Closing Time (Semisonic song)

"Closing Time"
Single by Semisonic
from the album Feeling Strangely Fine
Released	March 10, 1998
Studio	Seedy Underbelly (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Genre	Alternative rock post-grunge power pop pop rock
Length	4:33 (album version) 3:49 (single version)
Label	MCA
Songwriter(s)	Dan Wilson
Producer(s)	Nick Launay
Semisonic singles chronology
"F.N.T." (1996) "Closing Time" (1998) "Singing in My Sleep" (1998)
Audio sample
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Music video
"Closing Time" on YouTube

"Closing Time" is a song by American rock band Semisonic. It was released on March 10, 1998, as the lead single from their second studio album, Feeling Strangely Fine, and began to receive mainstream radio airplay on April 27, 1998. The ballad was written by Dan Wilson and produced by Nick Launay.

The single reached number one on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and the top 50 in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. It is certified gold in the latter country and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 1999. The song reappeared on the charts of three countries in 2011 after being featured in the 2011 movie Friends with Benefits and an episode of the television sitcom The Office; it attained its highest chart peaks in Australia and Ireland during this period.

While the song is about people leaving a bar at closing time (also called last call), and widely interpreted as such, drummer Jacob Slichter has also indicated that the song was written by Wilson "in anticipation of fatherhood" and that it is about "being sent forth from the womb as if by a bouncer clearing out a bar".

Background and composition

Prior to composing "Closing Time", Semisonic would usually end their concerts with the song "If I Run". The band grew tired of playing this song every night and so Wilson set out to write a new song that they could play at the end of their set. Wilson's girlfriend was pregnant at the time and although Wilson did not set out consciously to write a song about giving birth, he has stated that "Part way into the writing of the song, I realized it was also about being born."

Jacob Slichter, the drummer for Semisonic, said in 2006 that payola was how they turned "Closing Time" into a hit. Slichter stated: "It cost something close to $700,000 to $800,000 to get 'Closing Time' on the air."

Critical reception

Billboard magazine described "Closing Time" as an "instantly memorable rock ditty", saying, "...the core of 'Closing Time' is pure pop with a sticky chorus that will have you singing along before the end of your first listen. This could be the jam that establishes Semisonic as the top 40 heroes they deserve to be." Doug Reece of the same magazine called the song "impossibly hooky". "Closing Time" was placed at number 19 on Rolling Stone's 2007 list of the "20 Most Annoying Songs".

Music video

The music video was directed by Chris Applebaum. It features two continuous shots, running side by side on the screen. One side shows the band playing the song in a rehearsal space. The other side features a woman (played by Denise Franco) as the singer Dan Wilson's girlfriend. As the video progresses, Dan and his girlfriend switch sides of screen, as they attempt to meet up. At the end of the video, they both wind up at the same nightclub. However, they still end up missing each other by mere seconds and never meet. The "trick" of the video is that each shot was done as one long, continuous shot, with no cuts or editing, and therefore relies on proper timing to get the two sides of the video lined up properly.

Usage in other media

This song is frequently used by some radio stations as their last song before changing formats, mostly alternative rock stations. Most notably on November 16, 2016, Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas-based alternative station KDGE (102.1 FM) played a continuous loop of "Closing Time" while redirecting its listeners to its area sister mainstream rock station KEGL (97.1 FM). This continued until 5 p.m. on November 17, 2016, when the station flipped to Christmas music then full-time to a mainstream adult contemporary format on December 26.

Track listings

Credits and personnel

Credits are lifted from the Feeling Strangely Fine liner notes.

Studios

• Recorded and produced at Seedy Underbelly (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
• Mixed at Ocean Way Recording (Los Angeles)
• Mastered at Gateway Mastering (Portland, Maine, US)

Personnel

Charts and certifications

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)	Gold	400,000‡
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Region	Date	Format(s)	Label(s)	Ref(s).
United States	February 23, 1998	Mainstream rock modern rock triple A radio	MCA
Europe	March 10, 1998	CD
United States	April 27, 1998	Top 40 radio
Japan	July 23, 1998	CD
United Kingdom	October 25, 1999	CD cassette

See also

• Number one modern rock hits of 1998