“Don’t Speak” — No Doubt

MTV had “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt on heavy rotation during the late 1990s. To say my oldest daughter was obsessed with this song would be a considerable understatement.

She was living with me in the late 90s…her mum and I had split up many years beforehand…and thankfully I liked the song too. Which was just as well — when “Don’t Speak” wasn’t on MTV, it seemed to be on the CD player in her bedroom.

The music video was eye-catching too. It started with No Doubt’s bass player, Tony Kanal picking an orange from a tree…ran through a garage-based performance of the song…a concert performance of the song…an unfortunate photo shoot where the rest of the band were excluded to focus on the photogenic lead singer…and finally putting the orange back on the tree again (actually just the opening sequence in reverse, but let’s not split hairs…).

That’s a lot of metaphors to squeeze into a 3-minute pop song…

Although originally written in a somewhat different vein some time beforehand…with her brother, and ex-No Doubt member, Eric…Gwen Stefani re-wrote the lyrics to “Don’t Speak” as her long-term relationship with No Doubt’s bass player Tony Kanal hit the rocks.

Originally written as a love song, by the time “Don’t Speak” became a massive worldwide hit, it had turned into a break-up song.

We’ve all been there. We might try to talk out the problems in a relationship, but after a while you reach the point where the more you talk, the worse everything gets.