Run-Around
by Blues Traveler
- 152
- BPM
- G major
- Key
- 9B
- Camelot
- 58
- Danceability
- 8
- Acousticness
In 1993 John Popper played "Run-Around" for the first time, at a solo show. The first full band performance of it came in 1994 at the famous CBGB, a show that introduced a number of songs destined for Four, the next album from the American rock band Blues Traveler. It told of Popper's relationship with the band's original bass player Felicia, on whom he had a crush, though they also shared a close friendship. According to guitarist Chan Kinchla, the two remained close friends after the events of the song.
The song was the band's breakthrough hit. It peaked at number eight on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on Canada's RPM 100 Hit Tracks chart, and it gave the band their first Grammy Award in 1996, for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. Popper wrote it to reflect a depressed mood, and the band originally played it much slower before speeding it up for the recording.
The video played on The Wizard of Oz, with Dorothy Gale turned away from a nightclub where a more photogenic group mimed the song while the real band played behind a curtain. The club owner was played by Ken Ober. The Kansas driver's license shown used the design from the mid to late 1980s, and the name on it was misspelled "Dorthy". As of February 2016 the band had played the song 997 times, roughly 54% of their shows since its debut.
Run-Around runs at 152 BPM, the tempo of hard techno, punk and fast rock. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.58 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 395 ms. It is in G major, Camelot 9B, which shares its notes with E minor and mixes cleanly with C major and D major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.