Mr. Jones (4:33)

“Mr. Jones” is a song by American alternative rock band Counting Crows. It is the lead single and third track from their debut album, August and Everything After (1993). It was the band’s first radio hit and remains one of their most popular singles.


Overview

“Mr. Jones” entered the American Top 40 on February 19, 1994, and entered the Top 10 five weeks later. On April 23, “Mr. Jones” passed R. Kelly’s “Bump n’ Grind”, taking the number-one position (which it surrendered, the following week, to Prince’s “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World”).

The band’s surprise success happened to coincide with Kurt Cobain’s death. These events took a significant toll on Adam Duritz, the lead vocalist and principal songwriter. Said Duritz in an interview: “We heard that, that had shot himself. And it really scared the hell out of me because I thought, these things in my life are getting so out of control…”. These events and feelings were the basis for “Catapult”, the first track of Recovering the Satellites.

The primary topic of the song itself is perhaps how two struggling musicians (Duritz and bassist Marty Jones of The Himalayans) “want to be big stars,” believing that “when everybody loves me, I will never be lonely” Duritz would later recant these values, and in later concert appearances, “Mr. Jones” was played in a subdued acoustic style, if at all. Most directly referencing this, on the live CD Across a Wire Duritz changes the lyrics “We all wanna be big, big stars