In 2000, Wheatus released one of the best coming-of-age songs ever written. “Teenage Dirtbag” captures the feelings of being an outsider during your formative years, an evergreen theme that nearly everyone deals with in their life. As such, the song has re-entered the charts several times over its 25-year history.
“Well, it’s a song about finding your own identity, which invariably comes with some sort of loneliness,” singer Brendan B. Brown told Essentially Pop. “I think nobody really gets away with life without feeling something along those lines. I’d like to think it’s there for people who are facing that moment of, ‘the illusions of what I was going to become, or what I could be, are gone, and I’m going to be confident, and accept myself, and become the person I will be, uniquely.’ And that moment of unique discovery, for everybody, even if it’s sometimes late, is part of having a healthy life. So I think that’s why, because anybody can put themselves into the narrative of discovering your true identity.”
Most recently, the song got a new life on a new Wheatus EP last year, bringing a brand-new perspective.
“Christmas Dirtbag” is the lead single off their holiday EP, “Just a Dirtbag Christmas.” The seasonal remake reframes the lyrics to focus on wanting Santa Claus’s attention rather than a romantic crush. While Brown is the bandleader and sole original member, he entrusted the remake to longtime guitarist and singer Gabrielle Sterbenz.
“Essentially, I put it in Gabrielle’s hands as I was really short on time and asked her to come up with something,” Brown told York Calling. “And she hit it out of the park. I had one or two contributions – I liked the idea of doing Santa in verse 3 to go low as opposed to the high vocal everyone expects there – but really it was all Gabrielle. She’s very into Christmas and had no problem creating a new narrative out of the Teenage Dirtbag story. Myself and Phil Jimenez (who co-produced the original song with me back in the day) mixed it and added some additional Christmas production.”
“Christmas Dirtbag” features the same form and chords of “Teenage Dirtbag.” The song is in E major and uses all diatonic chords, meaning they all come from the key. The verses alternate from E to B (I to V) and E to A (I to IV). The chorus chord progression strings together the I, IV, and V chords, then adds C# minor to add more tonal variety.
Wheatus pads the arrangement with lots of sleigh bells to get in the holiday spirit. A percussionist also hits a larger bell to punctuate Brown’s monologue as Santa.
Check out their performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to get the full effect:
Now it’s your turn! Get the sheet music for “Teenage Dirtbag” and use the lyrics to “Christmas Dirtbag” to liven up your holiday music repertoire.
