Collide (Howie Day song)

"Collide" is the second single from singer/songwriter Howie Day's second full-length album, Stop All the World Now, released in July 2004. The song, written by Howie Day and Kevin Griffin, follows in the vein of works from other pop balladeers like Dave Matthews, John Mayer and Duncan Sheik. The London Session Orchestra provided backing instrumentation on the initial album version of the song.

Background and content

Like much of Day's work, the song's lyrics are rooted in a relationship, with notes of the occasional adversity the two people involved may face.

Music video

The music video was filmed in Toronto, Canada.

Airplay and additional versions

The popularity of "Collide" built slowly on U.S. radio, at first gaining the greatest success on Billboard's Adult Top 40 chart. Chart performance benefitted significantly from a reissue of Stop All the World Now in a special edition that included four bonus tracks, one being an acoustic version of the song that reached #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

In popular culture

"Collide" has since been used in promotion of various television series, including What About Brian, Friday Night Lights and General Hospital, as well as the 2005 film adaptation of Pride & Prejudice and the 2005 film The Perfect Man. This song has also been featured during episodes of Ghost Whisperer, Scrubs, ER, Bones, Third Watch, Cold Case, One Tree Hill, Smallville, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Summerland and Joan of Arcadia. On General Hospital this was the song to which popular pairing Patrick and Robin, known as "Scrubs", first made on Memorial Day in 2006. This song was on Season 7 of So You Think You Can Dance featuring Kent Boyd and Lauren Froderman. It was a "Lent" (Lauren Froderman and Kent Boyd) favorite.

Chart performance