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Scottish-Northern Irish alternative rock band Snow Patrol released their song “Chasing Cars” on their fourth studio album Eyes Open back in 2006. Now, 13 years later, the hit single has been named the most played song of the 21st century (so far), as it is especially played on the radio in the UK and pops up in various TV shows’ finales around the time of the song’s release, such as Grey’s Anatomy, One Tree Hill, and Gavin & Stacey.
According to the band’s lead singer Gary Lightbody, “Chasing Cars” is an “emotionally open” and “simple” song, as well as a love song that’s not like any other that the band had written: usually, their love songs would have a twist or some kind of dark edge to them, but this special one has nothing of the sort and is just a beautiful romantic moment every time it is played. It is no wonder why this song is also one of the go-to songs to play at weddings!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GemKqzILV4w
Background/Inspiration
The reason for the single’s simplicity has to do with how it came to be: the morning after a white wine binge at the Kent cottage of his song producer Jacknife Lee, Lightbody got inspired to write the lyrics in the cottage’s garden (which would explain the “Show me a garden that’s bursting into life” line) while sobering up from the night before. Admittedly, while the song is not complex in sound or meaning (at first) because of Lightbody’s recovery from his white wine hangover, it, however, makes up for that in the feelings behind the simple melody and lyrics, especially during the crescendo towards the end!
In fact, the song’s title “Chasing Cars” was a phrase inspired by a quote his father used in reference to Lightbody’s former infatuation with a girl, comparing the situation to a “dog chasing a car,” as he would not be able to catch whatever he is chasing after or would not know what to do then if he did. So, while the inspiration behind the song is a rather unusual one, it is one that we, Lightbody included, would not have traded for any other music hit creation story.
Popularity
While the single only peaked at number six on the UK top song charts, it without a doubt popularized its native album Eyes Open to the point where it was sold at a significant figure of $6 million in copies and the song itself came in at 14th in biggest selling singles of that year. Its legacy even lived on to outshine The Black Eyed Peas’s “I Gotta Feeling” in 2009 and Pharell Williams’s “Happy” from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack in 2013, placing them at second and third, respectively.
About The Band
Snow Patrol is composed of Nathan Connolly, Paul Wilson, Jonny Quinn, and Johnny McDaid, and of course, Gary Lightbody as frontman. Although Snow Patrol formed in 1994, the band hit mainstream popularity a little less than ten years later due to the success of their album Final Straw. Aside from “Chasing Cars,” the group’s other hits include “Run,” “You’re All I Have,” “Chocolate,” and “Set Fire To The Third Bar,” but other songs of theirs, such as “Just Say Yes,” “You Could Be Happy,” and “I Won’t Let Go,” the latter of which appeared on the film soundtrack for Divergent, are definitely worth considering as well. They may not exactly match the popularity level of the major milestone-earning “Chasing Cars,” but they would give you a good enough starting point for becoming hardcore fans of this beloved Scottish-Northern Irish alternative rock group!
