Robbed hit of the week 08/26/24 - Sarah McLachlan's "Fallen"...

 

 

"Fallen" - Sarah McLachlan

from the album Afterglow (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #41

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan, who had placed her fifth top-40 hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1999 with a live version of her older song "I Will Remember You". Later in 1999, McLachlan appeared on Sheryl's live Sheryl Crow & Friends: Live In New York concert album, and their duet of "The Difficult Kind" from Crow's Globe Sessions album got them nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 2001, which went home with B.B. King and Dr. John for "Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't My Baby". In 2000, Sarah sang on "Silence" from the Canadian ambient house act Delirium, which climbed to #6 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart, as well as #25 on their Adult Top-40 radio list, and hit #1 in Ireland. Re-released in 2004, "Silence 2004" went on to top the Dance Club Play chart in America. 

After a four year break, during which she had a daughter and lost her mother, McLachlan returned with her fifth studio release, Afterglow, in 2003.The lead single from the record, "Fallen", was written by Sarah and produced by Pierre Marchand, who had produced her past four albums (and would continue on through her career). The lyrics find McLachlan in a mournful place, where she looks back as what she set to accomplish had gone wrong, and maybe not all, but some of her dreams had passed her by (man, can I relate). But the words, as powerful as they are, are vague enough to be mutable for the listener to take it on their own burdens, the mark of good writing. The production from Marchand is spacey and serene given the lyrical material, and serves to ease the mind despite the pain. The music video, however, paints a darker picture of a woman possibly leaving an abusive relationship...

"Fallen" stopped one rung short of the top-40 on Billboard's Hot 100 in January of 2004. On the radio, the song peaked at #5 on the Adult Top-40 chart, #12 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") list, and #3 on the Adult Album Alternative (or "Triple-A") Rock radio format, but missed the Mainstream Top-40 "pop" radio list. The track was remixed for the dance floor and ended up going to #3 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart as well. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in Ireland at #32, and was a minor hit in the United Kingdom at #50. The Afterglow album, released in November of 2003, went to #2 on the Billboard 200, tying her best with Surfacing though selling a bit less with over two million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, "Fallen" was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, losing to Christina Aguilera for "Beautiful". The Afterglow album was up for Best Pop Vocal Album a year later, which the late Ray Charles was given for Genius Loves Company. 

The second single from the record, "Stupid", did manage to climb to #15 on the Adult Top-40 chart in America, but that was it. (Internationally, the single made the top ten in Canada at #9 and the top-40 in Australia at #37.) Third single "World On Fire", which went to #14 on the Adult Top-40 chart and #2 on the Dance Club Play list, and was up for a Grammy as well in 2006 for Best Short Form Video, which went to Missy Elliott for her "Lose Control" clip. A second live set from her Afterglow Live tour followed in 2004, which went to #107 on the Billboard 200. 

(9/10)

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Sarah appeared on the British show Parkinson to promote the album...

 

 

Here's one of the dance remixes by Gabriel & Dresden, that helped the song go top ten on the dance chart...

Next up, Sarah on her tour behind Afterglow...

McLachlan performed "Fallen" at the Live 8 charity concert...

and lastly, an intimate take for Rolling Stone magazine...