When Crash Test Dummies released Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm in 1993, it became one of the most instantly recognisable songs of the decade — thanks largely to Brad Roberts’ unmistakably deep baritone voice and the song’s strange, haunting stories of childhood isolation.

But behind that unusual hit lies an even more unusual backstory.

In a world still coming down from the excess of ’80s rock, Roberts didn’t sound like the singers dominating the airwaves. While many rock frontmen were chasing soaring, high-register vocals, he spent years believing he simply wasn’t much of a singer.

The truth, he later realised, was very different.

His voice wasn’t wrong — he was just trying to imitate artists who lived in a completely different vocal range.

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Listen to the Backstory below:

Source: uDiscover Music 

On the Classic Countdown, Roberts revealed how embracing his own unique sound changed everything — and how one very strange childhood memory would eventually find its way into one of the biggest alternative hits of the ’90s.

The verses of Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm introduced listeners to a series of children who felt different or misunderstood, including the memorable opening story of a boy whose “hair had turned from black into bright white” after an accident.

Roberts revealed that part of the inspiration came from his own childhood experience involving a car crash — although the real story behind it was very different from what fans might imagine.

Rather than writing a straightforward autobiography, he created a collection of stories and emotions based around the way childhood moments can feel bigger, stranger and more dramatic when seen through a child’s eyes.

For years, Roberts pushed back against attempts to link the lyrics too closely to his own life, saying he wanted people to experience the characters in the song on their own terms.

Ironically, that mystery may be part of what made Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm so unforgettable — a song that sounded unlike anything else on the radio, sung by a voice that succeeded because it stopped trying to sound like everyone else.