Closing Time (Semisonic song)

"Closing Time"
Single by Semisonic
from the album Feeling Strangely Fine
ReleasedMarch 10, 1998 (1998-03-10)
StudioSeedy Underbelly (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Genre
Length
  • 4:33 (album version)
  • 3:49 (single version)
LabelMCA
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
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[5] 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 UK and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 1999.[6][7] 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;[8][9] 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".[10][11]

  1. ^ Price, Walter (January 7, 2019). "A Take Me Home Three-Way: SEMISONIC – "Closing Time" (1998)". Global Texan Chronicles. Archived from the original on October 1, 2019. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  2. ^ "Classical Cover: Semisonic's Closing Time". Alto Riot. Archived from the original on December 25, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
  3. ^ "Dan Wilson On Mountain Stage". NPR. October 29, 2014. Archived from the original on October 1, 2019. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  4. ^ Mitchell, Collin (April 5, 2001). "Semisonic All About Chemistry MCA". Daily Nexus. Archived from the original on October 1, 2019. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  5. ^ Verna, Paul (March 28, 1998). "Reviews & Previews – Albums". Billboard. Vol. 110, no. 13. p. 55.
  6. ^ "41st Grammy Awards – 1999". Rock on the Net. Archived from the original on August 1, 2013. Retrieved February 12, 2007.
  7. ^ Wood, Olivia (January 15, 2020). "Episode 176: Semisonic". Song Exploder. Archived from the original on February 16, 2020. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  8. ^ Hyden, Steven (November 30, 2011). "We Are All 'Closing Time': Why Semisonic's 1998 Hit Still Resonates". Grantland. Archived from the original on January 16, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  9. ^ Halperin, Shirley (December 7, 2010). "Semisonic revists "Closing Time" thanks to movie". Reuters. Archived from the original on February 28, 2022. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  10. ^ A Hit Single and the Heart-Wrenching Story Behind it Archived February 14, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, by Claudia Ricci, The Huffington Post, posted February 8, 2011, retrieved February 27, 2011
  11. ^ "Perennial Co-Writer Returns With An Album Of His Own". NPR.org. April 15, 2014. Archived from the original on August 21, 2018. Retrieved April 3, 2018.