Paralyzer (song)

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“Paralyzer”
Single by Finger Eleven from the album Them vs. You vs. Me
Released	March 6, 2007
Format	Digital download CD Single
Recorded	2007
Genre	Dance-punk
Length	3:24
Label	Wind-up Records
Producer	Johnny K.
Certification	Platinum (RIAA)
Finger Eleven singles chronology
"Thousand Mile Wish" (2004) "Paralyzer" (2007) "Falling On" (2007)

"Paralyzer" is the third single from alternative rock band Finger Eleven's fifth album, Them vs. You vs. Me. It was released in March 2007. Finger Eleven's frontman Scott Anderson has said that the single has a feel distinct from the rest of Finger Eleven's music, possessing more of a "dance rock" feel. The riff is quite similar to Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out," Mötley Crüe's "Too Young to Fall in Love", Skid Row's "Youth Gone Wild", Amanda Lepore's "Champagne," Led Zeppelin's "Trampled Underfoot," The Cars "Moving In Stereo", and Iron Maiden's intro riff in "Stranger in a Strange Land".

The song received high airplay in both the United States and Canada, and was performed live on the March 14, 2007 episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and again ten months later on January 9, 2008, in a testament to the longevity of the single's success. The song has surpassed "One Thing" to be Finger Eleven's most successful single.

The single has two versions, one is the original CD version, while one is the radio edit version, which either has the term "shitty" censored in the song for usage on regulated airwaves. Or "It's been shitty" is replaced with "It's not been fun". The song also references "One Thing" with the line "I should just stay home, if one thing really means one". There are three musically different versions of the song. One is the album version, and the two others are both different radio versions. This song is played during the New York Islanders warm-ups at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Music video

The video was released on YouTube. It starts with a man, walking, who begins to intersperse his steps with dance moves. He looks into windows and in the reflection, he sees himself with dancers around him, but when he turns he sees a woman. The two begin to dance with the symbolic dancers returning in greater numbers every time the chorus repeats. The video alternates between shots of the band playing on a rooftop that overlooks the dancers in a seemingly abandoned street.

The video reached #1 on VH1's weekly VSpot Top 20 Countdown. On the channel's year-end "Top 40 Videos of 2007," it placed at number 23, despite only having spent (at the time) one week on its weekly Top 20 Countdown.

[edit] Chart performance

"Paralyzer" debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number 97 in June 2007.^[1] It proceeded to slowly gain in airplay and digital sales over the months. For the chart week of November 24, 2007 (over eight months after the song was released), it became the band's first-career Top Ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100, rising from #14 to #10 for that catalog week. The song then proceeded to reach a new peak of #6 on the Hot 100 over a month later, for the chart week of January 5, 2008. The song became the band's first #1 on the Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock charts. It also found great success on the Billboard Adult Top 40, eventually climbing into the top five of the chart at #4.

The song topped the Alternative genre on iTunes. iTunes also named "Paralyzer" the #1 rock song and #8 song overall of 2007. The single has been certified as platinum (1,000,000 downloads) by the RIAA.^[2]

On the Canadian Singles Chart, the song became the band's second #1 following 2003's "One Thing." It also did well on the Canadian Hot 100, reaching #3. The song later debuted at #10 on the New Zealand RIANZ chart in February 2008, becoming the band's first charting song there. It climbed to #7 the following week. It is the first single by Finger Eleven to chart on the United World Chart, where it peaked at #11.

[edit] Charts

[edit] References