{"id":802983,"date":"2026-08-05T01:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T01:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/802983\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T01:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T01:32:10","slug":"a-high-school-breakup-inspired-matchbox-twentys-first-big-hit-in-1997","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/802983\/","title":{"rendered":"A High School Breakup Inspired Matchbox Twenty\u2019s First Big Hit in 1997"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1997, Matchbox Twenty<\/a> had their first big hit with \u201cPush\u201d. The song was written by lead singer Rob Thomas<\/a> and producer Matt Serletic. It is part of Yourself Or Someone Like It, Matchbox Twenty\u2019s freshman album.<\/p>\n

\u201cPush\u201d says, \u201cDon\u2019t just stand there, say nice things to me \/ \u2018Cause I\u2019ve been cheated, I\u2019ve been wronged, and you \/ You don\u2019t know me, well I can\u2019t change \/ I won\u2019t do anything at all \/ I wanna push you around, I will, I will \/ I wanna push you down, I will, I will \/ I wanna take you for granted, I wanna take you for granted \/ I will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n

Thomas was inspired to write \u201cPush\u201d by thinking about a toxic relationship he was in in high school. She reportedly<\/a> gave his clothes to charity as a way to get back at him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really writing about me,\u201d Thomas says<\/a>. \u201cI was writing about someone who was manipulating me. But then instead of it being a victim song, I switched it around so that it was me manipulating someone, saying, \u2018I want to push you around, and I want to take you for granted.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

How Matchbox Twenty Saved Their Career With \u201cPush\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

Matchbox Twenty had been performing together before releasing Yourself Or Someone Like You. Their first single, \u201cLong Day\u201d, did not do well at radio. The lackluster results left Matchbox Twenty and their record label to wonder if they had a future as a successful band. Fortunately, those fears came to an end with \u201cPush\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201c\u2018Push\u2019 is the song that saved us,\u201d Thomas tells Grammy.com<\/a>. \u201cWe released our record in \u201996. And the day that it came out was the same day that Lava, our record label, folded, and a bunch of bands got dropped. We were possibly on the list because we put out a song called \u2018Long Day\u2019, and it didn\u2019t react the way we wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matchbox Twenty was able to continue making music, thanks to \u201cPush\u201d, and Dave Rossi, a persistent program director at a radio station in Birmingham, Alabama.<\/p>\n

\u201c[He] started to play \u2018Push\u2019 on his own, because you could do that back then,\u201d he adds. \u201cAnd it just started to react in Birmingham, in a crazy way. It was like the No. 1 song immediately. So Atlantic was like, \u2018Well, let\u2019s give this one more chance.\u2019 So then they put some money behind \u2018Push\u2019, and put it out to radio. And that was the saving grace for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo by Larry Busacca\/WireImage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1997, Matchbox Twenty had their first big hit with \u201cPush\u201d. The song was written by lead singer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2617,88,184791,216],"class_list":["post-802983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-classic-rock","tag-entertainment","tag-matchbox-twenty","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}