First Date

Rick DeVoe, the band's manager, walked into the studio during the Take Off Your Pants and Jacket sessions and demanded another upbeat single. Tom DeLonge rushed home and wrote "First Date" in roughly twenty minutes, drawing directly from his own nervous experiences with early romantic encounters. Mark Hoppus was simultaneously crafting "The Rock Show," and the two tracks ended up as back-to-back singles released just months apart in 2001.

The song kicks off with a fuzzy guitar riff that gives way to DeLonge's nasal vocal delivery, narrating a teenage boy trying to navigate a date without making mistakes. Its structure follows a classic pop-punk formula featuring fast power chords, a shout-along chorus, and a bridge that briefly slows the tempo before exploding back into the final hook. Jerry Finn handled production, maintaining a clean yet punchy sound typical of the group's early 2000s output.

Upon release on September 21, 2001, the track climbed to number six on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart where it stayed for nearly half a year. The official music video directed by The Malloys swapped the band's usual skate-punk imagery for a 1970s aesthetic showing the trio dressed as hippies driving a Volkswagen van. The clip ends with a chaotic food fight at a water park that results in the band getting kicked out. As of late 2026, this video has accumulated over 230 million views on YouTube. [edit]