Best of You (Foo Fighters song)

Infobox Single
Name = Best of You


Artist = Foo Fighters
from Album = In Your Honor
Released = May 30 2005
Format = CD
Recorded = January-March 2005
Genre = Alternative rock
Length = 4:16
Label = RCA
Producer = Nick Raskulinecz, Foo Fighters
Reviews =
Last single = "Have It All"
(2004)
This single = "Best of You"
(2005)
Next single = "DOA"
(2005)
Misc = Extra album cover
Upper caption = Alternative cover
Background = khaki


Lower caption = (CD2)

"Best of You" is a song by American hard rock band Foo Fighters, and the first single released from the band's fifth studio album, "In Your Honor". Dave Grohl notes that the song was written following appearances at John Kerry's campaign trail and is "about breaking away from the things that confine you." [Kerrang! Legends: Foo Fighters pg. 114] To date, it is the band's only single to reach Platinum status in America. The song holds the band's highest chart peaks in America (#18), the UK (#4), and Australia (#5), and was nominated for Best Rock Song at the Grammys.

Following the band's performance at Live Earth, the song again entered the UK charts at #38. It had previously peaked at #4, giving them their highest performing song there as well.

Background

In an interview discussing the band's successful singles, Dave Grohl notes that: "Best of You" is funny because we demoed so many songs for "In Your Honor", I'd kind of forgotten about it. Our manager came in and said, "What happened to that "Best of You" song?" So we pulled it out and worked on it a little more."

Music video

The music video was directed by Mark Pellington, best known for his work on the video for "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam. He was inspired by the death of his wife a few months prior to the shoot, and was drawn to the song's notion of dealing with pain in life.James Montgomery (2005). [http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1501711/20050512/foo_fighters.jhtml "Foo Fighters Get Serious With Director Of Pearl Jam's 'Jeremy'"] "MTV News" (May 12, 2005)]

The video features the band playing on top of an abandoned hospital. Along with the band's scenes are clips that show pain, depression, or anger:

*Clips with children playing alone or with each other, one scene shows one girl hugging another.
*A car crash
*A lion pouncing on its prey, which is a vulture
*A snake attacks a rodent
*A zebra kicks another zebra behind itself
*A snarling wolf
*Crash test dummies being crushed by a car crash test
*Men and women showing affection for each other. There have been many remakes of the video on MySpace, with some featuring live performances, CGI/animation, and parodies of the original video's plot line.

Track listing

CD1

# "Best of You"
# "Fat Fucking Lie" (FFL)
# "Kiss the Bottle" [Jawbreaker cover]

CD2

# "Best of You"
# "I'm in Love with a German Film Star" [passions]

7" Vinyl

# "Best of You"
# "FFL"

Chart positions

Covers

Prince covered the song during the halftime show at Super Bowl XLI in Miami, Florida, on February 4, 2007. Drummer Taylor Hawkins expressed surprise by the performance, due to Prince's prior criticism of the band's desire to release a cover version of his song, "Darling Nikki", in 2003.Fact|date=June 2007

Stereophonics covered the song for BBC Radio 1 in December 2007 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rijLoy2A9P0]

Appearances

Whenever the New York Islanders get their victory at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the song plays.

At the 2008 UEFA Cup Final, the song was played as the two competitors, Glasgow Rangers and Zenit St Petersburg, entered the field at the City of Manchester Stadium, England and when Anatoliy Tymoschuk lifted the trophy.

The song is mentioned in an episode of the NBC series "30 Rock", and is also mentioned in the MTV show Run's House during the first season finale.

The Pittsburgh Pirates used this song for their TV ads during the 2007 season.

Notes