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Hey, Soul Sister

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"Hey, Soul Sister"
Song

"Hey, Soul Sister" is a 2009 song by the American alternative rock band Train, written by Patrick Monahan, Amund Bjørklund, and Espen Lind. It was released as the lead single from the band's fifth studio album, Save Me San Francisco. The song reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and is their highest charting song to date. It is also the band's most commercially successful single to date, reaching number one in sixteen countries. As of Dec 10, 2010 it has sold over 4.8 million digital copies in the US.[2] It is the 8th most downloaded song in history,[3] the most downloaded song of all time for Columbia Records[4] and the overall best selling song in the US in 2010[2] The single received a quadruple platinum certification by the RIAA on July 14, 2010.[5] It was the iTunes best-selling single of 2010.[6]

Background

"At first, I tried to do it by using a guitar pick, and it didn't sound right. I had to go online and Google a ukulele lesson and noticed they're not using picks at all; it's more of a flamenco style. Once I got that down, then it sounded like the real deal.[7] "

– Lead guitarist Jimmy Stafford, on having to learn to play ukulele as requested by lead singer Pat Monahan in the recording of "Hey, Soul Sister"

After collaborating with the Norwegian production duo Espionage (Espen Lind and Amund Bjorklund) in the writing and recording of the track "Brick by Brick", Train's lead singer Pat Monahan decided to record another track with the duo.[7]

I said, 'I want to write an INXS-y song. So, they started playing kind of an INXS-y song, and I wrote the song 'Hey, Soul Sister' to it and the melodies and started to sing it. And I was like, 'Man, this just doesn't sound great to me.'

— Pat Monahan, on wanting to write an INXS-y song.

One of the guys, Espen, who's like a huge star in Norway, picked up a ukulele, and said, 'Hey, how about this?' I was like, 'Are you (kidding) me?' And it made the difference. It made my words dance. It made sense. These words were meant to dance with ukulele and not guitar.

— Pat Monahan

Composition

"Hey, Soul Sister" is a mid-tempo pop song. Written in the key of E major,[8] the beat is set in common time and moves at 97 bpm. The song is characterized by a signature pattern played on a ukulele,[7] that follows a basic E5 – B – C#m – A progression in the verse, tag and bridge, switching to an A – B – E5 – B progression in the chorus. The song's chord structure is arranged in an A B A B A B A form. It rhymes "sister" with "Mr. Mister."

Lyrically, Stafford admitted the inspiration for the song came about while Monahan was imagining what Burning Man must be like, and started penning lyrics inspired by the imagery he saw[9]:

"The story lyrically, I’ve heard Pat talk about this in interviews. He’s always heard of Burning Man. Somewhere in the Californian desert, they do it every year. It’s this whole city in the desert that gets built for a festival that happens every year. They build a huge man out of wood and at the end of the festival they burn it. Pat had never been to Burning Man, but he had an image in his head of what it must be like. All these beautiful women dancing around the fire. That was the imagery he conjured up when he was writing the lyrics to, “Hey, Soul Sister.” It’s a pretty big deal. Thousands and thousands of people go to it every year. People run around naked and I guess it’s a total crazy deal.

Monahan has since confirmed this in multiple radio interviews.[10][11]

Music Video

The video was filmed in front of Chango Coffee at the corner of Morton Ave and Echo Park Ave in Los Angeles, California. [12]

Appearances in other media

Train performed the song on the show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld on Fox News which aired during the early morning broadcast on April 20, 2010.[13] They have also performed the song on numerous talk shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,[14] Live with Regis and Kelly,[14] The Ellen DeGeneres Show,[15] Lopez Tonight, and The Howard Stern Show.[16] They also performed the song before the 2010 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby on ESPN. Samsung has also used the song in advertising some of its products including its 3D TVs and silent washers. It has also been played in several TV shows as CSI NY in the episode "Second Chances", Hellcats in its first episode and Medium.It was also been played in the canadian TV show "Being Erica", in chapter 3x11. The song was performed on ABC's Dancing With The Stars on May 4, 2010 and on America's Got Talent on July 21, 2010. A cover of the song was also performed by "Munch's Make Believe Band," the animatronic show located at Chuck E. Cheese's restaurants. The Dixie Chicks covered this song while on their 2010 tour with The Eagles. Glee covered the song in the November 30, 2010 episode (2nd Season) with actor Darren Criss singing the solo in a performance with the Dalton Academy Warblers.[17]

Tracklist

Australian Single
  1. "Hey, Soul Sister" – 3:36
Other Versions
  • Karmatronic Radio Edit – 3:40
  • Country Version – 3:37
  • Single Version (slightly different instrumentation near the end) - 3:35

Chart performance

"Hey, Soul Sister" debuted at #98 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ended Oct. 17, 2009, becoming their first charting single in five years (2004's "When I Look to the Sky" being their previous chart entry.)

On the week of Jan. 30, 2010, in its 16th week on the Hot 100 chart, "Hey, Soul Sister" leaped to #7 from #23 on an 81% digital single sales increase from the previous week, thus becoming Train's second career Top Ten hit on the chart. It reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the week of April 10, 2010, their highest on the chart to date. As of the week of October 2, 2010, the song has been on the chart for 51 weeks.

The song climbed to #1 on the Hot Digital Songs chart for the week of April 10, 2010, and stayed in the top spot for three weeks.

In addition to revitalizing Train's career in their native country, "Hey, Soul Sister" has also become a big international hit; it was #1 on the official Dutch and Australian singles charts for 7 weeks and 4[18] weeks, respectively, and also became their second Irish number one single (after Drops of Jupiter). The single charted at #2 in New Zealand (their highest in the country to date), and reached #3 on both the Canadian[19] and Belgian singles charts.[20]

On April 24, 2010, "Hey, Soul Sister" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #64,[21] marking the band's first appearance on the chart since "She's On Fire" reached a peak of #49 in 2001. On May 2, 2010, the single climbed into the UK Top 40 at #36 and has since reached a peak of #18. It has been in the official charts for 21 weeks.

The single sold 687,000 copies in 2009 which made it that year's #131 song. It went on to sell 3,319,000 more units in the first half of 2010 and forty two weeks after its release still stood at number 16 on the Hot 100 chart. As of July 30, 2010, it is the best selling single of 2010.[2]

BNA Records, a country music label owned by Sony Music, released the song to the country music format in June 2010. It debuted at #60 on the Hot Country Songs charts for the week ended July 10, 2010.[22]

References

  1. ^ a b RIAA search results
  2. ^ a b c "Chart Watch Extra: Ranking The Year's Biggest Hits". 1 July 2010.
  3. ^ "14. Train, "Hey, Soul Sister," 4,311,000." by Paul Grein in Chart Watch
  4. ^ "Grammy Award Winning Group Train Strikes Gold=9 September 2010".
  5. ^ "Song Scorecard: Two recent pop smashes, Miley Cyrus' "Party In The U.S.A." and Train's "Hey, Soul Sister," both top the 4 million mark in paid downloads this week"
  6. ^ http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/10/hey-soul-sister-itunes-best-selling-single-of-2010/?hpt=T2
  7. ^ a b c "Train adds ukulele to make 'Hey, Soul Sister' a chart topper" by Dave Richards, posted November 7, 2009
  8. ^ Hey, Soul Sister sheet music
  9. ^ "Q&A with Train." by Annie Reuter, posted October 28, 2009
  10. ^ "Train Visits The Buzz Studios!" by Sheryl Stewart, posted December 22, 2009
  11. ^ "Train frontman tells story behind 'Hey, Soul Sister'", posted August 23, 2010
  12. ^ "Google Map", posted November 10, 2010
  13. ^ "'Hey, Soul Sister' - Video - FoxNews.com". Video.foxnews.com. 2010-04-20. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
  14. ^ a b http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/train-rolls-into-1-on-itunes-with-hit-song-hey-soul-sister-89517032.html, Train Rolls Into #1 on iTunes with Hit Song 'Hey, Soul Sister'
  15. ^ Watch Train perform 'Hey, Soul Sister' on Ellen's Music Page
  16. ^ http://www.howardstern.com/rundown.hs?d=1257915600#14934, Howard Stern Show 11/11/09 Rundown
  17. ^ 'Glee': Darren Criss and the Warblers sing Train's 'Hey Soul Sister' (Exclusive Video)
  18. ^ Steffen Hung. "Train – Hey, Soul Sister". australian-charts.com. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
  19. ^ a b Billboard Canadian Hot 100 1–10
  20. ^ "Belgium Singles Top 50 – Music Chart". Acharts.us. acharts.us. April 11, 2010. Retrieved April 5, 2010.
  21. ^ "UK Singles Top 75 – Music Chart". Acharts.us. acharts.us. April 24, 2010. Retrieved April 19, 2010.
  22. ^ Trust, Gary (30 June 2010). "Chart Beat Wednesday: Train, Dirty Heads, Nicki Minaj". Billboard. Retrieved 1 July 2010.
  23. ^ "Top 50 Singles Chart – ARIA". ARIA Charts. Australian Recording Industry Association. March 22, 2010. Retrieved March 21, 2010.
  24. ^ "Austria Singles Top 75 – Music Chart". Acharts.us. acharts.us. April 11, 2010. Retrieved April 5, 2010.
  25. ^ a b "Train – Hey, Soul Sister". ultratop.be. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
  26. ^ Steffen Hung. "Train – Hey, Soul Sister". danishcharts.com. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
  27. ^ "Top 40". Top40.nl. 1950-12-28. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
  28. ^ "Download Single Top 50 – 15/05/2010" (in French). Lescharts.com. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  29. ^ "Germany Music Charts – Top Singles". Allcharts.org. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
  30. ^ "Archívum – Slágerlisták – MAHASZ – Magyar Hanglemezkiadók Szövetsége". Mahasz.hu. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
  31. ^ "Irish Recorded Music Association – Top 50 Singles". IRMA. Irish Recorded Music Association. April 1, 2010. Retrieved April 5, 2010.
  32. ^ Steffen Hung. "Train – Hey, Soul Sister". italiancharts.com. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
  33. ^ "Chart #1712 – Monday 15 March 2010 (top 40 singles)". RIANZ: The Official NZ Music Chart. Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. March 15, 2010. Retrieved March 21, 2010.
  34. ^ Steffen Hung. "Train – Hey, Soul Sister". norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
  35. ^ "Romania Airplay Top 100 Charts – The Most played tracks on Romanian radios and TVs". Charly1300. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
  36. ^ Steffen Hung. "Train – Hey, Soul Sister". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
  37. ^ Steffen Hung. "Train – Hey, Soul Sister". hitparade.ch. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
  38. ^ "Hey, Soul Sister – Train". Billboard (magazine). Retrieved 2010-03-30.
  39. ^ "Train Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
  40. ^ "Train Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
  41. ^ "Train Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
  42. ^ "Train Chart History (Pop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
  43. ^ "Train Chart History (Adult Pop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
  44. ^ http://www.billboard.com/charts-year-end/european-hot-100-singles?year=2010#/charts-year-end/european-hot-100-singles?year=2010
  45. ^ "Top 50 Singles Chart – Australian Record Industry Association". Ariacharts.com.au. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
  46. ^ "Gold & Platinum Certification - August 2010". cria.ca. Retrieved 2010-09-24.
  47. ^ Wigandt, Annette (17 August 2010). "Guld og platin i juni/juli". International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
  48. ^ Template:Cite gold platin
  49. ^ http://www.fimi.it/temp/cert_Nielsen_week34.pdf
  50. ^ "Latest Gold / Platinum Singles". RadioScope. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
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