How to Save a Life

"How to Save a Life"
Song

"How to Save a Life" is a song by Colorado-based pop rock band The Fray. It is the title track from their debut album, How to Save a Life. It was the follow-up single to the top 10 hit "Over My Head (Cable Car)" and peaked in the top 3 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States. It became the joint sixth longest charting single on the Billboard Hot 100, tying with Santana's "Smooth" (1999), at 58 consecutive weeks. The song has sold over 2,865,171 downloads, and has been certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA. It is the band's highest-charting song to date, topping the Adult Top 40 chart for 15 consecutive weeks and topping the Canadian Airplay Chart. The single is backed with a live version performed in a Q101 studio. It was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 2007. It lost to "Dani California" by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The song is the band's first to achieve significant popularity outside of the United States. "How to Save a Life" was a top five hit in Australia, Ireland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Due to an early leak by BBC Radio 1 in the United Kingdom, where it was the band's debut single, the song was released in that country five weeks earlier than planned. It debuted in the UK Singles Chart at #29 on January 21, 2007 via downloads alone. Instead of its planned release date which was to be March 26, 2007, the single was physically released in the UK on February 19, 2007 and gradually rose up the charts, reaching #5 on February 25 where it stayed for four weeks. It eventually peaked at #4 on April 8 and ended 2007 as the year's 11th biggest-selling single in the country.

Lyrics' meaning

According to lead singer and songwriter Isaac Slade, the song was composed and influenced by his experience while working as a mentor at a camp for troubled teens:

One of the kids I was paired up with was a musician. Here I was, a protected suburbanite, and he was just 17 and had all these problems. And no one could write a manual on how to save him.

Slade claims that the song is about all of the people that tried to reach out to the boy but were unsuccessful. As Slade says in an interview, the boy's friends and family approached him by saying, "Quit [the problem behavior] or I won't talk to you again," but all he needed was some support. The verses of the song describe an attempt by an adult to confront a troubled teen. In the chorus, the singer laments that he himself was unable to save a friend because he did not know how.

While this was the original intent of the song, the band has opened the song to interpretation. They created a website where fans were welcome to submit music videos they had made for the song. This arose from the response that Slade got from the song:

I got a lot of e-mails about it (...) One kid died in a car accident, and I guess it had been the last song he downloaded from his computer. They played it at his funeral, and some of his friends got Save a life tattooed on their arms. The response has been overwhelming.

From an interview with Isaac Slade, lead singer of the Fray, by Bob Wilson in Sauce, Slade was asked, “How to Save a Life, was apparently inspired by an experience you had to as a mentor to a kid who had a drug problem. What’s the story behind that?" Slade answered:

Well there’s a group home here in Denver called Shelterwood, and it takes in kids who’ve had a tough time; their parents don’t want to send them to jail, but they can’t keep track of them themselves… A friend of mine was actually the president for that particular school, so he asked Joe and I to come up for one of their weekend retreats… I was paired up with one kid in particular. His story was just amazing – all the relationships that he had put at risk because of the decisions he made, and eventually losing the relationships…the cost of his lifestyle and his choices, and kind of relating them to my own life and my own stories; seeing all the relationships I’ve threatened for one reason or another. It was a really inspiring weekend.

Popularity in TV series

The song was first featured on ABC's Grey's Anatomy, after Alexandra Patsavas, the music supervisor for the show, saw the band perform in Los Angeles. She was impressed with their performance, particularly with the song "How to Save a Life". Alexandra then incorporated the song into "Superstition", an episode of the show's second season (first aired on March 19, 2006). After its usage in the episode, the song became a minor Hot 100 hit. The song became an "unofficial theme" for the other members of the Grey's Anatomy production after the episode aired, leading to the decision that the song would be used in the main promotion for the third season in the show.

The song was then featured on NBC's comedy medical series Scrubs, towards the end of the popular episode "My Lunch" on April 25, 2006, when three patients die from rabies contracted through organ transplants. Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) feels that it is through his oversight that the deaths occur, and subsequently, he emotionally collapses, and walks out of the hospital mid-shift. The episode became one of the highest rated episodes of the series.

One week after the promotion for Grey's Anatomy's third season began to air, "How to Save a Life" advanced from position #51 to position #29 on the Hot 100. As the promotion played, the song continued to climb on the charts, reaching a peak position of #3 in the Billboard issue marked October 7, 2006. On September 21, 2006, a Grey's Anatomy version of the music video (similar to the one made for Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars") was shown prior to the third season premiere of the show. The song was also released as one of the tracks on the Grey's Anatomy, Vol. 2 soundtrack album, and would later be used in the trailer for the Australian release of the show.

In addition to Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs, the song has been aired in episodes of One Tree Hill, Ghost Whisperer, The Hills, 8th & Ocean, Cold Case and in the UK for the final episode of Big Brother 8, the encore episode of Echo Beach and in BBC 1 trailers of series 22 Casualty. HBO used the song for its "Summer Image" television campaign, and it was also used in the trailer for the film Reign Over Me.

During the season preview for the new Tila Tequila show A Shot at Love, "How to Save a Life" plays as the backdrop music.

During Season 8 of American Idol 2009, "How To Save A Life" was played when finalist Danny Gokey exited the auditioning room and celebrated the passing of his first audition with his family and friends, in reference to Gokey's wife passing away of complications from congenital heart disease.

Other variations

Bryan Preston, a former lead blogger at conservative website HotAir.com, reworked the lyrics to address terrorism carried out by Islamic radicals. Retitled "How to Take a Life", Preston made a video of the song, himself singing the lyrics while noted conservative pundit Michelle Malkin played the piano. The video juxtaposed images and video of radical Islamic leaders speaking and clips from terrorist training videos and camps.

Australian musical comedy trio, The Axis of Awesome, perform a number of short parodies of the song. They are "How to Bake a Scone", "How to Catch a Duck" and "How to Kill a Hooker".

The popular Gaming website Sarcasticgamer.com made a parody song and video making fun of the Playstation 3's slow initial success called "How To Kill A Brand" that was met with much controversy from the Playstation 3 supporters around the world. The song focuses on criticizing online play and the lack of a good game lineup. It was written and sung by the site's founder Doc Adams and the video was created by podcast community member MFreakinJ. Adams once said he had writer's block when writing the song.

Music videos

The original music video, which premiered on VH1 on September 12, 2006, featured the recurring themes of light and stopped time. This music video shows the scene of a car crash and all of its presumed victims in pause. There is a recurring light throughout the video shining brightly in the dark woods that the video takes place in. Scenes of the band playing in a dark warehouse are intercut with the story going on outside. This version of the video was placed at #21 of the year by VH1's "Top 40 Videos of 2006".

Another version of the music video juxtaposes scenes from Grey's Anatomy to scenes of the original music video. However, all the scenes of the presumed car crash victims are excluded and only scenes of The Fray playing in a warehouse are shown.

A third music video was released for the song on December 6, 2006. It was directed by Mark Pellington, who is known for his work on the "Jeremy" music video among others. The video features various different kids, most of which seem to be between 12-18 in age, all who appear to be depressed and suicidal, or possibly mourning the loss of a loved one. All of these children have lost a significant loved one prior to the video. Many of the kids cry and scream in the video, all against a white background. Scenes of the band playing the song against this same white background are also shown throughout the video. Many numbered steps are shown alongside the kids, such as "Remember", "Cry", or "Let It Go". The video ends with each child finding a catharsis and making peace with themselves or others. This version of the video debuted on MTV's Total Request Live at #9, and has since gone on to top the countdown at #1 on December 21, 2006, becoming the band's first TRL #1, and also becoming the last #1 video on TRL for 2006.

Track listings

UK CDS 1

1. "How To Save A Life"
2. "She Is" - Acoustic from Stripped Raw + Real

UK CDS 2

1. "How To Save A Life"
2. "How To Save A Life" - Acoustic from Stripped Raw + Real
3. "She Is" - Acoustic from Stripped Raw + Real
4. "How To Save A Life" - CD-Rom Video

International Suicide Prevention a 501(c)(3) public charity adopted the song "How to Save A Life", as its official theme song in 2008. http://www.supportisp.org

Charts

Chart (2007)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	2
Belgian Singles Chart	7
Dutch Singles Chart	20
European Singles Chart	14
French Singles Chart	35
German Singles Chart	45
Irish Singles Chart	1
Italian Download Chart	5
New Zealand Singles Chart	7
Norwegian Singles Chart	10

Chart (2007)	Peak position
Spanish Singles Chart	1
Swedish Singles Chart	5
Swiss Singles Chart	30
UK Singles Chart	4
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	3
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary	1
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks	1
U.S. Billboard Hot Christian Songs	4
U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks	31
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	4

External links

• Thefray.net — the band's official website.
• Howtosavealife.com — official website dedicated to the song.
• Savealifecampaign.com — The Save A Life Campaign.