"Peaches" by The Presidents of the United States of America: Essential Songs of the 90s #1
Here it is. My 45 reasons that “Peaches” by Presidents of the United States of America is one of my ESSENTIAL SONGS OF THE ‘90s. (All caps for dramatic effect).
“Peaches” was the third single released from the PUSA’s 1995 self-titled debut album.
I remember this because a girl that sat behind me in my 9th grade business class would sing “Peaches” on repeat. Like her mind was a CD player and the single was permanently loaded into the disc tray.
Specifically the lines: “Movin’ to the country, I’m gonna eat a lot of peaches. Movin’ to the country, I’m gonna eat a lot of peaches” repeatedly, for 50 minutes.
It didn’t take long to get annoying.
That phrase is repeated 8 times throughout the song.
It feels unfair to hear it 30 times in 50 minutes.
She would also sing parts of “Kitty” from that same album.
“Fuck you, kitty. You’re gonna spend the night OUTSIDE!” - she would always yell “outside” like it was her favorite part of this rebel anthem.
Confession: I had no idea where these words came from. I did have a dim understanding that she wasn’t some ridiculous poet that conjured these couplets on the fly.
It wasn’t until I heard her talking with some other kid that I realized that these were from songs. That didn’t stop me from laughing and nodding in agreement whenever “Peaches” was brought up.
Confession: I went out and bought Presidents of the United States of America (on cassette) in order to fit in. I wanted to officially join in on the conversations! There was an entire pop culture movement going on and I had to be a part of it.
Confession: Before that, the last time that I bought any sort of music was in the early ‘90s. Also, on cassette and also to fit in.
Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em and Too Legit to Quit
When is the last time that you ate a peach?
For the record, this song predates that little peach emoji by 20 years, so it’s definitely not about butts.
That meaning would give the line “Movin’ to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches” a whole new connotation.
Speaking of butts, The Presidents collaborated with Sir Mix-a-Lot on a project called Subset. They did a small tour together and recorded some songs, but an album has never been officially released. Bring it back! “Baby got (come) back”? ugh. I apologize.
An older version of the Wikipedia page for “Peaches” said “There is a pop cultural understanding that the song may also be about a man performing oral sex on a women’s vagina or peach”
A POP CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING.
Why can’t a song named “Peaches” be about peaches?
Does that mean “Lump” was about a bulge in some guy’s jeans?
Nope.
From Rolling Stone, straight from Chris Ballew’s mouth: “ 'Lump is really about the word lump, the sound of it. It started out to be about a tumor in my head, but I thought that was too depressing. So I thought of a big fat woman in a housecoat sitting is a sort of stagnant, barely flowing, swampy river."
Chris Ballew is the vocalist and lyricist for the band, so he would know.
So is “Peaches” about the fruit or is it some tricky metaphor? It’s kind of about peaches?
According to the current Wikipedia page, Chris Ballew told the story of writing “Peaches” on Vh1: Greatest Songs of the 90s. He said that he wrote the song about a girl he had a crush on. Ballew wrote the song, sitting under a peach tree in her yard, while waiting for her to get home so that he could finally confess his feelings with this peach-tree-owning lass.
So “Peaches” is a….love song?
If you performed an acoustic rendition of “Peaches” for the person that you were smitten with, do you think you would win their heart?
A cover of “Video Killed the Radio Star” was the b-side to the “Peaches” single.
Singles used to be awesome in the ‘90s. They always came with weird outtakes, live versions, remixes, covers, and, sometimes, legitimately great songs. See: Pearl Jam’s “Yellow Ledbetter”
TRIVIA ALERT: “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles was the first video ever shown on MTV. You probably already knew that, but, just in case, here’s your chance to get one right during pub trivia.
PUSA’s cover appeared on The Wedding Singer soundtrack. A couple of years later, their cover of Ian Hunter’s “Cleveland Rocks” would become the theme song to The Drew Carey Show.
Remember the video for “Peaches”? It had ninjas.
To bring this back around, I bought that cassette in 9th grade, eager to fit in.
I listened to “Peaches” over and over again. I wrote the lyrics down on a sheet of notebook paper. Rewinding it over and over again just so I could get the words right. No misplaced “and,” no noun left behind.
That’s how you had to do things in the pre-Internet age. Well, the Internet was around, but no one I knew was fancy enough to have it yet.
I memorized the song, went into to my computer class and started randomly singing it word for word, just as my classmates had.
“What are you doing,” the Peaches-loving girl said. “That song is sooooo old.”
Doesn’t take much at that age to make it feel like your self esteem has been dropkicked into the toilet.
She said it with a roll of her eyes in that condescending tone that I knew most teenage girls kept in reserve for whenever they wanted to emotionally destroy their weaker male prey.
I later learned that teenage girls never outgrow that tone and perfect it to a soul-crushing science as they get older.
“Squished a rotten peach in my fist/ And dreamed about you woman”
Have any requests for future songs to be covered in this section? What are some songs from the ‘90s that you’ll always associate with that era? Post your “Peaches” stories in the comments!
“Peaches” by The Presidents of the United States of America