"Why Can't We Be Friends?" is a song by American funk band War, from their 1975 studio album Why Can't We Be Friends?. It has a simple structure, with the phrase "Why can't we be friends?" being sung four times after each two-line verse. The song reached No. 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1975, and uniquely features each band member singing his own verse. It was played in outer space when NASA beamed it to the linking of Soviet cosmonauts and US astronauts for the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project. Billboard magazine ranked it as the No. 24 song of that year.
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Smash Mouth version
American pop rock band Smash Mouth covered the song on their debut album, Fush Yu Mang (1997), and released it as the album's third single in January 1998 by Interscope Records.
Critical reception
Larry Flick from Billboard magazine wrote, "Hot on the heels of 'Walkin' On The Sun' comes a wonderfully festive, anthemic rendition of War's pop/R&B chestnut. The song's original funk-flavored arrangement proves perfectly accessible to Smash Mouth's pop/ska style. The heartfelt 'let's get along' tone of the lyrics remains as relevant as ever to today's social and political climate, and the band's rousing approach makes the message all the more user-friendly to the pop masses. Another sure-fire multi-format hit from the album Fush Yu Mang."