Savin' Me

"Savin' Me"
Song

"Savin' Me" is a rock song written by Canadian band Nickelback. It was released as the third major single from their fifth album All the Right Reasons (2005). This is one of the band's songs which they are not playing their instruments. The song has reached number one on the Canadian charts and number nineteen on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Music video

In the music video, directed by Nigel Dick, a man is saved by a random stranger when he blindly steps onto the street and almost gets struck by a bus. He begins to see timers above the heads of other people, but he appears not to have one of his own. He attempts to figure out what the timers represent, yet he is unable to until he sees an paramedics carrying away an old woman, and seeing her die when her timer reached 0:00:00. When he notices a pregnant woman with a timer filling up above her abdomen, he understands: the numbers within the timers are an indicator of how long a person has to live.

At the end of the video, he manages to save a woman's life from getting crushed by a falling stone-statue as she approaches her car (her timer suddenly began to deplete extremely fast the closer she got to her car, until only 2 seconds remain, whereupon he pulls her out of the way); it is then that the woman begins to see timers over people's heads. Although not explicitly presented, the implication appears to be that once the person has saved another, they are "released" from their burden and can no longer see the timers (and so the stranger who saved the protagonist may have been seeing the timers until he did so). It becomes the newest person's job to save another.

Part of this video was shot outside Oceanic Plaza, which is on Hastings Street, Vancouver. The video also features brief shots of the band performing the song casually in an apartment that appears to be above the street where the main part of the video is taking place.

Track listings and formats

UK 3-track single (June 13, 2006)

1. "Savin' Me" [pop mix] – 3:39
2. "Animals" [live] – 3:52
3. "Follow You Home" [live] – 7:08

EU CD single (April 27, 2006)

1. "Savin' Me" [pop mix] – 3:39
2. "Animals" [live] – 3:52
3. "Follow You Home" [live] – 7:08
4. "Savin' Me" [Video] – 4:49

Charts

Chart (2006)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	19
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	14
U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks	29
U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks	11
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks	29
Australian Singles Chart	18
Austrian Singles Chart	43
Canadian BDS Airplay Chart	1
Dutch Top 40	25
German Singles Chart	72
Irish Singles Chart	47
New Zealand Singles Chart	9
Swiss Singles Chart	82
United World Chart	20

Trivia

• The display technology used for the timers appears to be made up of nixie tubes

• It is interesting to note that almost everyone at the end of the video, protagonist included, has their death time at 21.245.541.00. It is not yet certain if this was symbolic or if the repeated number was simply a time saver for the video editors.

(Note: assuming that the timer figure is 21,245,541 minutes, that means they each have approx. 40.21 years of life left. 21,245,541 minutes /60 = 354092.35 hours /24 = 14753.85 days /365 = 40.21 years. (all figures to 2.d.p))

• This song was used in the "sneak peek" promo for the third season of the SciFi Channel's critically acclaimed original series Battlestar Galactica. The promo debuted during the premiere of the sci-fi original series Eureka.

• The song was also used in the preview promo for the second season of Fox Network's series Prison Break.

• The song was used as the advertising and theme song for Surgery Saved My Life on the Discovery Channel

• It was covered by Elliott Yamin and Chris Daughtry in a duet during the American Idols: Live! Tour 2006.

• Some may say that the idea of the clip came from the Japanese manga Death Note.

• This song features Ryan Peake singing parts of the chorus.

• The song was used in the conclusion and end credits of the movie The Condemned.

• The song was also used as the theme song of Game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals, between the Edmonton Oilers and Carolina Hurricanes.

• The song was used in episode 11, series three of Waterloo Road

• While the video is shot in Vancouver, the bus in the beginning of the video is a New Jersey Transit bus.

• This song was used by the New Life Bible Fellowship youth group in their drama for youth sunday