One listen to Sum 41’s “Fat Lip”, the lead single from their debut full-length All Killer No Filler, and you likely know why the band was huge in the early to mid-2000s. Arguably the band’s most popular single (it’s their highest charting, too), the track is an energetic burst of pop-punk and even rap-rock that also held massive appeal to a wide variety of audiences. The song quite easily helped Sum 41 catapult near the top of the new millennium’s pop-punk explosion, and alongside bands like Blink-182 and Jimmy Eat World, kickstarted a new generation of bands that would become influenced by their sound (All Time Low, Story Of The Year, and many more).
On the strength of “Fat Lip” (and nearly as popular “In Too Deep”), the album eventually went Platinum – having sold over 1.5 million copies in the USA alone. The track itself is still a fan favorite, and why not? It’s a pretty neat time capsule of the early part of the new millennium in general, and let’s be honest, it’s still catchy as hell today.
