It is the band's highest-charting single, reaching number 41 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and peaking within the top 50 in Italy, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

American Hi-Fi was formed by musician Stacy Jones in 2000, former drummer for cult favorites Letters to Cleo and Veruca Salt.

Jones took influence for the tune from power pop groups like Teenage Fanclub and Fountains of Wayne,[7] but also older artists like Cheap Trick.

[9] The song initially saw success on alternative and modern rock radio,[10] with programmers grouping the new band in with acts like Sum 41 or Good Charlotte.

[7] Jones also observed the swift backlash from the alternative scene was strange: "The [pop] radio stations would speed the song up and do their own edits.

[4] It takes place in 1986 and begins with a teenage boy, played by drummer Jason Sutter, and his friends cussing about how the heavy metal genre and its artists should be praised while punk rock belongs on Mars.

The video then begins, flash-forwarding between a story about a girl who acts subservient to her boyfriend, not knowing about his cheating escapades, and the band performing.