| "If You're Gone" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Matchbox Twenty | ||||
| from the album Mad Season | ||||
| Released | October 3, 2000 | |||
| Format | CD single / Audio cassette | |||
| Recorded | 1999 | |||
| Genre | Pop rock | |||
| Length | 4:34 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Writer(s) | Rob Thomas | |||
| Producer | Matt Serletic | |||
| Matchbox Twenty singles chronology | ||||
|
||||
"If You're Gone" is the title of a song by the rock band Matchbox Twenty. It was the second single off Mad Season. The song, written by Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas, became a hit on adult contemporary radio, spending two weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart.[1] It also reached #5 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, the band's second best-ranking song, preceded by the single "Bent" from the same album.[1] Rob Thomas never dreamed of the song going out on an album, let alone being a huge success. The horn-driven outro of "If You're Gone" borrows heavily (note for note) from "When the Rainbow Comes" by World Party from their 1990 release Goodbye Jumbo.
Contents |
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]
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.
| Charts | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 18 |
| Canadian Top Singles Chart | 27 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 5 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40 | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream | 4 |
| UK Singles Chart | 50 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart | 12 |
| Preceded by "Only Time" by Enya |
Billboard Adult Contemporary number-one single October 6, 2001 (first run) November 3, 2001 (second run) |
Succeeded by "Only Time" by Enya |
|
|||||||||||||||||