"If You're Gone" is a song by American rock band Matchbox Twenty. The song, written by the band's frontman Rob Thomas, was released in October 2000 as the second single from their second album Mad Season (2000). It reached number 5 on the US BillboardHot 100 chart, becoming the band's second best-ranking song on the chart,[1] and also became a hit on adult contemporary radio, spending two weeks at number 1 on the BillboardHot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart.[1]
Background and writing
Rob Thomas told Billboard magazine that he wrote the song right after he met his future wife. "We were separated for a few weeks and were on the phone all the time, and I was thinking, 'I met this wonderful person,' and I wondered if everything I was going through [with Matchbox Twenty's success] was going to make it too crazy to build a relationship."[2]
Music video
The music video for the song, directed by Pedro Romhanyi, is filmed completely in black and white and features only the band (along with two trumpet players and a trombone player), performing at night on the rooftop of a building in the central business district of downtown Los Angeles. Halfway through the video, Rob Thomas steps onto the edge of the roof and spreads his arms like he's going to jump. He doesn't; he turns around and goes back to where the band is playing. Near the end of the video, the sun dawns and illuminates the rooftop and surrounding buildings of the city.