One Week

Album

Stunt

Label

Reprise Records

Genre

Alternative rock

Composer(s)

Ed Robertson

Entered Chart

Oct 3, 1998

Peak Date

Oct 17, 1998

Released

September 15, 1998

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Reprise 17174

The band has said that this song is about a big fight in a relationship. The lyrics are essentially meaningless, but wildly entertaining, showing off their clever wordplay in a rapid-fire interplay between their lead singers, Ed Robertson and Steven Page. Robertson wrote the song. Fittingly, this spent one week at #1 in the US. "I maybe should have called it 'Fifty-Eight Weeks,'" BNL frontman Ed Robertson joked in a Songfacts interview. "But the title was more prophetic than I ever could have hoped." This was the first big hit for Barenaked Ladies. They formed in 1988 and developed a large cult following, especially in their native Canada and among college students. They made inroads in America when their 1996 single "The Old Apartment" cracked the Hot 100, landing at #88 in May 1997. A live version of "Brian Wilson" was issued later that year, and in 1998, when "One Week" was released as the first single from Stunt, they pushed it hard, promoting the song by playing a series of radio station concerts. Most acts wouldn't do well playing to a handful of contest winners in Poughkeepsie, answering some dumb questions from a disc jockey, then doing it again the next day in Scranton, but Barenaked Ladies stayed remarkably gracious throughout the process. Humor and improvisation were always a big part of their repertoire, and that came in handy during the promotional cycle. Radio stations rewarded them by spinning the single and talking up the band. The reason why many of the lyrics are just a hotchpotch of cultural references is that the song was written as a freestyle. Singer-guitarist Ed Robertson explained to Billboard magazine: "I wrote the chorus structure of the song, but I couldn't figure out the verses at all. I got together with Steve [Page] a bunch of times and said, 'I have this idea for a song, and I couldn't figure out where to go with it.' And finally Steve said to me at some point, 'Just freestyle it! Just do what you do onstage every night. It's gonna be great.'" "There were some extra verses and stuff," he added. "I just culled it down to what I thought were my favorite lines. But it was written as a freestyle." The last words of the song are, "Birchmount Stadium, home of the Robbie." This refers to an annual soccer tournament held for charity at Birchmount Stadium in Scarborough, Ontario. Steven Page and Ed Robertson have said that these are are the hardest words to say in the song. The Robbie (officially The Robbie International Soccer Tournament), began in 1967 when some area soccer fans started a boys' tournament to raise money for 3-year-old Robbie Wimbs, who had Cystic Fibrosis. The tournament grew, and later became a benefit for Muscular Dystrophy research as well. Weird Al Yankovic did a parody of this called "Jerry Springer" on his 1999 album Running With Scissors. >> The lyrics in the liner notes contain some extra lines (with Star Wars references), but these lyrics are not in any performed version of the song. Ed Robertson decided to include them with the album notes even though they were left off the song. >> Mitsubishi used this song in a 2002 commercial for their Lancer model. The spot shows groups of young people having fun while they singing along to the song on their drives. The McG-directed music video starts with the guys performing in a royal court before speeding off to a carnival in cars modeled after the iconic General Lee and Ford Gran Torino from The Dukes of Hazzard and Starsky & Hutch, respectively. Carmit Bachar of The Pussycat Dolls cameos as an angel. McG directed a handful of hit videos in the '90s for The Offspring ("Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)"), Korn ("Got The Life"), and Sugar Ray ("Fly"). He became a TV producer (Supernatural, Chuck) and action movie director (Terminator Salvation). The "Chickity China, the Chinese chicken" line is very similar to one of Busta Rhymes' lines in the 1992 Tribe Called Quest song "Scenario": "Chickity choco, the chocolate chicken." I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral Can't understand what I mean? Well, you soon will This lyric came from a sad time in Ed Robertson's life when he lost his older brother in a motorcycle accident. "I was at the funeral, and I didn't want to hear anything like, 'When God closes a door, he opens a window.' It was sad, tragic and senseless," he recalled in a TikTok. During the funeral, the pastor quoted a lyric from "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd: "If I leave here tomorrow. Will you still remember me?" Robertson looked over his shoulder at Barenaked Ladies' drummer Tyler Stewart, seated behind him. The stickman raised the devil horns and whispered "SKYNYRD!" which made Robertson laugh, "because I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral."

It's been one week since you looked at me
Cocked your head to the side and said, "I'm angry"
Five days since you laughed at me
Saying, "Get that together, come back and see me"
Three days since the living room
I realized it's all my fault, but couldn't tell you
Yesterday, you'd forgiven me
But it'll still be two days 'til I say I'm sorry

Hold it now and watch the hoodwink
As I make you stop, think
You'll think you're looking at Aquaman
I summon fish to the dish, although I like the Chalet Swiss
I like the sushi 'cause it's never touched a frying pan
Hot like wasabi when I bust rhymes
Big like LeAnn Rimes, because I'm all about value
Bert Kaempfert's got the mad hits
You try to match wits, you try to hold me but I bust through
Gonna make a break and take a fake
I'd like a stinking aching shake
I like vanilla, it's the finest of the flavors
Gotta see the show, 'cause then you'll know
The vertigo is gonna grow
'Cause it's so dangerous, you'll have to sign a waiver

How can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad?
Trying hard not to smile, though I feel bad
I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral
Can't understand what I mean? Well, you soon will
I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve
I have a history of taking off my shirt

It's been one week since you looked at me
Threw your arms in the air and said, "You're crazy"
Five days since you tackled me
I've still got the rug burns on both my knees
It's been three days since the afternoon
You realized it's not my fault not a moment too soon
Yesterday, you'd forgiven me
And now I sit back and wait 'til you say you're sorry

Chickity China, the Chinese chicken
You have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin'
Watching X-Files with no lights on
We're dans la maison
I hope the Smoking Man's in this one
Like Harrison Ford, I'm getting frantic
Like Sting, I'm tantric
Like Snickers, guaranteed to satisfy
Like Kurosawa, I make mad films, 'kay, I don't make films
But if I did they'd have a Samurai
Gonna get a set of better clubs
Gonna find the kind with tiny nubs
Just so my irons aren't always flying off the back-swing
Gotta get in tune with Sailor Moon
'Cause that cartoon has got the boom anime babes
That make me think the wrong thing

How can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad?
Trying hard not to smile, though I feel bad
I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral
Can't understand what I mean? You soon will
I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve
I have a history of losing my shirt

It's been one week since you looked at me
Dropped your arms to the sides and said, "I'm sorry"
Five days since I laughed at you and said
"You just did just what I thought you were gonna do"
Three days since the living room
We realized we're both to blame but what could we do?
Yesterday, you just smiled at me
'Cause it'll still be two days 'til we say we're sorry

It'll still be two days 'til we say we're sorry
It'll still be two days 'til we say, "Wasabi"
Birchmount Stadium, home of the Robbie