"Hanginaround" is a song by American rock band Counting Crows. It is the first track on their third album, This Desert Life (1999). It was serviced to US radio on September 28, 1999, as the album's lead single. It reached number 28 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming their biggest hit on the chart from this album. It also reached number one on the Billboard Triple-A chart, their second number-one single on this listing.
Outside the United States, "Hanginaround" became the band's fifth top-10 single in Canada, reaching number three on the RPM 100 Hit Tracks chart, and peaked within the top 50 in Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. In April 2022, American Songwriter ranked the song at number nine on their list of "The Top 10 Counting Crows Songs".
Background As with on much of the This Desert Life album, Hanginaround saw the band experimenting with different recording techniques - in this case, utilizing looping. The song consists of eight different piano loops arranged in various configurations in setup inspired by Brian Wilson's Smile project. According to Counting Crows fansite anna-begins.com, Duritz says:
In an interview with Songfacts, Adam Duritz summed up his thought process behind the lyrics by stating "The idea of a song created with loops made me think of being on a loop myself. I wrote that song about when I was younger and the latter years in Berkeley and how I loved it there, but I was kind of going nowhere."
Music video The music video for the song shows the band performing the song in a living room of a house surrounded by a large crowd (which includes actress Meredith Salenger), as well as Adam Duritz waiting at a bus stop on a clear, colorful day. Throughout the video, the scene changes constantly, from people walking by (including one woman naked with her exposed areas blurred) to a construction crew removing the bench and replacing it with a bus canopy they built, to the other band members performing with Adam. At the end, a woman walks up to the canopy and sits next to Adam. After he glances at her necklace, a bus pulls up. Many others board it first, and as the woman is about to do so, she asks Adam to ride with her. He agrees, and gets on. The video ends with the crowd in the living room applauding the performance, and the bus (with posters of the band's "This Desert Life" album cover on the back of it) driving away from the stop.
Track listings US 7-inch single A. "Hanginaround" B. "A Long December"
UK CD single "Hanginaround" (CD version) "Baby, I'm a Big Star Now" "Omaha" (live)
European CD single "Hanginaround" – 4:12 "Mercury" – 8:17 "Goodnight Elisabeth" (live) – 6:44
Charts
Weekly charts Chart (1999–2000)Peakposition
Chart (2004)Peakposition
Year-end charts Chart (1999)PositionCanada Top Singles (RPM)84Canada Rock/Alternative (RPM)39US Adult Top 40 (Billboard)99US Triple-A (Billboard)39
Chart (2000)PositionUS Adult Top 40 (Billboard)20US Mainstream Top 40 (Billboard)78US Modern Rock Tracks (Billboard)82US Triple-A (Billboard)13
Release history RegionDateFormat(s)Label(s)United StatesSeptember 28, 1999DGCOctober 4, 1999Hot adult contemporary radioUnited KingdomOctober 18, 1999CDGeffenUnited StatesOctober 19, 1999Contemporary hit radioDGCUnited Kingdom (re-release)March 15, 2004CDGeffen
References