Change the World

"Change the World"
Single by Eric Clapton
from the album Phenomenon soundtrack
Released	July 1996
Genre	soft rock, blues-rock
Length	3:57 (LP Version)
Label	Reprise
Writer(s)	Tommy Sims/Gordon Kennedy/Wayne Kirkpatrick
Producer	Babyface
Eric Clapton singles chronology
"Motherless Children" (1994) "Change the World" (1996) "My Father's Eyes" (1998)

This article is about the Eric Clapton song. For other uses, see Change the World (disambiguation).

"Change the World" is a song written by Tommy Sims, Gordon Kennedy and Wayne Kirkpatrick which was recorded by Eric Clapton with backing by Babyface for the soundtrack of the 1996 film Phenomenon. The song won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year (for the songwriters), as well as Best Male Pop Vocal performance. The song was chosen by the RIAA as one of the Songs of the Century, ranked at #270.

The single peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1996. It also spent 13 weeks at #1 on the adult contemporary chart and remained on that chart for over a year and a half (80 weeks), a feat which was extraordinarily rare at the time. Since then, however, certain songs have remained on the AC chart for extended periods of time, prompting the eventual creation af an Adult Contemporary recurrent chart for songs that have stayed on the chart for many weeks and fallen below a certain threshold.

Although "Change the World" is better known as an unplugged acoustic track, a rare electric performance of the song was featured on Babyface's 1997 live album Babyface MTV Unplugged NYC, with Clapton on co-lead vocals, playing his namesake signature Fender Stratocaster guitar. There was also another electric cover of this track, released the following year, with Nathan East on electric bass.

In the song, the performer expresses his desire to communicate his love to an unnamed woman. This love, he fears, will go unrequited without a drastic change in his life.

Previous to the release of Clapton's hit version, the song was recorded by country superstar Wynonna Judd for her album Revelations, released in February 1996. Wynonna, however, did not release her version as a single despite the popularity of Clapton's.

In their 15th single "Wings of Words", J-pop group CHEMISTRY did their rendition of the song.

Track listing

European CD Single

1. "Change the World" (LP Version) (3:57)
2. "Danny Boy" (Non-LP Track) (4:14)
3. "Change the World" (Instrumental) (3:57)

Charts

Chart (1996)	Peak position
Australia (ARIA)	8
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 75)	10
Belgium (Ultratop 40 Wallonia)	27
Canadian Top Singles (RPM)	1
Canadian Adult Contemporary (RPM)	1
France (SNEP)	7
Germany (Media Control AG)	30
Netherlands (Mega Single Top 100)	24
New Zealand (RIANZ)	3
Norway (VG-lista)	15
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)	22
UK Singles (The Official Charts Company)	18
US Billboard Hot 100	5
US Adult Pop Songs (Billboard)	1
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)	54

End of year chart (1996)	Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	19
End of year chart (1997)	Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	67

Cover versions

In 1997, saxophonist Alto Reed covered the song from his debut album "Cool Breeze."

The group Fourte! from the Philippines also covered this song on their TV guest spots. In 2002, saxophonist Gerald Albright covered the song off the album "Groovology."

In 2004 the song was covered by British musical theatre icon, Elaine Paige as part of the new recordings on her "best of" album, entitled Centre Stage.

Remixed eurodance versions of the song have appeared on the Dancemania series albums, including the 2000 compilation Dancemania SPEED 4 where an uptempo eurodance remix of the song by CJ Crew and Blueman is listed.

References

Preceded by "Because You Loved Me" by Celine Dion

Billboard Adult Contemporary number-one single August 10 - November 2, 1996

Succeeded by "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" by Celine Dion