THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.
907-Puddle of Mudd-She Hates Me.
1993-It wasn’t released until 2002, when reaching Number 14.
Best Bit-At 1.36. I don’t think this guy is under any illusion as to what she thinks of him.
Puddle of Mudd were formed in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, in 1992, by Wes Scantlin, (vocals, and rhythm guitar) Jimmy Allen, (lead guitar) Sean Salmon, (bass) and Kenny Burkitt, (drums) they used to practice next to the ‘Missouri River Levee,’ which inspired the groups name. In total there have been 15 different members come and go, with Wes Scantlin being the bands one constant. The discography of Puddle of Mudd includes six studio Albums released between 1997-2019, an Album of cover versions issued in 2011, and one ‘best of’ compilation released in 2010. Puddle of Mudd have also released 16 singles between 2001-2019, with two of those tracks ‘Blurry,’ (Number 5 in 2001) and ‘She Hates Me,’ (Number 13 in 2002) both making the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in America. In the UK, they have charted within the top 40 on three occasions, with ‘Blurry’ being the most successful, when peaking at Number 8.
By 1999 the original line up of Puddle of Mudd had split, leaving only Wes Scantlin to continue the bands name. Scantlin’s big break came after a copy of a demo tape was heard by Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit (see also best songs 583.) Durst got in touch with Scantlin, and after hearing that Puddle of Mudd had split, he set about putting together a group of musicians to record new material, and re-record some of their old songs. The end result was ‘Come Clean,’ which was released in August 2001, as the debut studio Album from Puddle of Mudd, which has since gone on to sell in excess of 5 million copies worldwide.
‘She Hates Me’ (also known as ‘She F..king Hates Me’) was written as far back as 1993, but remained unreleased until 2002 when appearing as one of the 11 tracks on ‘Come Clean,’ ‘She Hates Me’ was the last of four singles issued of the Album in August 2002. ‘She Hates Me’ was co-written by Wes Scantlin, and Jimmy Allen, with the production being by John Kurzweg. Although Allen hadn’t been a member of Puddle of Mudd since 1997, he is credited as a co-writer on three of the tracks on ‘Come Clean.’ Wes Scantlin was inspired to write the lyrics to ‘She Hates Me’ after an incident in his relationship with the mother of his son, Scantlin has said,’I came home really late, she was furious, and she wouldn’t let me sleep in the bed. She made me sleep in the corner on the carpet, and I had no pillow. I had a little notebook, and I grabbed a little pencil, and I just started writing, ‘She f–king hates me. She f–king hates me.’ She was always talking about, ‘Sex isn’t everything in a relationship.’ And I was like, ‘Alright. But I’m home and feeling frisky, so let’s get down.’ She was like, ‘Nope, you’re not getting nothing,” and that’s how that went.’
‘She Hates Me’ should be filed under the musical genre of ‘Post-Grunge,’ which is an offshoot of ‘Grunge,’ which is less abrasive or intense in tone than traditional Grunge. ‘Grunge’ is an ‘Alternative Rock’ genre that emerged during the mid-1980’s in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Among the most notable and successful names in the genre of ‘Grunge,’ were ‘Nirvana,’ (see also best songs 788 and 9) and Pearl Jam’ (see also best songs 458). It was in the 1990’s that ‘Post Grunge’ bands such as ‘Bush,’ ‘Creed,’ and ‘Nickleback,’ (see also best songs 415) began to come to the fore, playing a more ‘radio friendly’ type of music, that often had a production quality that was much higher and cleaner than ‘Grunge.’
There have been accusations that ‘She Hates Me’ is very similar to the main chord progression used in the 1983 song ‘I Saw Your Mommy,’ by the American ‘Thrash Metal’ band ‘Suicidal Tendencies,’ leading to claims that Puddle of Mudd plagiarised that song. ‘She Hates Me’ also shares similar chords and melodies with the song ‘Summer Nights,’ (see also best songs 768) by John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, (1948-2022) from the 1978 musical film ‘Grease,’ so much so, that sometimes at gigs, Puddle of Mudd perform the two songs together as a medley.
‘Met a girl, thought she was grand, fell in love, found out first hand. Went well for a week or two, then it all came unglued. In a trap trip I can’t grip, never thought I’d be the one who’d slip.’