Songoftheday 10/26/23 - I'm standing on a bridge I'm waitin' in the dark, I thought that you'd be here by now...

 

 

"I'm With You" - Avril Lavigne

from the album Let Go (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 24

 

Today's song comes from Canadian singer/songwriter Avril Lavigne, who had already scored a pair of top ten hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 from her debut album in 2002 with "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi".  The third single from her Let Go set was the ballad "I'm With You", written by the singer with the Matrix production team of Lauren Christy, Graham Edwards, and Scott Spock. Despite the hopeful love-song-like title, the lyrics find Avril basking in loneliness, wishing for someone to take her away to anywhere, just to feel being in love. It's a universal emotion, not restricted to age, and the Matrix's production and waltz-time signature allows Lavigne to sing to a broader audience. And the "I don't know who you are, but I'm with you" really cuts close. In return, she landed a third big hit...

"I'm With You" became the third top ten hit from Let Go in Februrary of 2003. On the radio, the song spent four weeks at #1 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, as well as ten week atop the older-skewing Adult Top-40 list, and peaking at #18 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") format. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Canada (#1 radio/#18 sales), Italy (#5), Ireland (#5), New Zealand (#5), Poland (#5), the United Kingdom (#7), Croatia (#8), Belgium (#9 Flanders/#39 Wallonia), and made the top-40 in  Sweden (#11), Switzerland (#12), Greece (#12), Germany (#13), Austria (#13),Norway (#16), the Netherlands (#18), Denmark (#20), Romania (#22), and France (#34). At the Grammy Awards in 2004, "I'm With You" was nominated for Song of the Year, losing to Luther Vandross' "Dance With My Father", as well as Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, which went to Christina Aguilera for "Beautiful".

A fourth single from Let Go, "Losing Grip", a brooding breakup rocker, climbed to #17 on Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, and #33 on the Adult Top-40 list, but stalled down at #64 on the Hot 100 (lack of a physical single didn't help). Overseas, it reached the top-40 in Ireland (#18), Australia (#20), the United Kingdom (#22), the Netherlands (#38), and Austria (#40). It was also nominated for a Grammy in 2004 for Best Female Rock Vocal, which Pink took home for "Trouble". Another track from the debut, "Mobile", was put out as a single in Australia and New Zealand, and hit #26 in the latter. 

Avril will be back to the series.

(7/10)

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Avril performed the song for the Today Show...

Next up, her performance at the Echo Awards (Germany's Grammys) in 2003...

and finally for her AOL Sessions...

Up tomorrow: R&B singer is doing just great.