"Helena" | ||||
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Single by My Chemical Romance | ||||
from the album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge | ||||
Released | March 8, 2005 | |||
Format | ||||
Recorded | 2004 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:22 | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | My Chemical Romance | |||
Producer(s) |
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My Chemical Romance singles chronology | ||||
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Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge track listing | ||||
13 tracks
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Music video | ||||
"Helena" on YouTube "Helena (Outtake Version) on YouTube |
"Helena" (sometimes titled "Helena (So Long & Goodnight)" on digital retailers such as iTunes) is a song by American rock band My Chemical Romance, and is the third single from their second studio album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge . The song is featured on the soundtrack of the 2005 remake House of Wax and played in end credits. [7]
"Helena" was released to radio on March 8, 2005. [8] The single has become a moderately-selling hit, both in the US and internationally. Way stated in an interview with Channel V that the main influence behind "Helena" was from the song "Aces High" by Iron Maiden and tracks by The Ventures. This song is also My Chemical Romance's sixth overall single. Way described it as representing the band's image and sound, and as such it was often used to end the band's shows. The single was certified as a Gold record in United States. Despite charting lower than their prior hit, "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart peaking at number four where "Helena" peaked at number 11, "Helena" was the band's first crossover hit crossing over to Top 40 radio at number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and it also still had more airplay on alternative rock stations.
NME declared that the song was one of the "20 Greatest Goth Tracks" and that it was "a pivotal moment in cross-fertilising goth with emo" and that "MCR spawned a hybrid that ensured black clothes and eyeliner became, once again, teenage rebellion's default setting". [9]
The music video was shot on-location in the Immanuel Presbyterian Church on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, directed by Marc Webb, and choreographed by Michael Rooney. The video has a simple plot, with Gerard Way as a very emotional mourner at a funeral where the band is performing. There are also mourners who dance and mourn the death of Helena. Near the end, the dead body of Helena (played by actress and dancer Tracy Phillips) rises and dances down the nave representing crossing over into the afterlife. After she falls back into the casket, the pallbearers (also played by My Chemical Romance and a fan named Cameron) carry the casket to the hearse (in the pouring rain), surrounded by a phalanx of dancing men and women with umbrellas.
Though the song in general is about the band members Gerard Way and Mikey Way's late grandmother, it was stated in an interview[ which? ] that the video told a different story. The music video shows the funeral of a girl, who, according to Gerard Way, died tragically (possibly in a car crash, with the line in the bridge of the song, "When both our cars collide." Which also has links to the final track on I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love which is follows the story of the Demolition Lovers who are travelling in car “And I would drive on to the end with you” which the story also follows in Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.) The sixth pallbearer and the majority of the mourners are fans who'd received emails from the band asking if they'd like to be in the video.
During the "Making of..." video, found as a bonus on the Life on the Murder Scene CD and DVD, it was noted that Frank Iero, while joking about being "4'9"", didn't actually carry any weight of the casket, and that it rested on the other band members and their sixth pallbearer to carry the weight. Also noted was that the rain used in the sequence between the church and the hearse wasn't planned for, but the director used it to his advantage, as it set the mood of a funeral.
The video was nominated for five Moonmen at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards: Best Rock Video, Best Choreography, Best New Artist, and the MTV2 and Viewer's Choice Awards (both of which are chosen by viewers). They lost to bands such as Green Day, Fall Out Boy, and The Killers. Though the band did not win any awards, they did do a surprise performance of the song towards the end of the show. They also won an MTV Video Music Awards Latin America "tongue" for the Best New Artist – International. They also won a Best Video award in the 2005 Kerrang! Awards. In November 2005, the video was nominated for two MTVU Woodie Awards (voted on by college students) and won the Woodie of the Year. In the Philippines, Helena has reached a cult-like status because of the popularity of alternative music.
The video was also voted number one by viewers of MTV Latinamerica in the 2005 "100 Most Wanted Videos" and was named the seventeenth best music video of the 21st century since 2000 by Billboard on July 24, 2018. [10]
The video was uploaded to YouTube on October 22, 2006 and currently has 114 million views as of July 6, 2020. [11]
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Helena" | 3:22 |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Helena" | 3:22 |
2. | "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" (live) | 3:37 |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Helena" (live video) | |
2. | "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" (video) |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Helena" | 3:22 |
2. | "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" (live from Sessions@AOL) | 3:37 |
3. | "You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us In Prison" (live from Sessions@AOL) | 3:40 |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Helena" (live from the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey) | 4:14 |
Chart (2005) | Peak position |
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Australia (ARIA) [12] | 78 |
Germany (Official German Charts) [13] | 67 |
Ireland (IRMA) [14] | 46 |
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ) [15] | 27 |
UK Singles (Official Charts Company) [16] | 20 |
UK Rock and Metal (Official Charts Company) [17] | 15 |
US Billboard Hot 100 | 33 |
US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks | 11 |
US Billboard Mainstream Top 40 | 32 |
US Billboard Hot Digital Songs | 13 |
US Billboard Pop 100 | 32 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United Kingdom (BPI) [18] | Silver | 200,000 |
United States (RIAA) [19] | Gold | 500,000* |
*sales figures based on certification alone |
Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalogue |
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United Kingdom | 2005 | CD | PRO15371 | |
May 23, 2005 | 7" vinyl |
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CD |
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DVD |
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Australia | August 22, 2005 | CD | 9362428022 |
Emo is a rock music genre characterized by an emphasis on emotional expression, sometimes through confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of post-hardcore from the mid-1980s hardcore punk movement in Washington, D.C., where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore and pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring and Embrace. In the early–mid 1990s, emo was adopted and reinvented by alternative rock, indie rock and pop punk bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, Weezer and Jimmy Eat World, with Weezer breaking into the mainstream during this time. By the mid-1990s, bands such as Braid, the Promise Ring and the Get Up Kids emerged from the burgeoning Midwest emo scene, and several independent record labels began to specialize in the genre. Meanwhile, screamo, a more aggressive style of emo using screamed vocals, also emerged, pioneered by the San Diego bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow. Screamo achieved mainstream success in the 2000s with bands like Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, Story of the Year, Thursday, The Used, and Underoath.
My Chemical Romance is an American rock band from Newark, New Jersey. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way. Founded by Gerard, Mikey, Toro, and Matt Pelissier, the band signed to Eyeball Records and released their debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, in 2002. They signed with Reprise Records the next year and released their major-label debut, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, in 2004. Shortly after the album's release, Pelissier was replaced by Bob Bryar. A commercial success, the album was awarded platinum status over a year later.
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