| Basket Case | |
| Artist: | Green Day |
| From Album: | Dookie |
| Released: | November 29, 1994 |
| Format: | CD |
| Recorded: | 1993 |
| Genre: | Punk rock |
| Length: | 3:01 |
| Label: | Reprise |
| Producer: | Green Day, Jerry Finn |
| Last Single: | "Welcome to Paradise" (1994) |
| This Single: | "Basket Case" (1994) |
| Next Single: | "She" (1995) |
"Basket Case" is a song by American punk rock band Green Day, featured on its third album Dookie (1994) The song contains a sample from the Canon in D, written by Johann Pachelbel. After the single was released, the song ended up being a huge hit, spending five weeks at the top of the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song was written by frontman Billie Joe Armstrong about his struggle with anxiety; before he was diagnosed with a panic disorder, he thought he was going crazy. The music video, featuring the band members in a mental institution, received heavy airplay on MTV. This song and its music video helped propel Dookie to become a major success among most mainstream rock listeners.Dookie went on to become a multi-platinum album featuring this song as well as hit singles "Longview", "When I Come Around", "Welcome to Paradise" and "She".
In 1995, Green Day was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Basket Case". In 2006, on Mike Davies and Zane Lowe's Lock Up Special on BBC Radio 1, the listeners voted "Basket Case" the Greatest Punk Song of All Time. The song can also be found on their 2001 greatest hits compilation International Superhits!. The music video can be found on their International Supervideos! DVD. A live version is also found on Bullet in a Bible, a live album of Green Day performing at the Milton Keynes National Bowl in 2005. In 2009 it was named the 33rd best hard rock song of all time by VH1.[1] Also, in 2008, the song was sampled in the Lil' Wayne song Hot Revolver.
This was the third music video by Green Day, and it was directed by Mark Kohr. The video was shot in an actual mental institution, at the request of the band members. The mental institution had since been abandoned, but most of the structure remained in a broken-down state. The band members found deep scratches in the walls and dental molds scattered around. The music video was actually shot in black and white and the color was added in later, contributing to the surreal effect of the video. The video was nominated for multiple MTV Video Music Awards in 1995: Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Best Hard Rock Video, Best Alternative Video, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, and Viewer's Choice Award.[2] The music video also had a mash-up on MTV with Nelly's Country Grammar called "Country Basket".
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Modern Rock Tracks (US) | No. 1 |
| 1994 | Mainstream Rock Tracks (US) | No. 9 |
| 1995 | Billboard Hot 100 Airplay | No. 26 |
| 1994 | Top 40 Mainstream (US) | No. 16 |
| 1995 | Official Norwegian Singles Chart | No. 2 |
| 1994 | Official Sweden Singles Chart | No. 3 |
| 1994 | Official UK Singles Chart | No. 6 |
| 1995 | Official Irish Singles Chart | No. 11 |
| 1995 | Official German Singles Chart | No. 18 |
It should be noted that, while the song was very popular in the United States, even managing to hit number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay, the lack of a commercial single prevented the song from charting on the Billboard Hot 100.