Chasing cars

Chasing cars
Snow Patrol
publication	June 6, 2006
length	4:27 (album version) 4:08 (radio version)
Genre (s)	Alternative rock , pop rock
Author (s)	Snow Patrol
Publisher (s)	Universal Music Group
album	Eyes Open

Chasing Cars is a song by the British alternative rock - band Snow Patrol . It appeared on May 1, 2006 on the studio album Eyes Open on Universal Music and was released as a single on June 6, 2006.

Emergence

Gary Lightbody wrote the song on producer Jacknife Lee's farm. The song was performed for the first time during a tour in late 2005. The song first gained greater notoriety when it was used for the third season finale of One Tree Hill . A few weeks later, the song was also used for the emotional finale of the second season of Grey's Anatomy and became known to an even larger audience.

Musical style

In the song, the protagonist describes his love for a woman. According to Lightbody, the expression "chasing cars" comes from his father, who said of his son's love:

“You're like a dog chasing a car. You'll never catch it and you just wouldn't know what to do with it if you did. "

“You're like a dog chasing a car. You'll never catch it and even if you did, you wouldn't know what to do with it. "

- Gary Lightbody's father

Musically, the piece can be classified more in the gentle alternative rock or in the pop rock . In addition to the vocals, only a plucked electric guitar can be heard in the stanzas . Bass and drums also join in during the chorus . In total, only three chords are used throughout the piece.

Charts and awards

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Singles

Chasing cars   DE 8th 11/13/2006 (65 weeks)   AT 2 10/27/2006 (36 weeks)   CH 4th 11/26/2006 (105 weeks)   UK 6th 07/29/2006 (108 weeks)   US 5 10/14/2006 (45 weeks)

Chasing Cars is the band's most successful single to date. In Austria , the single came to number 2 in the charts, at the same time it was Snow Patrol's first chart position in Austria. In Belgium and New Zealand the song reached number three, in Switzerland number four in the singles charts. With fifth place in the USA , sixth in Great Britain and Ireland , eighth in Germany and ninth in Norway , the top ten of the respective country charts were reached in other countries. With Denmark (13th place), the Netherlands (24th place), Sweden (40th place) and France (57th place), the single was able to place in other countries. In Switzerland and Great Britain, Chasing Cars stayed in the singles charts for over 100 weeks with 105 and 108 weeks respectively.

The band received numerous gold and platinum awards for the single, including triple platinum in Australia, triple gold in Germany, platinum in New Zealand, double platinum in the United Kingdom and quintuple platinum in the United States.

Reviews

Laut.de rates the song rather negatively. Critic Benjamin Fuchs says about the single that Snow Patrol follows the trend of many British bands and wants to compulsively put ballads on an album. Nevertheless, he rates the atmosphere of the song positively.

About.com, on the other hand, describes Chasing Cars as a catchy song that shines mainly through the singing of Lightbodys. Critic Bill Lamb sees no points where the piece really should have been improved and describes the song as "one of the most beautiful love songs of the year".

Tom Woods from musicomh.com also rates the song positively. He describes it as relatively simple and not a milestone in music history, but the message and the singing made it an almost brilliant song.

Video

To Chasing Cars are two different music videos.

In the first version, released by Universal Music, singer Gary Lightbody can be seen lying on the ground in the open air. While the sun is still shining at the beginning of the video, clouds come in during the second chorus and it starts to rain heavily. Only towards the end of the video, when the rain has stopped again, does Lightbody get up and the camera zooms him out further and further.

The second version, produced by the subsidiary Vertigo Records , is very similar to the first video, but the locations are different. One scene is the living room of an apartment, on the floor of which Lightbody initially lies. However, the majority of the video takes place in the streets of a big city, through which he initially walks alone. Later he lies down on one of these streets. The same applies to the station of a subway . Other scenes in which he lies down on the floor are a subway station , a subway, a mountain over a city and the abandoned bed of a hotel room.

Awards for music sales

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Australia (ARIA)	3 × platinum	210,000
Denmark (IFPI)	platinum	90,000
Germany (BVMI)	2 × platinum	600,000
Italy (FIMI)	platinum	50,000
New Zealand (RMNZ)	platinum	15,000
Spain (Promusicae)	gold	20,000
United States (RIAA)	5 × platinum	5,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	3 × platinum	1,800,000
All in all	1 × gold 16 × platinum	7,785,000

swell

1. ↑ Repertoire search. online.gema.de, accessed on August 17, 2020 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Benjamin Fuchs: Why do they all want to sound the same? On: laut.de. Retrieved January 17, 2012
3. ↑ ^{a b} SONG OF THE MONTH OCTOBER 2010: SNOW PATROL - CHASING CARS. ( Memento of the original from March 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: lazyrocker.com (English). Retrieved January 20, 2012  
4. ^ ^{A b} Filmography of Snow Patrol. On: imdb.com (English). Retrieved January 20, 2012
5. ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH Charts UK Charts US
6. ↑ Bill Lamb: Criticism ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on about.com (English). Retrieved January 17, 2012 
7. ↑ Tom Woods: Review on musicomh.com (English). Retrieved January 17, 2012
8. ↑ Universal Music Group's music video for Chasing Cars. On: myvideo.de. Retrieved January 18, 2012
9. ↑ Vertigo Records music video for Chasing Cars. On: myvideo.de. Retrieved January 18, 2012
10. ↑ Award in Australia
11. ^ Award in Denmark
12. ↑ Award in Germany
13. ↑ Award in Italy
14. ↑ Award in New Zealand
15. ↑ Award in Spain
16. ↑ Distinction in the United States
17. ↑ Award in the United Kingdom

Web links

• Criticism on laut.de
• Information and criticism on allmusic.com (English)