What the Hell 10th Anniversary Edition

Ten years after its initial release, the ‘What the Hell’ album remains one of the most relevant compilations of Brian Walton’s vast collection of original works. The album introduced a string of chart-topping hits that have been entertaining audiences of all ages and genres worldwide ever since. A majority of the songs on the album first found life as advertisement jingles or media soundtracks before Brian added lyrics, laid down instruments, and arranged them into singles. Which is why they are so familiar to so many. For the 10th Anniversary Edition of ‘What the Hell’, each track was painstakingly digitized and remastered to vibrant clarity, retaining much of the analog artifacts for authenticity.

So, let’s explore some of the stories behind the iconic songs that make up the album…

#1 What the Hell

The namesake of the album, ‘What the Hell’, was first composed for the soundtrack of the documentary ‘Boobs: An American Obsession’ in February 2010. Also released as a single, the song quickly climbed the blues charts and found its way into other broadcast media. To this day, it remains one of the most popular backing tracks for action sequences or bar scenes, featured in Disney’s ‘Andor’, ‘The Mandalorian’, and ‘The Hangover Part 2 and 3‘.

#2 I Love My Truck

‘I Love My Truck’ started life as a jingle for a popular Colorado radio station in 2006. The full version was recomposed and released as a single later that same year, where it quickly climbed the country charts and became the anthem for truck and off-roader clubs alike. To this day, ‘I Love My Truck’ has been featured in over 70 documentaries, movies, and television series for Disney, The History Channel, CMT, and AMC, just to name a few.

#3 Black Widow

Black Widow is Brian’s most prolific composition. First recorded in 2006, it has been featured in over 200 sports and lifestyle videos, 16 major motion pictures, and countless television shows. Winning multiple awards for lyrics and composition, everyone from Adidas to Warner Bros has featured Black Widow to electrify audiences and energize action scenes. As relevant today as when first recorded, Black Widow consistently holds the top spot on worldwide rock and metal charts, first hitting #1 in Europe and Asia in 2007.

#4 Made in the Shade (Redux)

As an endless tinkerer, Brian is never fully satisfied with his productions and is constantly experimenting with new sound ideas. Such is the case for this redux version of ‘Made in the Shade’, where he experimented with a more bluesy style and horns reminiscent of the Big Band era. The original ‘Made in the Shade’ was written in 1986 and helped launch Brian’s solo career by topping the Billboard charts in 1993.

#5 A Good Fool Is Hard To Find

The only song on the album Brian didn’t write, ‘A Good Fool Is Hard to Find’, was recorded on a dare made during a Radio interview where he was challenged to produce a song in a day. A few hours and cups of coffee later, the unabashed one-day version hit the airwaves that night in 2005 and has since peaked at number 5 in the blues charts. Short of digitally remastering the track, the song remains as authentic as it was on the day it was recorded and demonstrates Brian’s love for the guitar playing styles of B.B. King and Gary Moore.

#6 Wear them Blues

The original ‘Wearing Them Blues’ started as a 60-second segment for a popular country music venue in Austin, Texas, and conveys a lifestyle of hard drinking, hard loving, hard partying women, which catapulted the venue to national success in July 2014. Not one to let a good idea go to waste, Brian re-composed the segment, added lyrics, and produced a single which first entered Billboard charts in April 2015 and remained there for 6 weeks.

#7 From the Road Again

Towards the end of the grueling 2001 ‘Made in the Shade’ tour, a road-weary Brian wrote a poem for his family saying how much he wanted to be home. Later on, while working on the soundtrack for the independent film ‘Short Term 12’ in 2013, Brian drew upon that poem for inspiration, and ‘From the Road Again’ was born. The song immediately gained popularity in Radio and TV jingles before being featured in the soundtrack for a popular CBS television series in 2014.

#8 Feels Like

‘Feels Like’ also started as a 60-second segment written exclusively for Cottonelle for their 2008 advertisement campaign, but Brian liked the good vibe of the song so much that he re-composed it for exclusive release on the ‘What the Hell’ album to a surprising amount of fanfare in 2015. The opening of the song became so popular in lifestyle videos and jingles that it gained the attention of Disney execs, who later tapped Brian’s talent to create the ‘Mufasa’ soundtrack in 2023.

#9 Fly Higher

‘Fly Higher’ was originally composed to celebrate the birth of Brian’s first granddaughter and started as a segment for a Disney animated feature. But pressure from friends and family motivated Brian to dust off the track and replace the sweeping orchestra with traditional instruments and lyrics. Nominated multiple times at the SGA Foundations American Standards Awards, this touching song by Brian Walton has since been featured in numerous TV and motion picture productions, most notably for Disney and Warner Bros.

#8 Watch That Girl Go

‘Watch That Girl Go’ was composed in collaboration with Jodi Mitchell and Burt Bacharach during the Maybelline ‘I’m at my Best’ campaign in 1984. In 1999, Brian was asked by Maybelline execs to help reinvigorate the campaign, so he recomposed the song, added lyrics, and the resulting single entered the Billboard charts in March 2000. After over 35 years, ‘Watch That Girl Go’ remains a key part of Maybelline’s advertising strategy and has been featured worldwide on radio and TV.

#9 Where the Dirt Road Ends

In 2004 Brian was approached by friends Rick Hall and Anne Fentress to create the soundtrack for a Southern Rock documentary they were working on. The focus was to be on the ‘Guitar Army’ aspect of the genre with heavy rhythms and harmonizing guitar solos. Not one to dodge a challenge, Brian immediately got to work and, within a few short weeks, ‘Where the Dirt Road Ends’ was released, effectively paying homage to the guitar-playing brilliance of the giants of southern rock.