Jorge Godoy

Professor Thomas

English Composition 1201

21 February 2021

For a song to be monumental or at least important it has to surpass an age barrier, and in

the case of “I’m a Believer”, it has. The song was first composed by Neil Diamond and then

recorded by the Monkees. Popularity for the song wasn’t anything minuscule at the time of its

release but it needed a modern interpretation for it to be used in a movie of the 2000s. This song

was used in the early 2000s for the soundtrack of Shrek this time though. Keeping in mind the

fact that it needed a renovation, it was through a rendition of Smash Mouth, where the song itself

was kept the same but presented with newly found energy and an exciting music video. The song

“I’m a Believer” remains the same lyrically and when referring to the meaning of the song. The

approach towards it done by Smash Mouth is different from the one done by the Monkees

because it elevates the emotional appeal, contains a larger amount of energy and humor because

of the song’s modern approach.

Throughout the original, the Monkees sing the song energetically but it’s obvious that

this rendition is focused on amusing the audience. The Smash Mouth version, on the other hand,

focuses heavily on doing just that. The music video of Smash Mouth has a story to go along with

the lyrics of the song. In the music video the lead singer of Smash Mouth Steve Harwell bumps

into a woman who accidentally drops something, Harwell then tries to return this item to her but

as he tries to he encounters various challenges and distractions that try to impede him from

accomplishing the task at hand. This continues until the moment when he finally finds this
woman and he returns what is revealed to be the keys that she dropped earlier. She thanks him

but Harwell tells her that he doesn’t have time to stay and dashes off.

The intention of providing a journey to accompany the song gives it a humorous tone and

a story to go along with the lyrics of the song. Throughout the lyrics, some of the more

prominent phrases include the section talking about seeing a woman and becoming a believer.

Particularly the lines in the song where it says, “Then I saw her face, now I’m a believer. Not a

trace in my mind. I’m in love, I’m a believer.” These few lines that appear a couple more times

further in the song, encapsulate the general story of the song. Similar to the whole love at first

sight idea. This is taken into account in Smash Mouth’s music video where the lead singer and

protagonist of the video goes through many situations to simply just return a woman’s keys from

which he picked up after bumping into her earlier. The setting changes throughout the video

constantly because of this journey to return the keys. Even if the music video is heavily focused

on promoting the movie Shrek, other factors that are included in the video that solidifies the fact

that it’s focused on a younger audience includes continuously changing backgrounds and colors.

Also, the humor that takes part in the video generally because of the journey about returning

some keys.

When looking for the rhetorical appeals used in both music videos on the song ‘I’m a

Believer”, the best example was pathos because of the lyrics of the song. The song focuses on

love and the moment that the lead singer sees the face of a particular woman he becomes a

believer on the subject. The song not only focuses on an emotional aspect but the videos also

take it and give it their example. The Monkees much less than Smash Mouth based on the video,

but there was still a connection to that appeal in that video. Smash Mouth focuses on the

emotional appeal heavily by having a man try to return something to a woman he had never met
before and once he returns this object he leaves and disregards the situation. Even though

throughout the video he had through many obstacles and traveled for long periods. This is done

for a humorous effect but the lyrics themselves present an emotional appeal and the videos

personify that by showing an example of what the song is about.

The modern take on “I’m a Believer” by Smash Mouth from the original interpretation by

the Monkees doesn't just work as promotional material for Shrek but it also focuses on an

emotional aspect by presenting a journey in which the protagonist has to go through many tasks

only to end in a way for comedic effect, which encapsulates what the video was all about. The

song itself isn’t something that should be anything more than a very light-hearted song but the

addition of humor gives the intended audience something that is original and at the same time

remains presentable alongside the rendition by the Monkees.

“I’m a Believer” has two renditions that sound similar but differ slightly in the way it’s

performed. The music videos also have major differences with the way that the song is

portrayed. Particularly in the Smash Mouth rendition because it has a larger amount of energy

and story to go along with the lyrics. The emotional appeal though remains the same in both

versions. Most likely because the lyrics weren’t changed upon creating the modern take.

Arguably the Smash Mouth version might have a larger appeal because of its production value,

but in both, the audience remains the same. A younger one that takes notice of the colorful

settings in the videos and the light-hearted song.

 Works Cited

Diamond, Neil. “Smash Mouth - I’m A Believer.” Youtube, uploaded by Smash Mouth,

25 December 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mYBSayCsH0

Diamond, Neil. “The Monkees- I’m A Believer (music video).” Youtube, uploaded by

Classicrockfan611, 27 May 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv2MLlZKarM