In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: songs that tell a story.
Aaron Carter, “Aaron’s Party (Come Get It)” (2000)
There are lots of good story songs, and then there’s “Aaron’s Party (Come Get It),” the hit 2000 single by Aaron Carter, brother of Backstreet Boy Nick. That’s not to say that “Aaron’s Party” isn’t catchy, because it certainly is, but it’s also inane and insipid—something that’s probably to be expected from a song sung by a 13-year-old and beloved by 6-year-old Disney Channel viewers.
The lead single off Carter’s triple platinum LP (let that sink in for a second. Triple platinum. Three million copies sold.) “Aaron’s Party” tells the story of Carter’s quest “…to be the flyest kid on the block / The popular one with the rising stock,” and the party he throws in an attempt to keep that status. “The party of the year” required shuffling his parents off to see old Aunt Joan before the influx of “fine girls” and the “crankin’” of the stereo “like it’s New Years.” After all, “Nobody can do it like Aaron can.”
As one might expect, the whole thing eventually gets out of hand, with strangers wandering in having seen a random flyer for an “open house” and some kid spilling juice “on my mom’s new cushion.” (Yeah, juice. That’s the ticket.) Carter turns around and “another kid broke the lamp” that he hopes isn’t expensive, despite the fact that his parents “got them from France.” Ultimately, Carter’s parents show up (“Is that a car door / Oh dang, I’m in trouble / Everybody get out now / On the double / I’m dead (you’re done) that’s it for me / I’m gonna be picked off my family tree.”) and the tween singer ends his last verse with a solemn “Grounded.”