Four years after Flip Caderao rapped about SMU life into a dingy microphone on the computer in his apartment bedroom, the famous “SMU Song” lives on in the mp3 folders of SMU graduates and undergraduates everywhere. The original “SMU Song,” a lighthearted satire about life at SMU, has become an underground SMU cult classic with its references to Bishop Boulevard, Beemers, Lexuses, Peruna and Greek life.
Caderao originally wrote and recorded the song “just to have fun with friends” during his week of leadership training for Mustang Corral in 2003. He performed the song at Mustang Corral that year, never thinking anyone would remember it, much less turn it into a large-scale music video.
“When Bob Peterson first pitched the idea to me for a music video, I thought it was hilarious that people still care about the song,” Caderao said. “He was talking about aerial shots, bringing me to Mexico to record the song, and involving production companies. I made this song on a computer microphone in two nights. I guess big things start little.”
Peterson, a sophomore, will direct the music video along with sophomore Dan Carrillo. “We always wanted to make a music video, but the hardest part was finding a song that you have the rights to,” Peterson said. “Most of all, we want something that SMU students can get involved with and be proud of.”
According to Carrillo, “the video is going to be a bigger production than people think. The involvement of the students will give the video more impact and it will be impossible to differentiate between this video and MTV music videos.”
Students can be cast as a lead or an extra. The directors hope to get more film majors involved with the process. In its first 20 hours, the “SMU Music Video” Facebook group attracted 326 members and around a dozen requests for crew positions. The online commercial for the song featuring the original version had more than 1,020 visits on the first weekend.
Carrillo states that the team will use the Facebook platform to announce important dates regarding casting and filming.
“I want to see the campus, football games, Pom Squad, parties at the tanning pool, Peruna, Greek life and just everything in this video. I want to involve Meadows with all the talented theater people, dancers and artists. I want all of SMU to show school spirit in this video. I’ll be singing in the video, but the song doesn’t belong to me; it belongs to the students,” Caderao said.
Charlie Hilbrant, a junior, will shoot aerial footage of the campus on a day when air traffic controllers give him clearance to operate in a space normally occupied by air traffic into and out of Love Field and Addison Airport.
“We’re going to get some good footage of the campus by flying at a safe altitude in a single-engine propeller aircraft,” said Hilbrant. “The combined creativity of Bob Peterson and Dan Carrillo will generate something that the class of 2020 talks about. These guys are brilliant, I’m just the pilot.”
The team will fly to Guanajuato, Mexico in early April to record a newer version of the song with backup vocals in a freelance music studio owned by Fato, an award-winning Latin American singer and songwriter. The team will also record rock, rap and electronic versions of the song.
Since SMU has changed since the original 2003 version, Caderao will update the song’s lyrics to give it more “shelf-life without specifics.” The song will retain its “So I’m a Mustang, yeah, we’re better than y’all” attitude but will include Dallas-based lyrics to involve the Dallas community in SMU life.
Caderao hopes that the song and music video will be played at sports events and help people rally around the SMU sports teams to instill Dallas with a sense of school spirit akin to Austin’s enthusiasm for the University of Texas.
“In Austin, people who don’t even go to UT say ‘I bleed burnt orange.’ At USC and UT, school spirit is in the blood and no one says that about SMU in Dallas. Maybe the video will bring people together and give people incentive to go to the games,” Cadarao said.
Carrillo will not reveal the name of the production company or the location of the film studio involved in making the music video until the actual production dates.
“Expect some amazing things in the shooting, some guest stars are planned, but definitely a lot of surprises to show everyone how SMU is such an amazing school, but even more, to show how we SMU students are,” Carillo said.
