White Houses (Vanessa Carlton song)

"White Houses"
Song

"White Houses" is a song written by American singer Vanessa Carlton and Stephan Jenkins for Carlton's second album, Harmonium. Produced by Jenkins, it was released as the album's first single in 2004 (see 2004 in music) and peaked outside of the top forty in the U.S. Carlton said of the song: "It's about jealousy, it's about losing your virginity, it's about living on your own. It's a story that most people can relate to ... It's really the journey of one girl and her perception of her environment and how she starts out as a wide-eyed person, but everyone gets hardened by life, but not necessarily to the point where you can't feel anymore".

Lindsey Buckingham of the band Fleetwood Mac played acoustic guitar on the track after Jenkins met Buckingham, who was recording in the same building as Carlton, and invited him to listen to the song.

The single reached number eighty-six on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, though it peaked within the top forty on Billboard's Top 40 Mainstream and Adult Top 40 charts. It also reached the top twenty of the non-Billboard chart ARC Weekly Top 40, and was the chart's seventy-sixth most successful single of the year.

The single's video was directed by Sophie Muller, and features two versions of Carlton: one plays the piano whilst the other dances across the room. The video was pulled from rotation on MTV and VH1 because of the song's lyrics, and the song itself was censored by radio stations. Carlton later described the situation as "just, you know, frustrating sometimes because they can pick and choose, which I don't think is fair if you want to make a statement." She attributed the censoring of the song to the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy involving Janet Jackson which had occurred earlier that year.

The song provided the inspiration for a charity project, Building White Houses. It began on November 9 2004 and ended on December 31 2005, and its aim was to raise money for Habitat for Humanity International.

A critic for Billboard magazine said of the song: "it bears the do-it-my-way signature of a singer/songwriter who relies on piano; a meandering, storytelling lyrical style; and deceptively sweet vocals that underlie an intellectual bent ... The result is a highly original composition that makes you really want to listen and understand — and then sing along." Slant magazine named it the sixth best single of 2004, writing: "[it's] the kind of song that truly cements a career ... poignant, bloody, fleeting, and beautiful, much like adolescence".

Credits

• Lead vocals by Vanessa Carlton
• Backing vocals by Vanessa Carlton and Stephan Jenkins
• Mixed by Mark "Spike" Stent at Olympic Studio, London, UK
• Piano by Vanessa Carlton
• Bass by Arion Salazar
• Acoustic guitar by Lindsey Buckingham
• Electric guitar by Arion Salazar and Jesse Tobias
• Drums by Abe Laboriel Jr.
• Strings arranged and conducted by Ron Fair
• Percussion by Stephan Jenkins

Charts

Chart (2004)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	86
U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream	25
U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40	27
U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40	16

References

• http://www.synthesis.net/music/story.php?type=band&id=2819
• http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1489578/07202004/carlton_vanessa.jhtml
• http://www.vh1.com/artists/interview/1495066/12202004/carlton_vanessa.jhtml
• http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:o9byxdfb3olg~T51