"Let Her Go" is a song recorded by English singer-songwriter Passenger. It was recorded at Sydney's Linear Recording and co-produced by Passenger (as Mike Rosenberg) and Chris Vallejo. The recording features Australian musicians Stu Larsen, Georgia Mooney, Stu Hunter, Cameron Undy, and Glenn Wilson. "Let Her Go" was released on 24 July 2012 as the second single from Passenger's fourth album, All the Little Lights.
The song became a sleeper hit, achieving international success and topping the charts in many countries around the world. As of July 2014, it has sold over one million digital copies in the UK, and over four million in the US.[1][2] In 2014, the song was nominated for the Brit Award for British Single of the Year, and won Passenger the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Most Performed Work.[3][4]
Backgroundedit
The lyrics of the song are poetic and melancholic, describing the regrets associated with ending a relationship. The chorus describes situations in which one does not appreciate what he or she has until it is gone, and relates this to love. The verses give detailed scenes involving a heartbroken man dealing with his breakup.
Commercial performanceedit
"Let Her Go" was released in July 2012 as the second single from Passenger's third album All the Little Lights. The song became a hit first in the Netherlands after Dave, a Dutch fan, e-mailed Passenger expressing his wish to introduce the song to some Dutch radio stations, claiming it could be a hit there.[5] This resulted in the song trending on Dutch stations and finding enormous commercial success with the Dutch public. The song became a hit first in the Netherlands, reaching number two in the Dutch Top 40 in November 2012 and spending a total of four non-consecutive weeks at that position. The next month that year, it topped at number one.[6]
The music video was uploaded on the day after the single, directed and produced by the Australian video artist Dave Jensen and Tavic.[29] It shows the stage being prepared for a Passenger concert, with footage of Passenger performance with his backing band and shots of the audience present reacting.
An unreleased acoustic version of the song was donated to support college radio in the USA on the 2013 College Radio Day Vol. 2 album. The song was limited to being on only the CD version of the album (only 1,500 copies have been pressed).[32]
Italian pianist Costantino Carrara published a piano arrangement of this song on 6 December 2013, that quickly became the most popular Let Her Go piano cover with more than 20 million views.[33]
"Let Her Go" was used in a Budweiser commercial shown during Super Bowl XLVIII entitled "Puppy Love", which showed the friendship between a Labrador Retriever puppy and one of the Budweiser Clydesdales.[37] It was used also in the season 7 finale of the Canadian television show Heartland as the send-off song and in "500 Years of Solitude", the 100th episode of The Vampire Diaries.[citation needed]
Bluegrass band the Travelin' McCourys recorded the song at a Nashville studio, the Butcher Shoppe releasing the version on 13 January 2017.[38]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. † Streaming-only figures based on certification alone.
^ abKreisler, Lauren (5 December 2013). "Passenger's Let Her Go adds to the UK's biggest haul of million-selling singles in 15 years!". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
^ abcGrein, Paul (30 July 2014). "Chart Watch: Jason Aldean Is Back". Yahoo!. Archived from the original on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
^Pakinkis, Mike (22 May 2014). "Ivor Novello Awards 2014: All the winners". Music Week. London: Intent Media. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
^"Brits 2014: Nominations in full". BBC News. Retrieved 9 January 2014
^Passenger live at Pinkpop 2013 - FULL SHOW - Passenger says during the Pinkpop concert in Holland after singing "Let Her Go": "You know, I wrote that song two-and-a-half years ago and put it on an album and we released the album, and for nine months, nothing happened. No one gave a shit. It's funny, we were kind of working on the next record, I'm thinking "okay cool, no problem". And this guy called Dave from Holland gave us an e-mail and he said: Look, I've heard this song "Let Her Go" and I want to take it to radio here because I think here in the Netherlands it could really work and could do something. So we're like "okay mate, cool, do your thing, knock yourself out". Within two weeks, I think it got to number one and that's kind of what started this whole crazy fucking thing. Firstly, I'd like to thank Dave because without Dave I don't think I'd be here at all. And secondly, I want to thank you guys just for supporting me and my music before anybody else did really. So a massive, massive thank you. "Let Her Go" is your song, thank you very very much". [from 27:50 to 28:50 on the tape]
^ ab "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 50, 2012" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
^ ab"Passenger – Let Her Go" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
^ ab"Passenger – Let Her Go" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
^ ab"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – RADIO – TOP 100 and insert 201325 into search. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
^ ab"Passenger – Let Her Go". Tracklisten. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
^ ab"Passenger: Let Her Go" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
^ ab"Airplay Charts Deutschland – Woche 12/2013". German Charts. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
^ ab"Greece Digital Songs - April 27, 2013". Billboard. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
^ ab"Passenger Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
^ ab"Passenger Chart History (Hot Rock & Alternative Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
^- The mournful ballad has become only the seventh song by a British artist to hit one billion Spotify streams. It's also now one of only 42 songs overall that have notched that many streams
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^Costantino Carrara Music (6 December 2013), "Let Her Go" - Passenger (Grand Piano Cover) - Costantino Carrara, retrieved 5 October 2018
^"Country Version of Passenger 'Let Her Go' - Broadway's Electric Barnyard - Country 92-5".
^SoundCloud (30 January 2019). "Stream Let Him Go by JES". Soundcloud.com. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
^Auralcrave (16 December 2022). "Central Cee, Let Go: the song lyrics & their meaning". Auralcrave. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
^Nudd, Tim (29 January 2014). "Budweiser Set to Charm the World With Its 'Puppy Love' Super Bowl Ad". Adweek. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
^Brittney McKenna. "Hear the Travelin' McCourys' Fiery Cover of Passenger's 'Let Her Go'." Rolling Stone. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
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^"Platz 2️⃣6️⃣ der erfolgreichsten Singles und Alben des Jahrzehnts +++ "Let Her Go" sang Passenger im Jahr 2013 - und zwar nicht nur in den Charts, sondern auch im Film "Fack Ju Göhte" +++ Santianos Album "Von Liebe, Tod und Freiheit" war ingesamt starke 129 Mal platziert". GfK Entertainment (in German). offiziellecharts.de. Retrieved 12 December 2019 – via Twitter.
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^"Italian single certifications – Passenger – Let Her Go" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved 30 July 2018. Select "2018" in the "Anno" drop-down menu. Select "Let Her Go" in the "Filtra" field. Select "Singoli" under "Sezione".
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