Falling for the First Time

"Falling for the First Time"
Single by Barenaked Ladies
from the album Maroon
ReleasedMay 22, 2001[1]
Recorded2000
GenreAlternative rock
Length3:40
LabelReprise
Songwriter(s)Steven Page
Ed Robertson
Producer(s)Don Was
Barenaked Ladies singles chronology
"Too Little Too Late"
(2001) 		"Falling for the First Time"
(2001) 		"Thanks That Was Fun"
(2001)
Audio sample
Music video
"Falling for the First Time" on YouTube

"Falling for the First Time" is the third single by Canadian group the Barenaked Ladies from their 2000 album, Maroon. The song was composed by Steven Page and Ed Robertson. The song also appears on the band's 2001 compilation album, Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits and the soundtrack of the TV show, Malcolm in the Middle. Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the song was placed on the list of post-9/11 inappropriate titles distributed by Clear Channel.

Music video

The music video begins with a security guard at a museum (played by BNL's keyboardist Kevin Hearn's cousin Harland Williams) who is bored watching the camera monitors decides to change the channel to a TV station. The only channel to pop up shows the band playing the song, despite efforts by the guard to return the monitors to normal. Enraged the guard takes the camera monitor and tosses it into the garbage bin. As the guard returns to his desk the song has just ended, in the background the band can be seen leaving with several pieces of stolen artwork from the museum along with taking the monitor he just tossed, revealing that the video was used to distract the guard.

A shortened version exists that was made in conjunction with Kids' WB as part of their interstitial "Top Toons Tune". It uses the clip of the band playing from the original video, but mixes it with clips from the then current programming block's line up which included Static Shock, ¡Mucha Lucha!, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Jackie Chan Adventures, X-Men: Evolution and The Mummy.[2]

Critical response

Rolling Stone magazine said that the single "strives to translate the emotional rush of falling in love into a swirling, shimmering wall of sound, with a nice detour for the earthbound observation, 'anyone perfect must be lying.'"[3] Billboard said the song was "shimmering."[4]

Personnel

Charts

Chart (2001) Peak
position
Canada (BDS) 15
U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40 11[citation needed]

Year-end charts

Year-end chart performance for "Falling for the First Time"
Chart (2001) Peak
position
Canada Radio (Nielsen BDS)[5] 75

Footnotes

  1. ^ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0011ZW9DO Amazon: Falling for the First Time
  2. ^ Top Tunes Toon promo "Barenakedladies" Kids' WB!.mov. YouTube. Doug Chapin. June 4, 2011. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15.
  3. ^ Moon, Tom (2000-09-14), "Barenaked Ladies". Rolling Stone. (849):171
  4. ^ Paoletta, Michael (2000-09-16), "Reviews & Previews: ALBUMS". Billboard. 112 (38):26
  5. ^ "BDS CHART : Top 100 of 2001". Jam!. Archived from the original on July 26, 2002. Retrieved March 26, 2022.


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