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Some hip-hop songs become so big that they are inescapable. Not only do they dominate the charts, but they take over TV and radio, meaning you hear them every day. There have been many such songs in the past, but one of the biggest has been House of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’.

House of Pain are sometimes considered a one-hit wonder group. However, the former trio created one of the most recognisable records ever. Comprised of DJ Lethal, Danny Boy, and Everlast, the lead single from their debut album, ‘Jump Around’, seemed everywhere when it was released.

The 1992 DJ Muggs-produced track has a catchy beat and can be heard in movies and television shows from all eras, from the 1990s to this day. Used as a song to hype people up, it is a classic party track, but ‘Jump Around’ has some very distinct sounds that have become synonymous with the hit.

One of the most iconic samples is Jr. Walker’s blaring saxophone from his 1966 track ‘Shoot Your Shot’, and the ingenious amalgamation of all the various samples made for a great song, but the trio didn’t know that at the time. That said, during a discussion with SPIN magazine, House of Pain’s Danny Boy and Everlast and the producer DJ Muggs discussed how the song was created and detailed the story behind its recording.

DJ Muggs had already made the legendary track, which was intended for Cypress Hill rather than House of Pain. Furthermore, it was even shown to Ice Cube before being given to the LA trio. However, it landed in the group’s lap.

Opening up about the instrumental’s background, Muggs explained, “I made the beat. I had the song called ‘Jump Around’ already. I was saving it for the second Cypress Hill album. We had just finished the first one, and the guys were kind of done recording. I had Son Doobie from Funkdoobiest rap on the song — it was all right. I played the beat for Ice Cube and a few [other] people. In the process, I had met up with Everlast.”

Although Muggs showed it to Everlast, the legendary horn sample wasn’t part of the initial beat Everlast had heard. Detailing how their first recording session played out, Everlast began, “He played me the ‘Jump Around’ beat, but it didn’t have the horn in it yet. He used to have a studio in his bedroom at his aunt’s house, which he lived in, in Bell Gardens. I wrote ‘Jump Around’ in his driveway. It wasn’t even a song; it was a bunch of lyrics.”

He admitted they had a minor dispute over lyrics, so he went out into the driveway, recalling, “I went out to the driveway and wrote it. As I was writing it, he found the horn. And then we all kind of got chills. I mean, we knew it was good.”

The first version they recorded as a demo sounded relatively similar to the release, according to Danny Boy, who admitted that he got feedback from his high school friends. Remembering the feedback they gave him, he told SPIN, “We’d even play them just the demo in my living room, I swear to God, like, everyone started going bananas, going crazy. I knew this was different.”

One of the labels they sent the ‘Jump Around’ demo to was the iconic New York City label Tommy Boy, and, luckily, it was heard by the label’s president, Monica Lynch, who liked it. Danny Boy designed the artwork himself, remembering, “I put the House of Pain logo on the second round of demos that we sent out. I guess it went to Tommy Boy, and [label president] Monica Lynch saw it — she’s Irish. She seen the logo like, ‘What the fuck is this?'”

The track got them a record deal, and they re-recorded the track for commercial release at Image Studios in Los Angeles, but Everlast confessed he couldn’t remember much about the actual session, telling the publication, “I can remember being in the studio we always used to record in called Image Recording, just being fucked up. We were all weeded out, drunk, all that. I might have just re-recorded the lyrics. The construction and the making of the record was at Muggs’ house. By the time we got it to the studio and put it on 24 tracks, it was a party: “We got a record deal!”