Days Go By (Dirty Vegas song)

Coordinates: 34°01′06″N 118°08′43″W / 34.018291°N 118.145361°W / 34.018291; -118.145361

"Days Go By"
Single by Dirty Vegas
from the album Dirty Vegas
Released	30 April 2001
Recorded	2001
Genre	House
Length	7:07 (album version) 3:33 (single edit)
Label	Capitol
Songwriter(s)	Victoria Horn Steve Smith
Dirty Vegas singles chronology
"Days Go By" (2001) "Ghosts" (2002)
"Days Go By" (2001) "Ghosts" (2002)

"Days Go By" is a 2001 song by the British electronic band Dirty Vegas from their eponymous album. The song became a radio hit in 2002, peaking at number 14 in the United States, and received the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. It also peaked at number 16 in Dirty Vegas' home country of the United Kingdom.^[1] "Days Go By" received significant public exposure in a commercial for the 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse. The album artwork is done by American artist Richard Phillips.^[2] Fall Out Boy sampled "Days Go By" in their 2007 hit "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race".^[3]

Music video

The music video for the song is unusual in that it largely consists of two dancers representing one character performing a routine of popping, locking, the robot and breakdancing. The performance occurs in front of Chroni's Famous Sandwich Shop in East Los Angeles, California, and tells the story of a dancer who shows up once a year and dances all day from sunrise to sunset. He dances in hopes of bringing back a lost love, who left him because he couldn't stop dancing. (The video even halts abruptly while some of the bystanders interject what they think happened to the aforementioned love.) The young dancer in the video is Garland Spencer. The older dancer is Byron McIntyre. The clue that both men represent the same character at different ages is provided by the dancer's shoes. The older dancer wears high-top Converse sneakers ("Chuck Taylor All-Stars" or "Chucks") that are faded, scuffed, and one shoe is actually taped to hold it together; whereas the young dancer wears a clean, bright-orange version of the same sneakers. According to the video's story, the man's lost love purchased the original sneakers for him as a gift, and now he wears them as part of his annual dance ritual. The sneakers match the style and attire of the young dancer in his sweatsuit (presumably in the 1980s), but pose a striking contrast for the older dancer who is otherwised attired in a suit, tie, and suspenders.

There are two versions of the music video; one has three of the onlookers observing from the restaurant while the other replaces those shots with shots of the same onlookers in a silver Mitsubishi Eclipse sitting at a stoplight. In addition to the replaced shots, the Eclipse version of the video includes footage of the approach to and departure from the stoplight. The implication in the Eclipse version is that the onlookers within the automobile arrived at the stoplight in the morning and remained in that same spot watching the dance ritual all day, before leaving the stoplight at sunset.

Release and commercial performance

A Mitsubishi executive saw the music video for "Days Go By" in a hotel room, and personally tracked the group down to procure rights to feature the song in an advertisement.^[4] The song was licensed to be used in the Mitsubishi ad, which began airing in early 2002. A New York radio station began playing the song,^[5] which was subsequently released to rhythmic and Top 40 radio stations in Spring of 2002.^[5] American brand awareness for Mitsubishi went from 44% to 60% following the use of the song in the commercial.^[6]

Official versions

• "Days Go By" (album version) – 7:07
• "Days Go By" (single edit) – 3:41
• "Days Go By" (acoustic) – 2:43
• "Days Go By" (acoustic remix version) – 3:33
• "Days Go By" (full vocal mix) – 8:08
• "Days Go By" (instrumental dub) – 6:06

Appearances in popular culture

• The song was used in a promo for the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards. It shows the host, Jimmy Fallon dancing on a street corner while pedestrians look in confusion.
• The song was featured in a commercial for the 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse. In the commercial, a man (Kelvin Parker) is driving the Eclipse while a woman (Dusty Paik) dances to the beat of the song in the passenger seat.
  • The Eclipse commercial was in turn parodied by a skit on Chappelle's Show in which Dave Chappelle is driving a car and the woman is dancing in the passenger seat. Dave says, "What the fuck are you doing?" (due to the weird moves she is making) and then leaves her by the side of the road. He then puts on some hip-hop music and a black woman sits in the passenger seat and starts dancing. Although this is a parody of the Eclipse commercial, the car actually used in the commercial was Dave's own Nissan 350Z.
• The song is featured in the rhythm game DDRMAX Dance Dance Revolution 6thMix.
• This song also appears in the game Dance Central for the Kinect peripheral on the Xbox 360. The routine performed is similar to the one in the music video.
• This song inspired the stage dance sequence in the song "O Pardesi" from the film Dev D.
• This song was also included in Grand Theft Auto V on the radio station Non Stop Pop FM, exclusive to those who bought the game on eighth generation consoles.

Charts

References

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics