Sum 41: The Top 10

Sum 41’s first single, “Fat Lip,” went to #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and became the band’s most successful single. It was the first of several songs to land in the upper reaches of the Modern Rock survey.

#10. We’re All To Blame

Frontman Deryck Whibley said the lead single from Sum 41’s third album, “Chuck,” was about war, death, fear, corporate power and other concerns, and was written following the band’s trip to the Congo where they joined War Child Canada traveling to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to see first-hand how war has held the population in fear sin ’98. It was the last song written for the album.

#9. Motivation

The song was about being nihilistic, apathetic, demotivated, and too lazy to look for motivation to do anything.

#8. With Me

The ballad single from the ’07 studio album “Underclass Hero” was featured on Season 1, Episode 7 of Gossip Girl and was also used in a the commercial for the ’09 series More To Love.

#7. Landmines

“Landmines” became the second song by the band to top the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart since “Fat Lip” in ’01, marking the longest gap between two #1 songs on the chart at 22 years, 5 months, and 3 weeks.

According to Whibley, “Landmines” was specifically conceived after he sold the band’s catalog, citing the “pressure and the need to create something^.”  He wrote the track after being approached to write Pop-Punk songs for other artists yet decided to hold onto “Landmines” because he “didn’t want to give them away.”

#6. Makes No Difference

The lead single from the band’s EP “Half Hour Of Power” was featured on the soundtrack for the romantic comedy film Van Wilder. 

#5. Pieces

At the end of the music video, the letter “F” from the word “life” labelled on the truck falls off, which leaves him with a sign labelled as “the perfect lie”.

Whibley explained the letter “F” falling off of the truck’s sign turned out both an ironic and unintended result. But since it fit in with their video’s theme, they decided to use it anyway.

#4. The Hell Song

“That song just came out in, like, half an hour when I just found out (that a friend had contracted HIV),” Whibley said. “I wasn’t even meaning to write about it, but for some reason that just came out right away

#3. Still Waiting

“The lead single from their second studio album, “Does This Look Infected?,” was anti-George W, Bush (then president) and anti-Iraq War. But one critic wrote, “The band choose to articulate their sense of misplaced rage in the form of a sub-Offspring SoCal Punk dirge.”

#2. In Too Deep

“The words were based on very basic-level relationship stuff that I’d gone through in high school, because that was my reference point,” offered Whibley. “I guess I was able to sort of tap into those early relationships and it’s universal, so I was milling the simplicity in that. There’s something magical about that era in your life.”

#1. Fat Lip

“It was the last song I had written for “All Killer No Filler,” Whibley told Stereogum. “It was never meant to be a single. It wasn’t even supposed to be a song. The very, very first thing I wrote was the guitar riff. And I didn’t necessarily write it for this idea that I had for this sort of Punk Rock-Rap kind of thing. And then I ended up writing a chorus, like, months later. And then I had this verse. They were just separate things that I was writing over time. And then one day it kind of clicked, and I thought, ‘Well, these all kind of work.”

Sum 41:

Deryck Whibley – Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar

Dave “Brownsound” Bakish – Guitar/Backing Vocals

Tom Thacker – Guitar/Backing Vocals

Jason “Cone” McCaslin – Bass/Backing Vocals

Frank Zummo – Drums

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