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No Myth

1989 single by Michael Penn

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

"No Myth" is a song by rock singer Michael Penn from his debut album March.

Released as his debut single in the fall of 1989, the song became Penn's only top 40 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #13. A vintage electro-mechanical keyboard instrument (called the Chamberlin) was used by Penn's long-time musical collaborator Patrick Warren in the song and can be seen in the video as well.

On the back of the success of "No Myth", Penn won the MTV Award for Best New Artist, making him the first male solo artist to win this award. However, label reshuffling stunted his momentum. He explained, "I had a big hit with it, and then the president of the label who signed me is gone and the record dies. The day after winning the award they canceled the next video."

Penn's wife and musician Aimee Mann included the song on her list of "songs that made her," explaining: "By 1990, everything on the radio was starting to be Whitney Houston, Taylor Dayne, Tina Turner, it was very pop. Then Michael Penn comes out with this Beatles-esque, melodic song, but still with a little bit of a big snare drum sound. I was like, “Finally, somebody broke through with an actual song.” It was on that tour [around Penn's album, March] when I met Michael for the first time, and then we vaguely kept in touch. We got together years later. I love 'No Myth.' And that record is fantastic from beginning to end. You may think I'm saying this because I'm a nice person who is supportive of their spouse. That's absolutely not true. I'm not that supportive."

The song plays over the final montage and end credits of Amy Heckerling's 2000 romantic comedy Loser.

01Track listing

CD single
  1. "No Myth" (Edited version) - 4:11
  2. "Big House" - 2:57
  3. "No Myth" (Damascus mix) - 4:45

02Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1990) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA) 24
Belgium (Ultratop Flanders) 46
Italy Airplay (Music & Media) 15
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40 Tipparade) 7
Netherlands (Single Top 100) 48
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 13
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks 22
U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks 5
U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks 4

Year-end charts

Chart (1990) Position
Canada Top Singles (RPM) 59
Watch videos about No MythExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article No Myth, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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