Go for Soda explained

Go for Soda
Cover:Go For Soda single cover.jpg
Type:single
Artist:Kim Mitchell
Album:Akimbo Alogo
Released:1984
Recorded:McClear Place, Toronto
Genre:Rock
Length:3:25
Label:Alert, Bronze
Producer:Kim Mitchell, Nick Blagona
Prev Title:Miss Demeanor
Prev Year:1982
Next Title:All We Are
Next Year:1984

"Go for Soda" is a song by Canadian singer Kim Mitchell. Mitchell wrote the music for the song himself, while the lyrics were written by Pye Dubois.[1] The song's narrator, frustrated at his contentious relationship with his lover, opts to relax and forget about his troubles with a soda. "Go for Soda" was released in 1984 as the lead single from Mitchell's first full-length solo album, Akimbo Alogo. The song reached number 22 in Canada and was Mitchell's only charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, reaching number 86. It remains his best-known song outside of his native Canada.

In popular culture

"Go for Soda" served as the campaign theme for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in the United States. Mitchell has said that though the song was not intended to be about drinking and driving, he was happy to have MADD adopt it for that use.[1]

It was featured in the opening scene of the 1985 Miami Vice episode "Buddies" and popularized in a series of television commercials for the soft drink Mr. Pibb. That ad campaign was lampooned by American Dad!, in the episode "A.T. the Abusive Terrestrial". The song was later used in the Trailer Park Boys seventh-season episode "We Can't Call People Without Wings Angels So We Call Them Friends".

Music video

The music video was directed by Robert Bouvier. It depicts a doll-sized Kim Mitchell hopping out of a television set, mystifying the teenaged boy watching it as he proceeds to dance and teleport around the house. He eventually opens the refrigerator to find Mitchell and the song's other instrumentalists performing inside, all of them doll-sized, before they transform into unbranded cans of soda. The teenage boy goes to his friend and suggests they get a soda, without saying a word about his experience.

Charts

Chart (1984–1985)Peak
position
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[2] 22
US Billboard Hot 100[3] 86
US Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks[4] 12

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Story Behind Go For Soda Message . . 7 October 2023 . December 28, 2013.
  2. http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/rpm/Pages/image.aspx?Image=nlc008388.8602&URLjpg=http%3a%2f%2fwww.collectionscanada.gc.ca%2fobj%2f028020%2ff4%2fnlc008388.8602.gif&Ecopy=nlc008388.8602 Canadian Top Singles peak
  3. Web site: Billboard > Artists / Kim Mitchell > Chart History > The Hot 100. Billboard. 2016-04-12.
  4. Web site: Billboard > Artists / Kim Mitchell > Chart History > Mainstream Rock Tracks. Billboard. 2018-11-12.