What Would You Say

This song is very profound, as Matthews examines our place in the universe... Just kidding. While it does contain bits of wisdom like "If you a doggie on a chain, don't bite the mailman," Matthews describes the lyrics as "nonsensical." So if you're looking for meaning in lines like, "The bear ate his head, thought it was a candy," you'll need to get creative.

While the lyrics are essentially a joke, the song is rather complex musically, with an array of instruments: acoustic guitar, harmonica, alto and tenor saxophones, flute, drums, bass and additional percussion.

Written entirely by Dave Matthews, this is one of the first songs the band started performing when they formed in 1991. Over the next few years, they built up a large following and refined many of their songs (including this one) through constant touring. In 1994 they signed to RCA Records and recorded their first album, Under The Table And Dreaming, with the superstar producer Steve Lillywhite, known for his work with Peter Gabriel and U2. DMB had built up an armada of songs to choose from, and Lillywhite pegged "What Would You Say" as the hit. He was right: The song was issued to American radio stations as a promotional single, and got lots of airplay on Top 40 stations looking for pure pop songs at a time when grunge and hip-hop were fracturing the format. RCA didn't make the single available for sale, which made it ineligible for the Hot 100 (it made #21 on the Airplay chart), but drove up album sales - Under The Table And Dreaming sold over 6 million copies in the US.