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Chasing Cars

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"Chasing Cars"
Song

"Chasing Cars" is the third single from Snow Patrol's fourth album, Eyes Open. It was released on July 24, 2006 in the United Kingdom, as the album's second single. "Chasing Cars" gained significant popularity in the United States after being featured on the popular medical drama Grey's Anatomy.[1] It became notable as one of the songs that revealed the impact of legal downloads on single sales in the UK. The song is Snow Patrol's biggest-selling single to date, ending 2006 as the UK's fourteenth best-selling single of the year[2] and 2007, on the strength of downloads, as the UK's thirty fourth best-selling single of 2007.[3] According to the well known Irish radio station 98fm it is the best song of 2006. The single has now spent 77 weeks in the top 75 singles in the UK.

Production and history

Gary Lightbody, frontman of Snow Patrol, says it is the "most pure and open love song [he's] ever written." The phrase "Chasing Cars" came from Lightbody's father, in reference to a girl Lightbody was infatuated with, "You're like a dog chasing a car. You'll never catch it and you wouldn't know what to do with it if you did."[4]

The song was first heard on the band's 2005 Final Straw tour, when they began playing it, along with two other newly written songs ("Your Halo" and "It's Beginning to Get to Me") they intended to release on their upcoming album. Since then, the composition of the song was changed slightly, and most of the lyrics were rewritten.

Promotion and release

Snow Patrol played "Chasing Cars" on an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. It was the last live performance on long-running British music programme Top of the Pops. The band also performed the song when they were the musical guest on the March 17, 2007 episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Additionally, the band played the song live in their appearance at Live Earth. On July 7, 2007, this song was performed during the London leg of the Live Earth concert at Wembley Stadium and at Oxegen later on that night in Ireland.

"Chasing Cars" was heard on the TV show One Tree Hill episode "The Show Must Go On", which aired in the US on May 3, 2006. The show is popular amongst the teenage crowd,[citation needed] and the episode gained around 3.06 million viewers. It was not until several weeks later when the song appeared on the second season finale of Grey's Anatomy on May 15 2006 that the song found a larger listening audience and pushed its way onto the download and pop charts in the United States.

Music video

There are two music videos: one for UK, one for the US. In the music video for UK, Gary Lightbody lies on the ground as cameras film him from different angles. It starts raining, Gary enters a pool of water next to him and in the end of the video, he gets out of the water, rises on his feet and looks up at the camera. In the US music video, Lightbody is shown lying down in busy places while singing. People ignore him and step over him. Among the places he lies is in an alley and at the end of an escalator.

Reception

Critical

It was released as an overlapping single in early June and the video was re-edited to include clips from the show. The video failed to catch on, regardless, so a third version was filmed for the edited single version of the song. On September 13 2006, the song soared in the digital music charts to become the most-downloaded song in the U.S. iTunes Store, just one day after the DVD release of the second season of Grey's Anatomy.

Billboard called the song "a catchy, colossal ballad that succeeds without any fireworks."[1]

The song was nominated for a 2007 Grammy Award for "Best Rock Song",[5] as well as for a 2007 BRIT Award for "Best Single".

In 2007, "Chasing Cars" was voted number 1 in the Top 500 Songs: The Words Behind the Music, on Bristol's GWR FM (and other stations in the One Network).

Commercial

The song was released as a download-only single on 17 July 2006 and entered the UK Singles Chart in the week ending 29 July at #25 on the strength of download sales alone. Its physical release had come on 24 July and this pushed the song up to #15, peaking six weeks later at #6. However, seven weeks after that, in November the CD single was deleted and, under the chart rules prevailing at that time, the song was removed from the chart two weeks after that, having clocked up 17 weeks in total. It was than absent from the chart for seven weeks, but in January 2007 a change to the chart rules meant that all downloads, with or without a physical equivalent, were now eligible to chart. "Chasing Cars" duly surged back in at a Top 10 position (#9, just three places below its peak), and remained on the chart for 48 consecutive weeks, entirely on downloads, only falling out again in December. After a three-week absence this time, in January 2008 it was back once again, and has just bowed out for a third time, having now spent an incredible 78 weeks on the UK Top 75, making it the 2nd longest runner of all time, bettered only by Frank Sinatra's "My Way" (124 weeks). For only 14 weeks out of those 78 was a physical copy of "Chasing Cars" officially available. The song was voted number one in a Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All Time poll.[6] After the popularity of its association with the Grey's Anatomy television show, the song peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, the band's first Top 10 hit in the US.

Other appearances in the media

It was used as the music for the 2006 series Big Brother UK's best bits and in June 2007 featured in the BBC hit comedy Gavin & Stacey as the first series climax in episode 6.

A parody of this song called "Chasing Bars" on eBaum's World has the main chorus line as "If I drink beer, if I drink a lot of beer, would you drink with me and just forget the year?"

Covers and samples

A trance version of the song was recently remixed by Blake Jarrell & Topher Jones. It aired on the highly popular trance radio show A State of Trance on August 17, 2006.[7]The song was also used in a mashup by Party Ben, who combined the song with "Every Breath You Take" by The Police.[8]

In March 2007, Natasha Bedingfield covered the song on Ray Foley's Today FM show. In June 2007, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw performed this song as a duet at a Soul2Soul 2007 concert.

The Chordials, a co-ed a cappella group at Cornell University, covered the song in 2007.

The X Factor Series 3 contestant Shaun Rogerson has also covered the song for his debut album.

Jo Frances covered the song on her 2007 Debut Album "Ultimately".

Formats and track listings

  • UK Promo (released in July 2006)
  1. "Chasing Cars" [radio edit] - 4:10
  2. "Chasing Cars" [album version] - 4:27
  1. "Chasing Cars" [album version] - 4:27
  2. "It Doesn't Matter Where, Just Drive" - 3:37
  1. "Chasing Cars" [album version] - 4:27
  2. "Play Me Like Your Own Hand" - 4:15
  • European CD (released in October 2006)
  1. "Chasing Cars" [album version] - 4:27
  2. "Play Me Like Your Own Hand" - 4:15
  3. "It Doesn't Matter Where, Just Drive" - 3:37
  • U.S. Promo (released in July 2006)
  1. "Chasing Cars" [Top 40 Edit] - 3:58
  1. "Chasing Cars" [Live in Toronto] - 4:28
  • Special Dutch Edition
  1. "Chasing Cars"
  2. "You're All I Have (live from BNN)"
  3. "How To Be Dead (live from BNN)"
  4. "Chasing Cars (live from BNN)"
  1. "Chasing Cars" [Radio Edit]
  2. "Chasing Cars" [Album Version]
  1. "Chasing Cars" [Radio Edit]
  2. "Chasing Cars" [Album Version]
  1. "Chasing Cars" [Blake Jarrell & Topher Jones Remix]
  2. "Open Your Eyes" [Allende Remix]

Chart performance

Chart (2006) Peak
position[9]
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks 1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 5
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks 5
U.S. Billboard Pop 100 6
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks 1
Eurochart Hot 100 Singles 12
Australian ARIA Digital Tracks Chart 1
Austria Singles Chart 10
Belgium Singles Chart 3
Czech IFPI Chart 3
Dutch Mega Top 50 8
Dutch Top 40 24
French Singles Chart 57
German Singles Chart 8
German Airplay Chart 18
Radio Doble Nueve(Peru) 101 Rock Tracks Of 2006 3
Irish Singles Chart 1
Latvian Airplay Top 3
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart 4
Polish Singles Chart 54
Singapore Top 20 1
Slovakia IFPI Chart 59
Spanish iTunes Store 1
Swiss Single Chart 5
UK Singles Chart 6
United World Chart 6

References

  1. ^ a b Philipp, Sven (2006-06-24), "Chasing Cars". Billboard. 118 (25):61
  2. ^ Top 40 Singles of 2006, from BBC Radio 1 website
  3. ^ Top 40 Singles of 2007, from the BBC Radio 1 website
  4. ^ Snow Patrol's MySpace profile
  5. ^ "FOX Facts: Complete List of Grammy Award Nominations". Associated Press. December 7 2006. Retrieved December 9 2006.
  6. ^ Top 500 - Virgin Radio
  7. ^ A State of Trance #264 Playlist
  8. ^ Party Ben official site
  9. ^ References for chart positions:
    • "Dutch Top 40". MegaCharts. Retrieved October 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
    • "Irish Charts – Top 50 Singles". IRMA. Retrieved August 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
    • "Latvian Airplay Top". Retrieved August 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
    • "Swiss Single Top 100 listing for "Chasing Cars"". swisscharts.com. Retrieved August 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
    • "Official UK Download Chart". BBC Radio 1. Retrieved October 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
    • "Official UK Singles Chart". BBC Radio 1. Retrieved October 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
    • "Snow Patrol: Artist Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved October 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
    "Official ARIA digital track chart". ARIA Charts. Retrieved November 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)


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