The Smithereens: New Jersey Guitar Pop and "House We Used to Live In"

Photo: Circacies / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20070714-2005-Smithereens.jpg

The Smithereens are an American rock band from Carteret, New Jersey. U-Rock® has logged 1,766 plays of "House We Used to Live In."

Named by Yosemite Sam

According to Wikipedia, Jim Babjak, Dennis Diken and Mike Mesaros graduated together from Carteret High School in 1975. In 1980, Diken answered Pat DiNizio's classified ad looking for a drummer, then brought in his schoolmates. The name comes from a favorite word of the cartoon character Yosemite Sam. Their hits from the late '80s to the mid-'90s include "Only a Memory," "A Girl Like You" and "Too Much Passion." After DiNizio died in 2017, the other three kept performing with guest singers.

Green Thoughts

"House We Used to Live In" is on Green Thoughts (1988). Wikipedia describes it as "part autobiographical, part fiction," inspired by DiNizio's parents losing their house to the IRS after their divorce. AllMusic's Jason Ankeny named it among the album's "immediately ingratiating" songs. The photo here is from Grapevine, Texas, in 2007.

Why it matters on U-Rock®

The Smithereens wrote catchy guitar pop with sad stories in it, and "House We Used to Live In" is one of the saddest.

U-Rock® play data: 1,766 plays logged across the BROADCAST and CORE histories (2026-07-02 to 2026-10-12), using the higher of the two logs.

Sources 1. Wikipedia, "The Smithereens" — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smithereens 2. Wikipedia, "Green Thoughts" — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Thoughts 3. Wikimedia Commons, "The Smithereens perform in Grapevine, Texas, 2007 (Circacies)" — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20070714-2005-Smithereens.jpg 4. U-Rock® BROADCAST (AzuraCast) and CORE (airplay_spins) play logs