Songoftheday 2/1/24 - How can you see into my eyes like open doors? Leading you down into my core...
"Bring Me To Life" - Evanescence featuring Paul McCoy
from the albums Daredevil: The Album (Original Soundtrack) and Fallen (both 2003)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 28
Today's song comes from the hard rock band Evanescence, who originally came together in Arkansas in the mid-1990s by childhood friends singer Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. In 1999, after taking in keyboardist David Hodges, the group released a pair of albums themselves, Sound Asleep as well as Origins a year later. With local buzz and an oppurtune contact from their recording studio, Evanescence was signed by the indie label Wind-Up Records. That label, who recently propelled another hard rock band with religious roots, Creed, into the pop stratosphere, seemed like the right path for them, although it was veeeery ambiguous to whether they were a "Christian" act, which they vehemently denied.
That became more construed with what would become their debut single "Bring Me To Life". Originally having only Lee singing, per the label's insistence a "guest" was added to the record in the form of Paul McCoy from the band 12 Stones, who had released their own self-titled album on Wind-Up in 2002, which was also marketed to the Christian market. McCoy was brought in to basically be the Mike Shinoda (of Linkin Park) of the song, rapping counterparts to Amy's vocals. Written by Lee, Moody, and Hodges, the lyrics have Amy reaching out to someone to pull her out of the depression she's in, which supposedly stemmed from her personal experience). The verses are overtly dramatic but fitting, and even more powerful when the angst is internally in a female voice - at that time a rarity at best in the genre. It's more emotionally picturesque than conversational, and Amy's feeling envelop around the other's willingness to help. McCoy's asides and brief verse is there for that support, but it's not that necessary. The production from Dave Fortman, who had also helmed 12 Stones' album, is a lush wall of sound that is enhanced by the string section added to the track. The music video focused on the song's tie-in to the Marvel superhero movie Daredevil, where it appeared on the soundtrack a month before the band's debut arrived, after the lead single "Won't Back Down" from Fuel went to #22 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #37 on the Alternative Rock counterpart. The clip finds Amy and Paul in a dream sequence that doesn't mirror the movie but fits with the motif...
"Bring Me To Life" became Evanescence's first and biggest hit of their career, reaching the top ten on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in June of 2003. On the radio, the song topped Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 chart for two weeks, peaked at #4 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format, spent two weeks at #1 on the Alternative Rock airplay list, and rise to #11 on their Mainstream Rock counterpart. Internationally, the single went to #1 in the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, and Canada (sales), and made the top ten in Germany (#2), Belgium (#2 Wallonia/#7 Flanders), Denmark (#2), Sweden (#2), Ireland (#2), Norway (#2), Austria (#3), New Zealand (#3), Greece (#3), Poland (#4), France (#5), Switzerland (#6), Hungary (#6), Croatia (#6), and the Netherlands (#10). The Daredevil soundtrack, which came out in February of that year, peaked at #9 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a half million copies. But that was shortly eclipsed by Fallen, which came out in March, which spent seven weeks at #3 on the Billboard 200 and went on to sell over ten million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, the band received five nominations, winning Best New Artist and Best Hard Rock Performance. They were also up for Album of the Year (losing to rap duo Outkast's Speakerboxx/The Love Below), Best Rock Album (which went to Foo Fighters for One By One), and Best Rock Song (which went home with Jack White from White Stripes for "Seven Nation Army").
McCoy's 12 Stones, which got exposure from the success of "Bring Me To Life", went on to see their second album in 2004, Potter's Field, reach #29 on the Billboard 200. From the record "Far Away" became their first radio hit, popping on to the Mainstream Rock chart for a week at #38. Their follow-up in 2007, Anthem For The Underdog, saw three of its tracks reach the Mainstream Rock list, with third single "Adrenaline" becoming their highest charting hit at #23. They released an EP The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday, which had their so-far last rock radio hit "We Are One" at #30 in 2010. It was their last on Wind-Up Records. Going indie, their most recent full-length, Picture Perfect, was released in 2017, with a five-song EP Smoke And Mirrors arriving in 2020.
As for the Daredevil soundtrack, the next track promoted was "For You" by The Calling, which got ignored in the States but was a top-20 hit in Italy at #19. The song "Caught In The Rain" by newcomers Revis rose to #6 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart and #20 on their Alternative Rock counterpart. But Evanescence would have another song on both the soundtrack as well as their debut that will be on this series.
(10/10)
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Here's Amy (with a whole new band) performing at the Billboard Music Awards in 2003 (I'll cover the lineup on the next single)...
and a televised concert in Europe...
and lastly, another live shot, my favorite of the bunch...
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