"Untitled (How Could This Happen to Me?)" | ||||
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Single by Simple Plan | ||||
from the album Still Not Getting Any... | ||||
Released | March 27, 2005 | |||
Genre | Emo, soft rock [1] | |||
Length |
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Label | Lava | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Bob Rock | |||
Simple Plan singles chronology | ||||
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"Untitled (How Could This Happen to Me?)" is a song by Canadian rock band Simple Plan. The ballad [1] was released in March 2005 as the third single from their second studio album, Still Not Getting Any... . The song's official title, when the CD was released, was simply "Untitled".
The music video tells a story of a car crash on a rainy evening where a young male drunk driver crashes his Toyota Camry head-on into a Trans Am driven by a female, resulting in her death. The drunk driver, however, survives relatively uninjured, and ends up arrested by the FBI and the BATF. The video was filmed near the famous tunnel in Griffith Park, Los Angeles. Vocalist Pierre Bouvier is seen singing the song at the scene of the car crash, and is also seen at the end of the video where the victim is at the hospital.
The video also shows the backstory of the car crash, accompanied by clips of the victim's family doing things such as: her brother is seen playing video games in the family living room, her sister is doing her homework in her bedroom, their mom is in her house's kitchen washing dishes and their dad is working in his office. Then abruptly just as the two cars collide, the entire family is violently thrown into the walls surrounding them as the boy falls out of his bedroom window and the dad lands on his computer. In a joint letter with MADD, Simple Plan explained the events in the video: [2]
This song is a very personal look at what happens when tragedy hits close to home and we wanted to make a video that was as powerful and as special as the song was to the five of us.
Over the last few years, a lot of people we know have been involved in tragic accidents caused by drinking and driving. One of the students at our high-school crashed his car driving back from a weekend trip and killed his best friend. It was a very sad time that none of us will ever forget.
This is the story we wanted to tell with this video: the story of all the innocent victims caused by drinking and driving. We hope you will take the time to watch the video. Thanks for all your support.
When performed live, Bouvier performs the guitar solo in the middle of the song. Lead guitarist Jeff Stinco plays a semi-acoustic guitar until the solo when rhythm guitarist Sébastien Lefebvre and drummer Chuck Comeau also come. Bassist David Desrosiers' main role is backing vocals, with his bass taking a backseat until Bouvier's solo and the final chorus. Stinco also plays an additional solo as the song fades out.
The song has since been used in Mothers Against Drunk Driving anti-drunk driving campaigns. [3]
European CD single [4]
Australian CD single [5]
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [26] | Gold | 35,000^ |
Canada (Music Canada) [27] | Gold | 10,000* |
Sweden (GLF) [28] | Gold | 10,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [29] | Gold | 500,000‡ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
United States | March 29, 2005 | Contemporary hit radio | Lava | [30] |
Australia | June 20, 2005 | CD | [31] |
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