAlternative 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.[88] In a 20th anniversary retrospective review forBillboard, Chris Payne highlighted how Armstrong's "sugary, almost bubblegum choruses" were unique for punk at the time, and forcefully brought mainstream attention to punk rock music.[89]
TheChicago Tribune'sGreg Kot was appreciative of the loudness and urgency in the album's sound, detecting influences fromthe Who andthe Zombies.[84]NME showcased the record's "crashing drums" and "razor-wire guitars", concluding, "being dumb has never been so much fun."[90] A 2017 review fromPitchfork's 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.[91]Robert Christgau, writing forThe Village Voice, opined that "punk lives, and these guys have the toons and sass to prove it to those who can live without," praising their themes of apathy, insanity, poverty, and "the un-American way".[87]
Neil Strauss ofthe New York Times, while complimentary of the album's overall quality, followed up Pareles' review by noting thatDookie's pop sound only remotely resembledpunk music.[95] 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".[7] Dirnt claimed that the follow-up album,Insomniac, one of the band's most aggressive albums lyrically and musically, was the band releasing their anger at all the criticism and distaste from critics and former fans.[7] On the other hand, Thomas Nassiff atFuse cited it as the most importantpop-punk album.[30]
Green Day'sDookie—along withthe Offspring'sSmash, released two months later—has been credited for helping bringpunk rock back into mainstream music culture.[28][29][96][97]NME argues, "Dookie's 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."[98]Stephen Thomas Erlewine ofAllMusic describedDookie as "a stellar piece of modern punk that many tried to emulate but nobody bettered".[27] On the album's twentieth anniversary,The Daily Beast wrote that before its release "rock meant grunge: heavy, monotonic, humorless, and bleak", but the lighter tone ofDookie changed the public's general understanding of the term. It "made the entire pop-punk movement possible...it shaped the way people looked, dressed, danced, and spent their summers.Odeley [sic] is fantastic. So isOK Computer. But neither record triggered the sort of commercial tsunami of compatriots and copycats that followed inDookie's wake."[97] Berkeley-basedRancid was one of the first bands to capitalize on the hype created by Green Day and the Offspring with...And Out Come the Wolves, giving the new punk rock movement stability.[29] In 2024, the album was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Recording Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[3]
Some critics claim thatDookie allowed numerous similar artists to enjoy long careers, including Rancid,New Found Glory,Fall Out Boy,Panic! At The Disco,Blink-182,Simple Plan, andYellowcard.[97][99][29]Good Charlotte guitaristBilly Martin,Something Corporate frontmanAndrew McMahon, andSum 41 frontmanDeryck Whibley all claim stylistic influence from the album.[29]NME believes Blink-182'sEnema of the State (1999), Sum 41'sAll Killer No Filler (2001),My Chemical Romance'sThe Black Parade (2006), and evenLady Gaga'sThe Fame (2008) could not have been created withoutDookie. Gaga has said that the album was the first she ever purchased.[98]
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 ofNine Inch Nails'The Downward Spiral andWeezer'sself-titled debut.[100] A month later,Loudwire placedDookie at No. 1 on its "10 Best Hard Rock Albums of 1994" list.[101]Guitar World rankedDookie at number thirteen in their list "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" that July.[102]Rolling Stone cited it as one of the greatest punk rock albums of all time in 2016,[103] andNME ranked it as the 18th-best album of 1994, alongside "Welcome to Paradise" as a top-50 song for the year.[104]
A 30th-anniversary deluxe edition of the album, released on September 29, 2023, includes outtakes, demos, and two live concert recordings.[105] On October 9, 2024, the band announcedDookie 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 awax cylinder and aTeddy Ruxpin; those who won in a drawing would be eligible to purchase each item.[106][107]
Dookie has appeared on many prominent "must have" lists compiled by the music media, including:
| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robert Dimery | United States | 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die[108] | 2005 | — |
| Rolling Stone | The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time[109][1] | 2020 | 375 | |
| Best Albums of 1994 (Readers Choice)[110] | 1994 | 1 | ||
| 40 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time[103] | 2016 | 18 | ||
| 1994: The 40 Best Records From Mainstream Alternative's Greatest Year[100] | 2014 | 1 | ||
| Loudwire | 10 Best Hard Rock Albums of 1994[101] | 1994 | 1 | |
| Rolling Stone | 100 Best Albums of the Nineties[111] | 2010 | 30 | |
| Spin | 100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005[112] | 2005 | 44 | |
| Pitchfork | The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s[113] | 2022 | 111 | |
| Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | The Definitive 200[114] | 2007 | 50 | |
| Kerrang! | United Kingdom | 51 Greatest Pop Punk Albums Ever[115] | 2015 | 2 |
| Revolver | United States | 50 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time[116] | 2018 | 13 |
| LouderSound | United Kingdom | The 50 Best Punk Albums of All Time[117] | 2018 | 11 |
| LA Weekly | United States | Top 20 Punk Albums in History: The Complete List[118] | 2013 | 13 |
In mid-1993, while recording and mixing the album, Green Dayopened for severalBad Religion concerts, allowing them to play new songs to a live audience.[119][120][21] However, unlike their previous shows, the band was now playing before audiences of two to three thousand people.[55] Two weeks after the release ofDookie, the band embarked on an international tour. In the United States, they traveled between shows in abookmobile belonging toTré Cool's father.[7] From late April to early June 1994, the band toured Europe, playing around 40 concerts in the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Sweden. The band's popularity was still rising slowly when they arrived in Europe; in Belgium, the audience numbered about 200 people.[121] Cavallo recorded a few performances during the tour, to show the three young men their evolution on stage, and for use asB-sides on later releases.[122]
After the European tour, Armstrong proposed to Nesser after four years of on-and-off relationships. Because the tour prevented them from properly planning their wedding and their honeymoon, the two married in a small ceremony on July 2, 1994, attended only by Green Day's two other members and their girlfriends. Adrienne discovered she was pregnant the next day, and Armstrong was upset about being unable to help and care for her.[7] The trio then joined the second leg ofLollapalooza as the main attraction, and program directors set them to play the opening of the main stage.[123][124][72] They missed a date of the traveling festival to perform on August 14 atWoodstock '94. This event, the 25th anniversary of theoriginal 1969 festival inSaugerties, New York, saw a mud "fight" between the band and the crowd. Although organizers hoped that Green Day would be a big draw, their punk rock style stuck out at the event and the band's performance was poorly received by the crowd. When they opened their set with "Welcome to Paradise" after three days of rain, the audience was provoked by the irony and threw mud at them. Armstrong responded by taunting the crowd, and the event escalated into a mud fight among the audience and the band. During the fight, Dirnt was mistaken for a fan by a security guard, who tackled him and then threw him against a monitor, injuring his arm and breaking two of his teeth. Broadcast on pay-per-view to millions of people, this performance was widely noticed internationally and sales of the album rose sharply.[58][125][72][126]
Further controversy followed the band only weeks later at a free concert inBoston. Alternative radio stationWFNX hosted a free Green Day concert at theHatch Memorial Shell concert venue on September 9, 1994. However, the promoters were accustomed to hostingreggae 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.[58][127][128] TheMassachusetts State Police were called. Roughly 100 people were injured and 31 were arrested in the aftermath of the concert. In 2006, theBoston Phoenix would list the Green Day Hatch Shell "riot" concert as the sixth-greatest concert in Boston history.[129]
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 $11 to $40 in 2024[130]).[122] Warner proposed several groups to play as opening acts on this tour, but the band rejected these; instead, the band invited German punk bandDie Toten Hosen and the Americanqueercore groupPansy Division to join their shows. Following the European shows, the band returned home for one last show at theZ100 Acoustic Christmas atMadison Square Garden in New York. An AIDS benefit show, Armstrong performed the song "She" naked, using his guitar to cover himself.[131][132][133]
In 2013, the band playedDookie in its entirety at some European dates as a celebration of the album's upcoming 20th anniversary.[82][134] 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.[135][136]
All lyrics written byBillie Joe Armstrong, except where noted; all music composed byGreen Day.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Burnout" | 2:07 |
| 2. | "Having a Blast" | 2:44 |
| 3. | "Chump" | 2:53 |
| 4. | "Longview" | 3:59 |
| 5. | "Welcome to Paradise" | 3:44 |
| 6. | "Pulling Teeth" | 2:30 |
| 7. | "Basket Case" | 3:02 |
| 8. | "She" | 2:13 |
| 9. | "Sassafras Roots" | 2:37 |
| 10. | "When I Come Around" | 2:57 |
| 11. | "Coming Clean" | 1:34 |
| 12. | "Emenius Sleepus" (Mike Dirnt) | 1:43 |
| 13. | "In the End" | 1:46 |
| 14. | "F.O.D." (includeshidden track[note 1]) | 5:46 |
| Total length: | 39:35 | |
Green Day
Technical personnel
Artwork
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
Decade-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Argentina (CAPIF)[180] | Platinum | 60,000^ |
| Australia (ARIA)[181] | 5× Platinum | 350,000^ |
| Austria (IFPI Austria)[182] | Platinum | 50,000* |
| Belgium (BEA)[183] | Gold | 25,000* |
| Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[184] | Gold | 100,000* |
| Canada (Music Canada)[185] | Diamond | 1,000,000^ |
| Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[186] | 4× Platinum | 80,000‡ |
| Finland (Musiikkituottajat)[187] | Gold | 35,205[187] |
| France (SNEP)[188] | Gold | 100,000* |
| Germany (BVMI)[189] | 3× Gold | 750,000^ |
| Ireland (IRMA)[190] | 4× Platinum | 60,000^ |
| Italy sales in 1995 | — | 250,000[191] |
| Italy (FIMI)[192] sales since 2009 | Platinum | 50,000‡ |
| Japan (RIAJ)[193] | Platinum | 200,000^ |
| Mexico | — | 50,000[194] |
| Netherlands (NVPI)[195] | Gold | 50,000^ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[196] | 4× Platinum | 60,000‡ |
| Poland (ZPAV)[197] | Gold | 50,000* |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE)[198] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
| Sweden (GLF)[199] | Gold | 50,000^ |
| Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[200] | Gold | 25,000^ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[201] | 3× Platinum | 900,000^ |
| United States (RIAA)[70] | 2× Diamond | 20,000,000‡ |
| Summaries | ||
| Europe (IFPI)[202] | Platinum | 1,000,000* |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)When Billie gave me a shuffle beat for "Longview," I was flying on acid so hard. I was laying up against the wall with my bass lying on my lap. It just came to me. I said, "Bill, check this out. Isn't this the wackiest thing you've ever heard?" Later, it took me a long time to be able to play it, but it made sense when I was on drugs.
Armstrong tenderly paints the scenario of a girl unsatisfied with the predetermined life she's trapped in.
The single and videoclip were serviced Feb. 1, simultaneous with the album's street date.
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