After a couple of weeks of playing you songs that might have been unfamiliar I’m heading for a more popular song this week. For today Jim has, in his post Another Candle On Your Cake, set us the challenge of playing a song that became better with age, i.e. a failed or overlooked song that eventually became a fan favourite. My choice took a while to take off – does fifteen months count as ‘eventually?’ – but when it did it really made up for the delay. This is my song choice for this week:

Wikipedia describes the song thus: “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/she has until it is gone, and relates this to love. The verses give detailed scenes involving a heartbroken man dealing with his breakup.” I think that’s a pretty fair summary. Those poetic lyrics run like this:

Well, you only need the light when it’s burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go
Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go
And you let her go

Staring at the bottom of your glass
Hoping one day you’ll make a dream last
But dreams come slow, and they go so fast

You see her when you close your eyes
Maybe one day, you’ll understand why
Everything you touch surely dies

But you only need the light when it’s burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go
Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go

Staring at the ceiling in the dark
Same old empty feeling in your heart
‘Cause love comes slow, and it goes so fast

Well, you see her when you fall asleep
But never to touch and never to keep
‘Cause you loved her too much, and you dived too deep

Well, you only need the light when it’s burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go
Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go

And you let her go
Oh, oh, mm, oh
And you let her go
Oh, oh, uh, uh
Well, you let her go

‘Cause you only need the light when it’s burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go
Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go

‘Cause you only need the light when it’s burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go
Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go
And you let her go

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Michael David Rosenberg

Let Her Go lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Pty. Ltd.

As those credits show, ‘Passenger’ is actually the name by which a nice, unassuming guy called Mike Rosenberg makes his music. The song was originally released on Passenger’s album All The Little Lights in February 2012, and was taken as a single from it in July of that year. It did absolutely nothing in any chart at the time, anywhere in the world. It was first picked up in the Netherlands, after a Dutch fan emailed Mike, who contacted a radio DJ and asked him to play it, and it became a hit single there in November 2012, eventually getting to #1. Gradually, it was picked up in other countries, and became a monster hit, reaching #1 in a further eighteen countries, #2 in the UK and #5 in the US and Canada. It has since sold more than 11m copies worldwide, has over 1bn listens on Spotify, and the YouTube video I just played is approaching 3.3bn views. Not bad for a song which didn’t do anything when it was first released! In the UK, it charted first at the end of April 2013, spent 58 weeks there until June 2014, came back two weeks later for another run of 21 weeks, and has returned on three other occasions, giving it a total of 84 weeks in our top 100. Just to round off the stats, the album reached #3 in the UK and #26 in the US, although it did make #1 on the US Folk Albums chart. It has sold more than 2m copies to date, in additional to all of those streams.

I admit to being one of those who caught up with it later. I bought the album in summer 2013, not long before I retired, and played it most evenings after getting home from work: it was great for helping relaxation after a hard day of schlepping up to London on crowded, unpleasantly overheated tube trains! This is a beautiful song from a lovely album, and I have since added his other releases to my collection: he writes great songs with intelligent lyrics, and what more could you ask for? Apparently this song was used in an ad for Budweiser during the 2103 Superbowl, but as I don’t watch that handegg game I wouldn’t have noticed that – and we would probably have been given different ads anyway. It is currently being played on UK tv as the background music for an ad for the latest model of electric car from Kia: the instrumental intro is 25 seconds long, which makes it perfect timing for a tv ad! I hadn’t played the album for a while, but hearing that again has taken me back to it, and I don’t regret it in the slightest: it may have taken a while to make its mark but once it does it stays with you.