Fun Facts

Here are some Fun Facts about Cups (Pitch Perfect’s When I’m Gone). Who performs the original song, where does the cup beat comes from and more…

The original song ‘When I’m Gone’ was recorded in the 1930’s by the Carter Family.
The chorus of ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’ comes from the 1937, old-time song, ‘Miss Me When I’m Gone’ by J.E. Mainer’s Mountaineers.
The beat from the ‘Cup Song’ is not original, it is from ‘The Cup Game’
The earliest known creation of the ‘Cup Game’ is attribute to popular Christian musician Rich Mullins back in 1987 who created it to be played as a rhythm for his song, ‘Screen Door’.
The original ‘Cup Song’ was made by Lulu and the Lampshades. They combined the beat from the ‘cup game and the Carter Family classic song “When I’m Gone”.
The ‘Cup Song’ video that became viral was Anna Burden‘s cover of Lulu and the Lampshades.
Anna Burden’s video was seen by Anna Kendrick who performed it in ‘Pitch Perfect’.
After seeing Burden’s cover of the ‘Cup Song’ on Reddit, Anna Kendrick explained in an interview to Letterman, “I thought the best way to spend an entire afternoon would be watching this video 50 times and teaching myself how to do it”.
The ‘Cup Song’ was not in the original script of ‘Pitch Perfect’ but when creators/producers of the movie found out that Anna Kendrick could do the ‘Cup Song’ they decided to include it in the movie.
Luisa Gerstein, the singer and songwriter of Lulu and the Lampshades, is listed in the end credits of ‘Pitch Perfect’ for the Cup Song.
Since the release of the movie a lot of people have been posting their own versions of the ‘Cups Song’
On April 12, 2013 the music video Cups (Pitch Perfect’s When I’m Gone) was released on Anna Kendrick’s VEVO channel. The video has over 60 million views.
Anna Kendrick is the only person, along side Barbra Streisand, to have earned a top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and Academy Award and Tony Award nominations in acting categories.
“Cups” is the third song by a female artist to has taken the longest to crack the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Cups” reached #10 on its 28th week on the Hot 100 just behind Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” (38 weeks) and Faith Hill “The Kiss” (30 weeks) and “The Way You Love Me” (29 weeks).
Anna Kendrick is just the fourth artist born in the state of Maine to have a top 40 hit (Rick Pinette & Oak – 1980, Howie Day – 2004, and Spose – 2010).
‘Cups’ has reached the top spot (No. 1) on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary radio airplay chart on October 7th, 2013.