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Quick question: What do you get when you combine punk rock, ska, a horn section, a gravelly Boston accent and enough energy to power a small shopping mall?
You get The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and their 1997 smash, “The Impression That I Get.”
And OH, WHAT AN IMPRESSION THEY MADE.
Released as the lead single from the Bosstones’ fifth album, Let’s Face It, the song became the band’s mainstream breakthrough. It eventually hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart and became the song that introduced a whole lot of people to the wonderfully chaotic world of ska-punk.
The lyrics are actually about courage, fear and wondering how you’d react when life throws something truly difficult at you. Dicky Barrett wrote the lyrics after attending a funeral, and the song first appeared on a 1996 benefit album connected to the 1994 killings of two Massachusetts abortion-clinic workers.
Dicky Barrett has another very recognizable job.
Yep. The gravelly-voiced guy singing this song was also the announcer for Jimmy Kimmel Live! from 2004 until 2022. And here’s an even better bit of trivia: Jimmy Kimmel actually played clarinet with the Bosstones. Kimmel has joined the band onstage multiple times, including performances of this very song.
“The Impression That I Get” has popped up in movies including Chasing Amy, Father’s Day, Step Brothers and Digimon: The Movie. It has also appeared in video games including Donkey Konga, Band Hero and Rock Band 4.
The Bosstones even performed the song on Saturday Night Live in 1997, hosted by Chris Farley.
The band formed way back in the 1980s and had already released four albums before Let’s Face It became their big mainstream breakthrough.
We’re going back to 1997.
Back when your CD player skipped if you looked at it funny.
Back when everyone seemed to own at least one pair of ridiculously baggy pants.
Back when ska was everywhere.
And back when The Mighty Mighty Bosstones gave us a song that somehow manages to sound like a punk-rock pep rally, a New England bar fight and the world’s most enthusiastic marching band all happening at the exact same time.
So crank it up.
Get your head bobbing.
Find something wooden.
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