Songoftheday 3/20/24 - Don't just walk away, pretending everythings okay and you don't care about me...

 

 

"Are You Happy Now?" - Michelle Branch

from the album Hotel Paper (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 16

 

Today's song comes from singer/songwriter Michelle Branch, who scored three top-40 hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 from her debut album with "Everywhere", "Goodbye To You", and the top ten single "All You Wanted".  She then rounded out her 2002 with her collaboration with Santana on "The Game Of Love", which was her highest charting hit at #5 and won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration. 

The following year, Branch returned with her second studio album on Maverick Records, Hotel Paper. The lead single from the record was the angsty breakup track "Are You Happy Now?". Written by Michelle with producer John Shanks, the lyrics has her very bitter and focused on the other person as the reason for the split. There's no reflection, just anger, and the catharsis is real (I know, I lived this literally last year). She's not asked for them back, just self-realizing what a selfish dickwad the other person is (again, same). The production punches the emotion with heavy minor chord blasts like Evanescence with the fury of Alanis Morissette. The moody music video paints Branch in monochromatic shadows as the world is crumbling around her....

"Are You Happy Now?" became Branch's fifth single to make the top-40 on Billboard's Hot 100 in August of 2003. On the radio, the song peaked at #4 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, and #3 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in New Zeaalnd (#16), the United Kingdom (#31), and Australia (#33). The Hotel Paper album, released in June of that year, was her highest charting record on the Billboard 200 sales tally, spending a week at #2, but ended up selling about half of her debut set. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, "Are You Happy Now?" was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, losing to Pink for her song "Trouble". 

Both Michelle and the album will be back to the series.

(8/10)

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Branch appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote the single...

She also performed the song at the World AIDS Concert in Seattle in 2002...

And lastly an acoustic take from the quarantine years in 2021..

Up tomorrow: A rapper alternates who he's accompanying.