2004Released
4:45

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Wake Me up When September Ends. By Songfacts®.

Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong wrote this song about his father, who died of cancer on September 1, 1982. At his father's funeral, Billie cried, ran home and locked himself in his room. When his mother got home and knocked on the door to Billie's room, Billie simply said, "Wake me up when September ends," hence the title. "My father died in September of '82, and I purposely, up until that point, never went there," Armstrong reflected to People. "I think really what I was doing was processing that loss that I had with this person that I never really knew. So I wrote that song for my father and about that loss and how 20 years had passed. I remember right after I wrote it, I felt this huge weight off my shoulders."

The line "seven years has gone so fast" is a reference to how Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt's band Sweet Children (which would morph into Green Day), was formed seven years after Armstrong's father died. "20 years has gone so fast" represents the time from his father's death to when Billie Joe wrote the song.

This was originally slated for Green Day's 2002 compilation album Shenanigans, but Billie Joe didn't feel that he was in an emotional state to record it, so the song was held back and used on American Idiot.

Top Listeners

Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Wake Me up When September Ends.
GKey
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
105BPM

Album

The album Wake Me up When September Ends is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Wake Me up When September Ends.
Reprise
2005 © 2004 Reprise Records for the U.S. and WEA International Inc. for the world outside the U.S.
2005 ℗ 2004 Reprise Records for the U.S. and WEA International Inc. for the world outside the U.S.

See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.

Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.

5.8MArtists
73.6MSongs
12.3MAlbums
6.3KGenres
2.5MLabels
493KPlaylists