By the Way (Red Hot Chili Peppers song)

For the Theory of a Deadman song, see By the Way (Theory of a Deadman song).

"By the Way"
Song
B-side	"Time" "Teenager in Love"

"By the Way" is a song by American funk rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. It is the title track and the first single released from the band's eighth studio album of the same name. The song was the band's sixth #1 hit and third straght #1 hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, staying at the summit for 14 weeks, tying it with "Dani California" as the band's second longest stay at the top, behind only "Scar Tissue", which was at the top for 16 weeks. It also spent 7 weeks at #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, their fourth song to top this chart.

Regarding its release, guitarist John Frusciante noted: "It wasn't really our decision to put that song out first, but our managers thought it was an exciting song and their enthusiasm convinced us. I guess they thought that it combined the wild part of our sound with the melodic part of our sound." Vocalist Anthony Kiedis elaborated: "I thought that single was an über-bombastic assault of non-commercialism. For it to be so well received [in the United Kingdom] was shocking to me, but thrilling at the same time."

Music video

The frenetic video was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, a couple who has collaborated with the band to create music videos on numerous other occasions. It is not a visual verbatim demonstration of the lyrical denotations, but rather a story all its own.

The video starts off with Anthony calling for a taxi. He gets in the taxi and a cabbie (played by Dave Sheridan) realizes he has Anthony as his passenger and puts a copy of the "By the Way" single into the CD player to please him, making Anthony smile mildly. Suddenly, the cabbie begins driving out of control as he lip-synchs the song loud and clear, accelerating the taxi faster and faster driving rambunctiously throughout the streets of L.A. After he locks the car door, making Anthony uncomfortable and apprehensive, Anthony attempts to make a call on his cell phone, but the cabbie brakes so hard Anthony loses grip of his cell phone and the cabbie snatches it and throws it out the window. The cabbie drives Anthony even more crazy as he drives the car in a cloud of dust and backs up under a bridge. While under the bridge, the cabbie pulls out flare sticks and begins to torture him through awkward dancing while Anthony finally pages Flea and John, who are having lunch in a cafe, which says "Help! Been kidnapped." At first John and Flea thinks it a hoax so they ignore the first message, then when Anthony pages them for the second time, Flea and John set out on Flea's Ford Bronco to find Anthony once again with the crazy cabbie in the taxi and begin a wild chase and even having some road rage. Anthony soon sees them, and breaks out of the taxi window and jumps in Flea's truck with a sigh of relief as the Chilis drive on another road to escape the cabbie. At the end of the video, we see Chad flag down the taxi, the cabbie realizes that he is also a member of the Chilis, so he lets Chad in and drives off [the window that was broken was not shown intact] with him.

• Rumours exist that the bridge that Anthony gets driven under is the one he sang about in the song, "Under the Bridge" where he struggled with drugs and almost ended his life.
• The book that Anthony holds in his hand at the beginning is Lexicon Devil: The Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and the Germs. The book based on L.A. punk band, The Germs and their late singer, Darby Crash who were both a influence on Anthony and was written by Brendan Mullen.

It’s kidnapping… A cab driver kidnaps me and just goes haywire through the town; he’s a fan, but he’s kind of a (pause) obsessive, compulsive, psychologically misarranged fan, and he sees me and starts enjoying himself a little too much and my friends have to come and rescue me.

Anthony Kiedis – The Making of: By the Way; Greatest Hits.

The fast and often jerky camera angles used in the high speed chase sequences are based on the 2000 Mexican film Amores Perros in which all the characters are linked by a car crash at the beginning of the film; before the crash is an almost identical high speed car chase sequence.

Lyrical depiction

Contrary to the music video, the song's lyrics tell an ambiguous story of a girl named Dani. The story had been gradually developing throughout a 7 year time period, starting with "Californication", in which the lyrics refer to an unnamed "Teenage bride with a baby inside". This story was continued in "By the Way", and concluded in "Dani California".

The song is about a 18 year old guy, who gets killed by a car whilst waiting for tickets for a RHCP concert, he was sleeping in a parking lot when someone ran over him. "Standing in line, to see the show tonight and there's a light on"(describes the car coming). "Heavy glow"(the car running over him) "By the way I tried to say I'll be there" (he dies). It's their tribute for the kid "Dani the girl , singing songs to me."

"Waiting 4" Peter Gelderblom remix

An electro house remix of "By the Way" by Rene Amesz and Peter Gelderblom was released on 5 July 2007, and became a popular track in clubs worldwide. The remix is also known as "Waiting 4", which is a prominently featured lyric. It reached #29 for one week in late November/early December 2007 in the United Kingdom. It is included on the UK edition of Now 68 and Wild Weekends 04 (2007).

Track listing

CD single / Australia CD1

1. "By the Way" (album) – 3:35
2. "Time" (unreleased) – 3:47
3. "Teenager in Love" (unreleased) – 3:01

CD version 2 / Australia CD2

1. "By the Way" (album) – 3:35
2. "Search and Destroy" (live) – 12:13
3. "What Is Soul?" (live) – 3:58

CD version 3

1. "By the Way" (album)
2. "Time" (unreleased)
3. "Search and Destroy" (live)

CD version 4 / UK CD single

1. "By the Way" (album) – 3:35
2. "Time" (unreleased) – 3:47
3. "Teenager in Love" (unreleased) – 3:01
4. "Search and Destroy" (live) – 12:13

7" single / Canada CD single

1. "By the Way" (album)
2. "Time" (unreleased)

DVD single

1. "By the Way" (video) – 3:36; directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
2. "Obsessive, Compulsive, Psychologically, Misarranged Cabdriver/Fan (aka the making of "By the Way")" – 13:45; directed by Byron Shaw and Bart Lipton for Brown & Serve
3. "By the Way" (performance version) – 3:36