Chasing Pavements

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"Chasing Pavements"
Single by Adele
from the album 19
B-side "That's It, I Quit, I'm Movin' On" (live)
Released 11 January 2008
Format CD, digital
Recorded Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas in 2007
Genre Soul, blues, pop
Length 3:30
Label XL Recordings
Writer(s) Adele, Eg White
Producer Eg White
Certification Platinum (RIAA)
Adele singles chronology
"Hometown Glory"
(2007)		 "Chasing Pavements"
(2008)		 "Cold Shoulder"
(2008)

"Chasing Pavements" is the second single from soul singer Adele. Adele performed the song on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on 7 December 2007.[1] It was released digitally in Ireland on 13 January 2008 and entered the Irish singles chart at number 26 through download sales alone. Having received a physical release, the single then leaped 19 places to number seven, where it peaked. On 20 January, the single entered at number two in the UK singles chart on downloads alone. "Chasing Pavements" was the 27th best selling single of 2008 in the UK, with over 280,000 sales. The song was performed by Melissa Benoist on the episode The New Rachel of Glee.

It was featured in three episodes of Hollyoaks. The first was in a concluding scene of Hannah Ashworth's anorexia. The second was in a beginning scene of Charlie Dean's custody battle. The third was in a scene showing Dominic Reilly reflecting on Tina McQueen talking to him, which was aired on 15 October. The song was also featured in Wild Child, starring Emma Roberts and the late Natasha Richardson and TV shows such as 90210 and Glee. Adele performed "Chasing Pavements" along with "Cold Shoulder" on Saturday Night Live on 18 October 2008. The B-side to the single, "That's It, I Quit, I'm Movin' On", is an acoustic cover of a Sam Cooke song. It's Adele's first top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and has sold over 1,200,000 digital copies as of October 2011.[2]

"Chasing Pavements" won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Grammy Award for Song of the Year.

Contents

Lyrical meaning [edit]

The song was inspired by an incident Adele had with a former boyfriend of six months.[3] At 6am, after learning he had cheated on her, she went to the bar he was at and punched him in the face.[3] After being thrown out, Adele walked down the street alone and thought to herself, "What is it you're chasing? You're chasing an empty pavement."[4][5] She sang and recorded it on her mobile phone and arranged the chords when she got home.[3]

Music video [edit]

The song's music video, which earned a 2008 MTV Video Music Award nomination for Best Choreography, centres around a car crash (a white Peugeot 505 sedan) occurring in Hyde Park, London. It was directed by Mathew Cullen of production company Motion Theory.[6] While set in London, the video was shot in Los Angeles.[7]

It features two views: one of the real-world in which the occupants of the car are lying motionless on the pavement following the accident, and the other (during the choruses) in which the camera shows them from above. Adele is seen in the first view, inside a car with a man. She sings before getting out of the car and walking past a group of people who are running towards the crash victims. Then, she stands beside a tree continuing to sing until it ends and the victims being shown on stretchers, being wheeled away in different directions by ambulance crews tending to them. Adele is not one of the car crash victims.

In the second view, the couple 'comes to life' and move as if standing up. The couple appear to reenact their relationship, starting from their first meeting when the woman dropped her scarf and the man handed it back to her. For a while they appear happy together, but it is short-lived; the man discovers that the woman had another lover. She writes something on a piece of paper and when the man reads it, he is angered, but he forgives her and they begin rekindling the passion they had before the crash. When Adele sings the chorus for the final time, the couple dance on the pavement surrounded by the onlookers, who are now also dancing. The man and the woman dance gracefully and intimately, but in spite of all the joy, they are still just two bodies lying motionless on the pavement, and are then wheeled away by ambulance crews in different directions.

On 20 December 2008, the video was ranked #26 on VH1's Top 40 of 2008.

Controversy [edit]

According to the Daily Mail the single has been banned by several U.S. radio stations because of the perceived meaning of the words "chasing pavements" referring to the singer chasing gay men. The source of the perceived meaning is said to come from an entry submitted to Urban Dictionary, although there is no evidence that the title was actually intended to have this meaning.[8]

Awards [edit]

"Chasing Pavements" was nominated for three Grammy Awards at the 2009 Grammy Awards. The track received nominations in the categories of Record of The Year, Song of the Year and for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.[9] It won the award for the Best Female Vocal Performance but lost out to Coldplay's "Viva la Vida" in the Song of the Year category and to Robert Plant's and Alison Krauss' collaboration, "Please Read the Letter", in the Record of the Year category. She performed "Chasing Pavements" with Sugarland.

Track listing [edit]

UK – CD and 7-inch vinyl
  1. "Chasing Pavements" (Adele, Eg White) – 3:31
  2. "That's It, I Quit, I'm Movin' On" (live) (Sam Cooke) – 2:12

Release history [edit]

Region Date
Europe 11 January 2008
United Kingdom 14 January 2008

Charts [edit]

Weekly charts [edit]

Chart (2008-2009) Peak
position
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[10] 56
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[11] 10
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[12] 21
Canada (Canadian Hot 100)[13] 21
Czech Republic (IFPI)[14] 27
Denmark (Tracklisten)[15] 8
European Hot 100 Singles[16] 8
Germany (Media Control AG)[17] 46
Ireland (IRMA)[18] 7
Israel (Media Forest)[19] 4
Italy (FIMI)[20] 7
Japan (Billboard Hot 100)[21] 43
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[22] 9
Norway (VG-lista)[23] 1
Slovakia (IFPI)[24] 51
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[25] 37
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[26] 2
US Billboard Hot 100[27] 21
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[28] 23
US Adult Pop Songs (Billboard)[29] 16

Year-end charts [edit]

Chart (2008) Position
Dutch Singles Chart[30] 36
UK Singles Chart[31] 27

Certifications [edit]

Region Certification
Canada (Music Canada)[32] Gold
Denmark (IFPI Denmark)[33] Gold
Norway (IFPI Norway)[34] Gold
United Kingdom (BPI)[35] Gold
United States (RIAA)[36] Platinum
Preceded by
"Supernatural Superserious" by R.E.M.		 Norwegian VG-lista number-one single
12 March 2008 – 26 March 2008		 Succeeded by
"4 Minutes" by Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake and Timbaland

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Jonathan Ross welcomes Lucas, Walliams, Seinfeld and Zellweger". 7 December 2007. Retrieved 2008-01-27. 
  2. ^ "Adele's 'Someone Like You' Atop Hot 100, Passes 2 Million Downloads". Billboard Magazine. 2011-010-11. Retrieved 2011-10-14. 
  3. ^ a b c Frehsée, Nicole (22 January 2009), "Meet Adele, the U.K.'s Newest Soul Star". Rolling Stone. (1070):26
  4. ^ "Interview: Adele – Singer and Songwriter BlogCriticsMagazine 16 July 2008". Blogcritics.org. Retrieved 2011-09-06. 
  5. ^ Dawson, Kim (24 March 2008). "ADELE'S BI GUY". Daily Star. 
  6. ^ "Coldplay and Adele snag VMA nods Virgin Media 28 August 2008". Musicnews.virginmedia.com. Retrieved 2011-09-06. 
  7. ^ Wells, Meg (2008-06-03). "Anatomy of a Music Video: Chasing Pavements". Flux. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  8. ^ "'Americans think that I'm chasing gay men,' says Adele as she reveals hit song radio ban", The Daily Mail, 10 September 2008: 1, retrieved 2010-02-28 
  9. ^ The 51st Annual Grammy Awards Nominations List 3 December 2008[dead link]
  10. ^ "Adele – Chasing Pavements – Austriancharts.at" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Hung Medien.
  11. ^ "Ultratop.be – Adele – Chasing Pavements" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Ultratop & Hung Medien / hitparade.ch.
  12. ^ "Ultratop.be – Adele – Chasing Pavements" (in French). Ultratop 50. Ultratop & Hung Medien / hitparade.ch.
  13. ^ "Adele Album & Song Chart History" Canadian Hot 100 for Adele. Prometheus Global Media.
  14. ^ "ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: insert 200818 into search. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  15. ^ "Danishcharts.com – Adele – Chasing Pavements". Tracklisten. Hung Medien.
  16. ^ "Chart Search Results - European Hot 100 Singles 2008-02-02". Billboard.biz. Archived from the original on 7 August 2012. Retrieved 7 August 2012. 
  17. ^ "Die ganze Musik im Internet: Charts, News, Neuerscheinungen, Tickets, Genres, Genresuche, Genrelexikon, Künstler-Suche, Musik-Suche, Track-Suche, Ticket-Suche – musicline.de" (in German). Media Control Charts. PhonoNet GmbH.
  18. ^ Steffen Hung. "Discography Adele". irishcharts.com. Retrieved 2011-02-20. 
  19. ^ "Media Forest: Airplay chart". mako.com/mediaforest.biz. 
  20. ^ Steffen Hung. "Adele – Chasing Pavements". italiancharts.com. Retrieved 2011-02-20. 
  21. ^ "Chart Search Results - Japan Hot 100 Singles 2009-02-20". Billboard.biz. Archived from the original on 7 August 2012. 
  22. ^ "Adele – Chasing Pavements – Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 2011-02-20. 
  23. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Adele – Chasing Pavements". VG-lista. Hung Medien.
  24. ^ "SNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Radio Top100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: insert {{{year}}}{{{week}}} into search.
  25. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Adele – Chasing Pavements". Singles Top 60. Hung Medien.
  26. ^ "ADELE – The Official Charts Company". Theofficialcharts.com. Retrieved 2011-02-20. 
  27. ^ "Adele Album & Song Chart History" Billboard Hot 100 for Adele. Prometheus Global Media.
  28. ^ http://www.billboard.com/artist/278035/adele/chart
  29. ^ "Adele Album & Song Chart History" Billboard Adult Pop Songs for Adele. Prometheus Global Media.
  30. ^ "http://dutchcharts.nl/jaaroverzichten.asp?year=2008&cat=s". dutchcharts.nl (in Dutch). 
  31. ^ "http://www.ukchartsplus.co.uk/ChartsPlusYE2008.pdf". UKChartsPlus. 
  32. ^ "Canadian single certifications – Adele – Chasing Pavements". Music Canada. Retrieved 12 January 2013. 
  33. ^ "Danish single certifications – Adele – Chasing Pavements". IFPI Denmark. Retrieved 12 January 2013. 
  34. ^ "Norwegian single certifications – Adele – Chasing Pavements" (in Norwegian). IFPI Norway. Retrieved 12 January 2013. 
  35. ^ "British single certifications – Adele – Chasing Pavements". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 12 January 2013.  Enter Chasing Pavements in the field Search. Select Title in the field Search by. Select single in the field By Format. Click Go
  36. ^ "American single certifications – Adele – Chasing Pavements". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 12 January 2013.  If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Single, then click SEARCH
Adele
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