"Crumblin' Down" is a rock song co-written and performed by John Cougar Mellencamp, released as the lead single from his 1983 album Uh-Huh. It was a top-ten hit on both the US BillboardHot 100 and Canadian pop charts, and it reached #2 on the US Mainstream Rock charts.
Background
"Crumblin' Down" was written by John Mellencamp and longtime writing partner George Green. It was the last song recorded for Uh-Huh; after listening to the masters for the other tracks recorded, Mellencamp decided that the album needed a song that would work as the album's lead single. He contacted Green, with whom he had previously written "Hurts So Good," to solicit ideas. Green had begun a song with lines about walls crumbling down; he and Mellencamp then built the song by trading lines, attempting to top one another.[1]: 64
According to Green, the song attempts to answer the question of what to do when success eventually fades, and "the big-time deal falls through."[1]: 64 The song touches on Mellencamp's fame as well as the frustrations of losing one's livelihood: the lyrics were inspired, in part, by Mellencamp's cousin losing his job as an electrical engineer.[1]: 65
In a 2016 Mellencamp-dedicated exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a display was emblazoned with the following quote from Mellencamp: "Crumblin' Down is a very political song that I wrote with my childhood friend George Green. Reagan was president - he was deregulating everything and the walls were crumbling down on the poor. The song was the last one recorded and the first single. It was a hit immediately. I felt like I was pulling the wool over everyone's eyes."
The video for "Crumblin' Down" received heavy play on MTV. It featured a chain-smoking Mellencamp in intentionally ripped denim jeans, dancing and kicking over chairs on a stage in an empty auditorium.[1]: 65 As the video progresses, he dances among a row of parking meters, climbs and descends a tall stepladder, and gains a three-piece backing band as accompaniment for the final chorus. "Crumblin' Down" was the first single released by Mellencamp to include his real last name: previous releases were credited to "John Cougar."[2]
"Crumblin' Down" was the lead single from Uh-Huh,[1]: 65 following his previous hit single "Hand to Hold on To" (from 1982's American Fool) to the Billboard Top 40 on the Hot 100, where it debuted October 22, 1983.[2] It peaked at number 9 on that chart and at number 2 on the Mainstream Rock chart.[3]
In the Season 2 of the hit 1980s TV series Knight Rider, an episode titled "White Line Warriors" features the song playing on the radio when burglaries in a small town take place.
