2021Released
4:34

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Closing Time. By Songfacts®.

This song has a very literal meaning - being asked to leave a bar - but it goes much deeper than that. Semisonic lead singer Dan Wilson wrote the song when his wife was pregnant with their first child, which turned out to be a daughter named Coco. Halfway through writing the song, he realized it had a double meaning. "It's all about being born and coming into the world, seeing the bright lights, cutting the cord, opening up into something deeper and more universal," Wilson told Mojo. Shortly before recording was scheduled to begin, Wilson's wife experienced complications with her pregnancy, and Coco was born three months premature, weighing just 11 ounces. Wilson's bandmates offered to postpone the sessions, but he asked to move forward with them, since there was very little he could do in the hospital. This song took on a new meaning with the line, "I know who I want to take me home," as Wilson was looking forward to the day he could bring Coco home. That day finally came nearly a year after Coco was born; she left the hospital in February 1998 on the same day "Closing Time" was released as a single. According to Wilson, the ambulance driver who transported them home asked if he was the same Dan Wilson from the band. That's when the full gravity of the song hit him, and he realized how much Coco influenced it.

This remains a popular song at bars when they are ready to pack it up. There is no mistaking the message: "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here." Semisonic vocalist and songwriter Dan Wilson told The Hollywood Reporter in a 2010 interview: "I really thought that that was the greatest destiny for 'Closing Time,' that it would be used by all the bartenders, and it was actually. It still is. I run into people all the time who tell me, Oh I worked in this one bar for four years and I heard your song every single night."

"Closing time!" is something bartenders would often bellow at the end of the night to not-so-gently encourage patrons to leave. It's something Dan Wilson heard often in Minneapolis drinking establishments, which provided the title. "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here" is a line Wilson remembered being shouted at one particular bar. After this song came out, that line got a lot more popular.

Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Closing Time.
GKey
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
92BPM

Album

The album Closing Time is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Closing Time.
UME - Global Clearing House
© 2021 UMG Recordings, Inc.
℗ 2021 UMG Recordings, Inc. FP

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