Walker Hayes’ “Fancy Like”, an Applebee Song, Is Everywhere Now

You may remember the first time you heard it. Maybe it was on your TikTok feed, accompanied by a playful, illustrative dance. Maybe it happened when you sat down to watch the college football season opener in early September. But every time that has happened, it’s almost certain you’ve heard “Fancy Like,” the country hit about finding joy in mid-level chain Applebee’s restaurant.

Released on June 4, the ascendant of country newcomer Walker Hayes “Fancy Like” was the definition of meteoric. It is currently the number one country song in the country, according to the Billboard Table of hot country songs. It also achieved crossover success, peaking at # 1 in digital sales and inspiring a remix duet with pop star Kesha, who discovered the song via TikTok.

Harnessing the kind of family relationship that makes both country music and chain restaurants a staple of American life, it celebrates the joy of less fancy things in life – eating a Bourbon Street steak at Applebee, sharing a Oreo milkshake topped with whipped cream with your date, then step outside to drive drunk with your lover and a cooler full of natural lights in tow.

As a country girl from a small town in northeast Texas, I understand. I, too, enjoy a mid-level restaurant chain – maybe I should write my own song about those breadsticks at the Olive Garden – and understand the impulse to reject the traps of fame and wealth that don’t will never be accessible. But I also know that this song, which has been streamed over 100 million times, is an absolute bane.

Designed to the teeth by Hayes and his co-authors, Nashville hitmakers Shane Stevens, Cameron Bartolini and Josh Jenkins, “Fancy Like” was essentially created in a lab to be a viral hit. It’s the perfect mix of catchy, silly and relatable – all the essentials of a classic country song, like the legendary “Goodbye Earl” by The Chicks. (“Goodbye Earl” also benefits from another tenet of good country music: light murder.) It’s one song in a million that unites fans of all genres, whether they like it or what. they choose to have their eardrums forcibly punctured with an ice pick instead of having to hear Walker Hayes sing to seduce his wife with boxed wine and a kiss, as long as his mouth doesn’t actively soak Skoal.

Applebee’s isn’t the only brand mentioned in the song – Natural Light beer, Wendy’s and Maybelline also get screams – but one can only imagine the kind of intense ecstasy felt by the costumes of Applebee’s marketing department as early as. that “Fancy Like” started to be trending. The brand has struggled in recent years, and Applebee’s has done everything from selling $ 1 Long Island iced teas to offering all-you-can-eat fries with the purchase of an entree to get diners back in the doors. Now, content creators are posting videos from their Applebee date nights on TikTok, racking up millions of views.

The song was so influential for Applebee’s, in fact, that it was forced to put the Oreo shake back on the menu. A long-standing device, the Oreo shake has been discontinued amid the pandemic. During my brief period as a 15-year hostess at Applebee almost two decades ago, the Oreo shake was a coveted treat, only an option if you could successfully rip a bartender into going out. the blender and fill it with ice cream and milk. .

To be clear, I understand why someone might want to write an Applebee Oreo shake song because, yes, that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a date night at Applebee’s either. What is at stake, however, is that we will all soon be unable to escape “Fancy Like”. It is a terribly contagious earworm, which will not leave your head without plenty of sleep or pharmaceutical aids.

Of course, there have been many terrible jingles associated with chain restaurants in the past. By the late 1990s, Chile’s “Baby Back Ribs” business theme had become so ubiquitous that it was forever immortalized in Austin Powers: the spy who fucked me. But what’s so infamous about “Fancy Like” is that it wasn’t written by a commercialist, “Baby Back Ribs”. No, it came from real songwriters looking to turn the appeal of an average restaurant brand into a number one hit.

There is no doubt that brands have become completely intertwined in our lives. Product placement has been around in movies and television, and even in music videos, for decades. But there’s something about hearing a grown man (rich!) Especially when that song interrupts your ability to sleep at night, or watching the Dallas Cowboys play on a Sunday afternoon.

Call it snobbery, but as a solid middle income person whose high school job was actually at Applebee, I know that’s not real relativity. It’s about bending to Central America in a way that both romanticizes “normal” life and flattens it out to the brands we associate with that experience. For some, it is inviting and heartwarming. But in reality, it’s just another way for brands to find their way into your wallet.

Now officially part of the pop culture era, we will never escape “Fancy Like”. An incredible example of marketing genius for Hayes and Applebee, don’t be surprised if this song endures far beyond the typical TikTok trend. It’s on your For You page, it’s on your TV, and now it’s going to be in your head. Forever.