Why House of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’ is a St Patrick’s Day anthem
House of Pain scored a classic in 1992 with the release of ‘Jump Around,’ a song which, 34 years later, continues to get dancefloors hopping. The song is a party anthem, but what’s less immediately obvious about it is that it’s specifically a Saint Patrick’s Day party anthem.
The two founding members of House of Pain, Danny Boy O’Connor and Everlast, both have Irish roots, so they decided to incorporate that aspect of their heritage into their new hip-hop project. House of Pain, as their band came to be called, played up to the idea that its members, including DJ Lethal, who joined later and was of Latvian heritage, were rowdy, Irish-American party people.
Danny Boy, who was responsible for the group’s look and branding, even decided to place the Irish iconography front and centre of their logo. He designed an emblem that used the colours of the Irish tricolour flag — green, white and gold — and included a shamrock.
This logo, Danny Boy explained to Spin in 2012, actually helped them to get signed by Tommy Boy Records. “I put the House of Pain logo on the second round of demos [of ‘Jump Around’] that we sent out,” he said. “I guess it went to Tommy Boy, and [label president] Monica Lynch seen it — she’s Irish. She seen the logo like, ‘What the fuck is this?’”
According to DJ Muggs, the Cypress Hill member who produced ‘Jump Around,’ Danny Boy’s logo resonated with Lynch. “She was like, ‘This reminds me of my brothers. After church, they go to bars and get in fights,’” he explained.
So the Irish imagery helped House of Pain get signed and in a position to release ‘Jump Around,’ but the group wanted to add more Irish-American references to the song. So, when it came to filming the video, they filmed footage from the famous Saint Patrick’s Day parade in New York.
“We shot that motherfucker in a day,” Danny Boy recalled. “The video really captured the innocence of House of Pain. We just liked to go out, drink, fight, fuck, and have no regard. I tried to get up to the parade, the fuckin’ priest throws me out. I’m putting stickers on cops’ backs. We were the merry pranksters of hip-hop.”
‘Jump Around’ was a hit upon its release, reaching number three of the Billboard Hot 100 and also doing well in some European countries. Crucially, it was a big song in Ireland, where it entered the top ten in the charts.
The song’s popularity hasn’t ever waned to this day. It’s still a party anthem and can be heard on drunken dancefloors the world over. Probably a few pubs and clubs will blast it out this Paddy’s Day.