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Hey, Soul Sister

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"Hey, Soul Sister"
Song

"Hey, Soul Sister" is a 2009 song by the American rock band Train, written by Pat Monahan, Amund Bjorklund and Espen Lind. It was released as the lead single from the band's fifth studio album, Save Me San Francisco. The song reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and is their highest charting song to date. It is also the band's most commercially successful single to date, having sold over 3.7 million downloads in the United States[2] and receiving a triple platinum certification by the RIAA on April 19, 2010. It is currently the second most downloaded song in the history of Columbia Records.

Background

"At first, I tried to do it by using a guitar pick, and it didn't sound right. I had to go online and Google a ukulele lesson and noticed they're not using picks at all; it's more of a flamenco style. Once I got that down, then it sounded like the real deal.[3] "

– Lead guitarist Jimmy Stafford, on having to learn to play ukulele as requested by lead singer Pat Monahan in the recording of "Hey, Soul Sister"

After collaborating with the Norwegian production duo Espionage (Espen Lind and Amund Bjorklund) in the writing and recording of the track "Brick by Brick", Train's lead singer Pat Monahan decided to record another track with the duo.[3]

I said, 'I want to write an INXS-y song," Monahan recalled. "So, they started playing kind of an INXS-y song, and I wrote the song 'Hey, Soul Sister' to it and the melodies and started to sing it. And I was like, 'Man, this just doesn't sound great to me.'

One of the guys, Espen, who's like a huge star in Norway, picked up a ukulele, and said, 'Hey, how about this?' I was like, 'Are you (kidding) me?' And it made the difference. It made my words dance. It made sense. These words were meant to dance with ukulele and not guitar.

Composition

"Hey, Soul Sister" is a mid-tempo pop song. Written in the key of E major,[4] the beat is set in common time and moves at 97 bpm. The songs is characterized by a signature pattern played on a ukulele,[3] that follows a basic E5 - B - C#m - A progression in the verse, tag and bridge, switching to an A - B - E5 - B progression in the chorus. The song's chord structure is arranged in an A B A B A B A form. "Hey, Soul Sister" lyrically features a pair of pop-cultural references. The American rock band Mr. Mister is referenced in the song's chorus as their name conveniently rhymes with "sister".[5]

Appearances in other media

Train performed "Hey, Soul Sister" on the CSI: NY episode "Second Chances", which aired on December 16, 2009; lead singer Patrick Monahan guest starred in the episode as a musician who has recovered from drug addiction.[6] The song was also featured throughout an episode of Medium called "Pain Killer", as well as for the promo of season 2 of Nurse Jackie.

The song was parodied by The Fringemunks to recap Fringe episode 2.10, "Grey Matters."[7]

Train performed the song on the show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld on Fox News which aired during the early morning broadcast on April 20, 2010.[8] They have also performed the song on numerous talk shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,[9] Live with Regis and Kelly,[10] The Ellen DeGeneres Show,[11] Lopez Tonight, and The Howard Stern Show.[12] Train also performed live on Dancing with the Stars (May 4, 2010).

"Hey, Soul Sister" appeared in the end titles of the 2010 German motion picture "Vincent will Meer".[13] It was also used in recent ads for Samsung's 3D TVs and refrigerators.

Music Video

A music video for "Hey Soul Sister" was filmed in Echo Park, Los Angeles, California. It features Train singing in front of a coffee shop on Echo Park Avenue, intercut with a woman walking around her apartment and a man painting the words to the song on the landscape.

Tracklist

Australian Single
  1. "Hey, Soul Sister" - 3:36
Other Version
  • Karmatronic Radio Edit - 3:40

Chart performance

"Hey, Soul Sister" debuted at #98 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending October 17, 2009, becoming their first charting single in five years (2004's "When I Look to the Sky" being their previous chart entry.) The song reached #1 on the U.S iTunes music store on March 28, 2010.

On the week of January 30, 2010, in its 16th week on the Hot 100 chart, "Hey, Soul Sister" leaped from #23 to #7 on an 81% digital single sales increase from the previous week, thus becoming Train's second career Top Ten hit on the chart. It reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the week of April 10, 2010, their highest on the chart to date.

The song climbed to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Digital in the week of April 10, 2010, and stayed in the top spot for three weeks.

In addition to revitalizing Train's career in their native country, "Hey, Soul Sister" has also become a big international hit; it was #1 on the official Dutch and Australian singles charts for 5 and 4[14] weeks respectively, and charted at #2 in New Zealand, their highest in the country to date. It has also charted at #3 on the Canadian[15] and Belgian singles charts.[16]

On 24 April 2010 "Hey, Soul Sister" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #64,[17] marking the band's first appearance on the chart since "She's On Fire" reached a peak of #49 in 2001. On 2 May 2010, the single climbed into the UK Top 40 at #36 and has since reached a peak of #18.

Chart succession

Preceded by Dutch Top 40 number-one single
March 6, 2010 - April 24, 2010 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Australian Singles Chart number-one single
March 22, 2010 - April 19, 2010 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
"OMG" by Usher featuring will.i.am
 Irish Singles Chart number-one single
May 13, 2010 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Hungarian Airplay Chart number-one single
31 May 2010 - 		Succeeded by
Incumbent

References

  1. ^ a b RIAA search results
  2. ^ "Train Get Triple Platinum Awards, Duet With Fantasia, Schedule Unplugged"
  3. ^ a b c "Train adds ukulele to make 'Hey, Soul Sister' a chart topper" by Dave Richards, posted November 7, 2009
  4. ^ http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtdVPE.asp?ppn=MN0080532, Hey, Soul Sister sheet music
  5. ^ Hey Soul Sister Songfacts
  6. ^ Lynn (December 3, 2009). "CSI: NY – Episode 6.12: "Second Chances" Spoiler".
  7. ^ Fringemunks Web site
  8. ^ http://video.foxnews.com/v/4158520/hey-soul-sister
  9. ^ http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/train-rolls-into-1-on-itunes-with-hit-song-hey-soul-sister-89517032.html, Train Rolls Into #1 on iTunes with Hit Song 'Hey, Soul Sister'
  10. ^ http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/train-rolls-into-1-on-itunes-with-hit-song-hey-soul-sister-89517032.html, Train Rolls Into #1 on iTunes with Hit Song 'Hey, Soul Sister'
  11. ^ http://ellen.warnerbros.com/2010/02/train-music-page-0205.php, Watch Train perform 'Hey, Soul Sister' on Ellen's Music Page
  12. ^ http://www.howardstern.com/rundown.hs?d=1257915600#14934, Howard Stern Show 11/11/09 Rundown
  13. ^ http://www.trainline.com/us/node/1628, "Hey, Soul Sister" ist Titelsong des Films "Vincent Will Meer"
  14. ^ http://australian-charts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Train&titel=Hey%2C+Soul+Sister&cat=s
  15. ^ Billboard Canadian Hot 100 1-10
  16. ^ "Belgium Singles Top 50 - Music Chart". Acharts.us. acharts.us. April 11, 2010. Retrieved April 5, 2010.
  17. ^ "UK Singles Top 75 - Music Chart". Acharts.us. acharts.us. April 24, 2010. Retrieved April 19, 2010.
  18. ^ a b "Hey, Soul Sister - Train". Billboard (magazine). Retrieved 2010-03-30.
  19. ^ "Top 50 Singles Chart - ARIA". ARIA Charts. Australian Recording Industry Association. March 22, 2010. Retrieved March 21, 2010.
  20. ^ "Austria Singles Top 75 - Music Chart". Acharts.us. acharts.us. April 11, 2010. Retrieved April 5, 2010.
  21. ^ http://www.ultratop.be/en/showitem.asp?interpret=Train&titel=Hey%2C+Soul+Sister&cat=s
  22. ^ http://www.ultratop.be/en/showitem.asp?interpret=Train&titel=Hey%2C+Soul+Sister&cat=s
  23. ^ Billboard Canadian Hot 100 1-10
  24. ^ http://danishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Train&titel=Hey%2C+Soul+Sister&cat=s
  25. ^ "Top 40". Top40.nl. 1950-12-28. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
  26. ^ "Download Single Top 50 - 15/05/2010" (in French). Lescharts.com. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  27. ^ [1]
  28. ^ [2]
  29. ^ "Irish Recorded Music Association - Top 50 Singles". IRMA. Irish Recorded Music Association. April 1, 2010. Retrieved April 5, 2010.
  30. ^ http://italiancharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Train&titel=Hey%2C+Soul+Sister&cat=s
  31. ^ "Chart #1712 - Monday 15 March 2010 (top 40 singles)". RIANZ: The Official NZ Music Chart. Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. March 15, 2010. Retrieved March 21, 2010.
  32. ^ http://norwegiancharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Train&titel=Hey%2C+Soul+Sister&cat=s
  33. ^ http://swedishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Train&titel=Hey%2C+Soul+Sister&cat=s
  34. ^ http://hitparade.ch/showitem.asp?interpret=Train&titel=Hey%2C+Soul+Sister&cat=s
  35. ^ http://www.ariacharts.com.au/pages/charts_display.asp?chart=1U50
  36. ^ "Latest Gold / Platinum Singles". RadioScope. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
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