When I Come Around

When I Come Around is the tenth track on Dookie. It went to radio in December 1994 and was released as a single in January 1995. The band had played it live as early as 1992. It was inspired by Adrienne Nesser, Armstrong's girlfriend at the time. After a dispute, Armstrong left to spend some time alone. Most of the song is built on a sequence of four chords.

It topped the Modern Rock Tracks chart for seven weeks and peaked at number six on Billboard's Hot 100 Airplay chart. It had sold 639,000 copies by August 2010, which made it the band's second best-selling single of the 1990s behind Good Riddance (Time of Your Life). Mark Kohr directed the video, which follows the band walking through San Francisco and Berkeley at night. MTV had aired the band's performance of the song at Woodstock 1994 beforehand, and the striped sweater Armstrong wore in the video is credited with starting a fashion trend. A barbershop quartet version was heard in the South Park episode Hummels & Heroin.

Live

Green Day played the song at the FireAid benefit on 30 January 2025, after opening with Last Night on Earth, a duet with Billie Eilish, and Still Breathing.