Say Something

Say Something is a 1991 song by Californian alt-rock group Too Many Joes. The song is the first track of their 1991 album Charm. The song gained widespread popularity after the song was uploaded to Reddit by a user named u/katheww, with the post being showcased in a video titled "Top 10 Strangest and Most Mysterious Reddit Posts" by Fright Knight.

Song Information
"Say Something" was first released on Californian folk-rock band Too Many Joes debut album Charm. The group was moderately popular in the early 1990s, with "Say Something" being played on the KROQ radio station. According to lead vocalst, rhythm guitarist and writer of the song Dina Douglass "The inspiration for the song came out of my frustration at watching a few close friends stay in abusive situations that were ultimately damaging. I just wanted them to say "no" and leave. Writing this song was like writing a letter to a friend, partially as a distant observation and partially as a trusted friend who quietly says "please just leave."

Initial Resurfacing
In 2014, Reddit user u/katheww made a post to the Tip Of My Tongue sub-reddit titled "[TOMT] [Song] Unidentifiable 90s sounding song...". According to the OP, the song was found on a mixtape made by one of her Dad's close friends who had passed away 10 years after making the tape, and she was looking to find the name of the song (titled "Realize and Say Something" in the tracklist given in the post) so she could present a digitised CD version of the mixtape to her Dad for his birthday. Given in the post were lyrics to the song. Initial theories included The Cranberries, Maria McKee and The Sunday, however these all lead to dead ends. On January 21st, 2015, a video from the OP titled "HELP. What is this song???" was posted to youtube of the song playing on a stereo system, however no new information was gathered.

Fright Knight
On February 16th, 2017, long after the initial search has died down, a youtube user named Fright Knight released a video titled "10 Strangest and Mysterious Reddit Posts" which publicised the original post and played a snippet of the song, with the video now having 378K views. While not much was gathered from the video (although one of the top comments suggested that it was a Stevie Nicks song that had been vocally chopped up), it gained the interest of Colorado music-fan Mary Lattau.

Solving
While researching, Mary Lettau found a clue that the song might have been made by Too Many Joes (this clue is unspecifed). With this information, Mary found an archived LA Times article about the band before trying to find lead singer Dina Douglass in social media. According to Dina "She [Mary Lettau] sent me a late-night Facebook message asking if I had been the singer and if "Say Something" was my song, and thus solved a two-year mystery that baffled thousands of people around the world."

Lyrics
[Verse 1]

Well, I've seen her sit alone before

Never sure why she was black and blue

Now I've heard her cry like this before

Now I've known a lot of men like you

You might have treated her like something

[Verse 2]

Well, I've seen her hide from you before

Now I've watched her cower in her room

Now I've heard her lie for you before

Now I've known a lot of men like you

You might have treated her like something

[Pre-Chorus]

Well, like you

You might have treated her like something

[Chorus]

Ooh, why don't you realize and say no no

Realize and say no no

Realize and say no no

When you realize you say something

Will you say something

[Verse 3]

Well, I've seen her sit alone before

Never sure why she was black and blue

Now I've heard her cry like this before

Now I've known a lot of men like you

You might have treated her like something

[Pre-Chorus]

Well, like you

You might have treated her like something

[Chorus]

Ooh, why don't you realize and say no no

Realize and say no no

Realize and say no no

When you realize you say something

Will you say something

[Chorus]

Ooh, why don't you realize and say no no

Realize and say no no

Realize and say no no

When you realize you say something

Will you say something