"Check It Out" | ||||
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Single by John Cougar Mellencamp | ||||
from the album The Lonesome Jubilee | ||||
B-side | "We Are the People" | |||
Released | 1988 | |||
Studio | Belmont Mall (Indiana, US) | |||
Genre | Heartland rock | |||
Length | 4:19 | |||
Label | Mercury | |||
Songwriter(s) | John Mellencamp | |||
Producer(s) | John Mellencamp, Don Gehman | |||
John Cougar Mellencamp singles chronology | ||||
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"Check It Out" is a 1987 song by John Mellencamp released as the third single from his album The Lonesome Jubilee in 1988. The single was a top 20 hit, reaching number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. [1] [2]
According to Mellencamp biographer David Masciotra, the song "describes the rewards and punishments of a typical American middle-class family" and professes that "our attempts to solve the mysteries of the heart and grasp the truth of humanity are fraught with disaster and disappointment." [3] Mellencamp biographer Paul Rees called its sound "uplifting". [4]
Cash Box said that Mellencamp's rough county-ish feel takes you into the heartland [of America]" and that the song "features a nice instrumental hook line that sounds like an otherworldly bagpipe and leads into the verses." [5]
Masciotra calls it "a uniquely powerful testament to the mystery of inner life. [3]
The video was shot in one of the poorest areas of the deep South. [6]
Weekly charts
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