Pieces of Me (Ashlee Simpson song)

Last updated

"I was in L.A. and my sister heard me on the radio and was freaking out and called me so I turned on the radio in my apartment with my two best friends and started jumping around and freaking out." [24]

In Australia, "Pieces of Me" made its debut on the ARIA singles chart at number 14, [25] and peaked for two weeks at number 7 in September; [25] it fell out of the top 40 in late November 2004. "Pieces of Me" was also accredited as a gold single in Australia. [26] In New Zealand, the song debuted on the RIANZ top 40 singles chart at number 33 in September 2004, peaked at 32 the next week, and fell out of the top 40 after its third week. [27]

In Germany, "Pieces of Me" reached number 26 on the singles chart, [28] and in Austria it debuted at number 43 and peaked at 15 in its sixth week. [29] In Switzerland, it debuted at number 17 and peaked at 11 in its third week, in October 2004. [30] In Italy, "Pieces of Me" peaked at 24 in October 2004, in its fourth week on the top 50 singles chart after debuting at 47; [31] after seven weeks, it fell out of the top 50. In Denmark, the song debuted at 5 and peaked at 4, [32] after which it fell off the chart; in Sweden, it reached a peak of number 31 on the singles chart, [33] while in Norway it stayed on the top 20 singles chart for 12 weeks, peaking at 3 in its fifth week. [34]

In Japan, "Pieces of Me" was a popular hit on radios reaching the top spot in domestic and international top in Japan Radio. It also reached the top 5 in countries such as Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan. [35]

Release and promotion

"Pieces of Me" was released as the lead single from Autobiography on June 29, 2004. The music video for the song, directed by Stefan Smith, [36] features Simpson (wearing a white shirt emblazoned with the word "punk" and a pink dress, as well as using Fostex T20RP headphones) and her band in the studio interspersed with clips of reality TV footage from The Ashlee Simpson Show. The video is fairly simplistic, and Simpson refers to the more elaborate video for her second single, "Shadow", as her first "real" video.[ citation needed ]

Simpson appeared on MTV's Total Request Live on May 17, 2004, and the "Pieces of Me" video was premiered on the show on this date. On June 2, she also appeared on the show and performed the song. The video did not debut on the countdown's top 10 until July 19; however, it reached number one for the first time on August 4 and remained on the countdown through September 13. The "Shadow" video premiered on the following day and took the place of "Pieces of Me" on the countdown. [37]

Simpson has frequently performed "Pieces of Me" live, including a number of notable television performances. She sang the song at Summer Music Mania on May 20, and it aired on FOX on June 1. [38] Simpson sang "Pieces of Me" (followed by a brief interview with Jay Leno) on the May 24, 2004, episode of The Tonight Show , and she also sang the song on the Late Show with David Letterman on July 16. She performed "Pieces of Me" (after a brief interview with Charles Gibson) on Good Morning America on July 19, the day before her album was released in the U.S., and on July 27, she sang it (after an interview) on Ryan Seacrest's talk show, On Air With Ryan Seacrest. On August 8 she performed "Pieces of Me" on the 2004 Teen Choice Awards, and the song also received the Song of the Summer award. [39] On August 29, Simpson performed the song during the pre-show for the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards. [40]

The song made its debut somewhat later in the United Kingdom, where the album was also released several months after it was in the U.S. In September 2004, Simpson made several notable television appearances in the UK in which she performed the song, including on Top of the Pops (September 17), [41] Top of the Pops Saturday (September 25), [42] CD:UK and Popworld .

Later in 2004, on the October 23 episode of Saturday Night Live season 30, Simpson performed "Pieces of Me" as her first of two songs that night; when she started to perform her second song (which was supposed to be "Autobiography"), a recording of "Pieces of Me" was mistakenly played instead, indicating that Simpson was using some sort of vocal aid. She began to do an impromptu jig (which she later named as a hoedown) when she realized she had been caught lip-syncing, and then left the stage. (She later explained it as being due to her acid reflux condition.) [43] For her next performance, at the Radio Music Awards on October 25, Simpson poked fun at the SNL incident by having some of "Pieces of Me" play at the beginning of her performance, to suggest that she was caught in the same situation as before, only to then smile and exclaim that she was "just kidding" and begin performing "Autobiography." [44] The incident was also parodied in Good Charlotte's "I Just Wanna Live" music video and later on Family Guy during the season 4 episode "Brian Goes Back to College" in 2005.

Simpson subsequently performed "Pieces of Me" (in addition to a performance of "La La") on Jingle Ball Rock, a television special on FOX featuring performances by a number of popular artists; it was taped on December 3 and aired on the evening of December 17. She also sang the song as part of a concert broadcast live over the Internet on December 6, and during the performance she pulled a member of the audience up on stage with her. Simpson later performed the song on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2005, in which she also hosted the West Coast portion of the show. [45]

The video for "Pieces of Me" was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, [36] but lost to Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone." [46] The video was also nominated for the same category for the 2005 MTV Australia Video Music Awards, [47] but lost to Guy Sebastian's "Out with My Baby." [48]

As part of the promotion for her third album, Bittersweet World, Simpson performed "Pieces of Me", together with her newer single "Little Miss Obsessive", on The Today Show on April 18, 2008. [49]

Track listings

"Pieces of Me"
Ashlee Simpson - Pieces of Me.jpg
Single by Ashlee Simpson
from the album Autobiography
ReleasedMay 17, 2004 (2004-05-17)
Studio Henson (Hollywood, California)
Genre Soft rock [1]
Length
  • 3:37 (album version)
  • 3:13 (radio edit)
Label Geffen
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) John Shanks
Ashlee Simpson singles chronology
"Pieces of Me"
(2004)
"Shadow"
(2004)
Audio sample

Charts

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA) [26] Gold35,000^
United States (RIAA) [78] Gold500,000*

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Release dates and formats for "Pieces of Me"
RegionDateFormatLabelRef.
United StatesMay 17, 2004 Contemporary hit radio Geffen [79]
June 29, 2004 CD [80]
AustraliaAugust 2, 2004 Universal [81]
United States Hot AC radio Geffen [82]
JapanAugust 4, 2004CDUniversal [83]
GermanySeptember 13, 2004 [84]
United KingdomSeptember 27, 2004 Polydor [85]

References

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