blink-182’s monumental 1999 single “What’s My Age Again?” has officially joined Spotify’s Billions Club, becoming the band’s third track to accrue one billion streams on the service. The band’s other Billions Club tracks are “All The Small Things” and “I Miss You.”
The track, tabbed as the lead single from the band’s 1999 third studio album, Enema of the State, was released through MCA Records. The song was written by the band’s Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus, and it was notably the first single from blink to feature drummer Travis Barker.
“What’s My Age Again?” was controversial upon its release, thanks to the accompanying music video, which featured the band streaking through the streets of Los Angeles. It created a swirl of notoriety for the band, who were quick to speak about the real-life experiences that led to the song’s creation. Hoppus told Billboard in 1999: “It’s about being in my 20s and acting like a jack*** teenager. It is absolutely biographical. I still make prank phone calls, insult people, and put my foot in my mouth. I drink too much. I can even eat a half-dozen doughnuts in one sitting. It makes me endearing, especially being in a band, but I’m the biggest letdown.”
In a 2022 interview with Music Radar, Tom DeLonge reflected on the recording process of the band’s third studio album, which has since been certified Platinum five times. He said: “For Enema…we spent four months recording and we had Jerry Finn producing—we learned everything. We learned how to record, how to play good, he didn’t let anything pass. There still weren’t any computers really, so it was all to tape and you had to play it right. We really trusted him.”
DeLonge also spoke about the group’s decision to have Barker join the band He added: “It was like, ‘Now anything’s possible, we can play any kind of song.’ Mark and I instantly played better because we were keeping up with someone who played everything perfectly, so we became a lot better at that time. We were nowhere near as good as Travis, but we got better.”
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