“Can’t Get Enough Of You Baby” by Smash Mouth on their 1999 triple-platinum album Astro Lounge is the song that broke out big from the many included in the movie “Can’t Hardly Wait” and went on to become an international hit and one of that band’s most popular songs. It is also on the Can’t Hardly Wait movie soundtrack which went Gold soon after its release.
Smash Mouth’s recording has also appeared in a number of other movies, including ‘Deuce Bigalow’, and in top national commercials, including for the Buick Open featuring Tiger Woods and Pizza Hut featuring Jessica Simpson, which was the opening commercial for the 2007 Super Bowl.
While Smash Mouth’s version of “Can’t Get Enough Of You Baby” is the most well known, the song has had quite a history leading up to it, including with its transition from R&B to Rock, and has been recorded by a number of well known artists and in a wide range of styles, the first being the original R & B version by The Toys. It was recorded on their first session along with their classic hit, Denny’s song “A Lover’s Concerto”.
The second recording of “Can’t Get Enough Of You Baby” was by super group The Four Seasons. It was recorded shortly after The Toys’ version along with Denny’s song “Working My Way Back To You” when Frankie Valli asked Denny if there was another song of his they could include on that session.
The ? and the Mysterians recording the following year, 1967, was the next. It was the first rock version of “Can’t Get Enough Of You Baby”. Neil Bogart, then President of Cameo Parkway Records, was seeking the song to follow the Mysterian’s first hit “96 Tears” and asked Denny if he had a song that would fit the bill.
Denny: ” I felt that “Can’t Get Enough Of You Baby” would be a great rock song and Neil Bogart agreed.” It became ? and the Mysterians’ next release reaching Billboard’s Hot 100 and led to the big hit version years later by Smash Mouth who mainly recorded their own songs but did what has become the most popular recording of the song.
But before Smash Mouth, the 80’s British Rock group The Colourfield added yet another chapter to the song’s colorful history with their rock recording influenced by ?’s version a decade before Smash Mouth’s. Originally released in their 1985 Virgins & Philistines album, “Can’t Get Enough Of You Baby” was the cut that got the airplay and attention, driving it to #12 on the UK album charts
Today Smash Mouth’s 1998 recording of “Can’t Get Enough Of You Baby” is the ultimate rock version and caps what has to date already been a long and great history song for a song that sings out “Stay Tuned For More!”
