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Wake Me Up When September Ends
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Wake Me Up When September Ends" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Single by Green Day | ||
| from the album American Idiot | ||
| Released | June 13, 2005 | |
| Format | Digital download | |
| Genre | Pop punk | |
| Length | 4:45 | |
| Writer(s) | Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong | |
| Producer(s) | Green Day, Rob Cavallo | |
| Chart positions | ||
|
||
| Green Day singles chronology | ||
| "Holiday" (2005) |
"Wake Me Up When September Ends" (2005) |
"Jesus of Suburbia" (2005) |
| American Idiot track listing | ||
| "Letterbomb" (10) |
"Wake Me Up When September Ends" (11) |
"Homecoming" (12) |
"Wake Me Up When September Ends" is the fourth single from Green Day's seventh studio album, American Idiot. Released on 13 June 2005, the single peaked at number six in the United States, becoming Green Day's second Top 10 single. It also peaked at number eight in Canada and the UK, while making number thirteen in Australia. The song is well known for its music video, which paints a drawn out intimate portrait of a wartime situation.
Contents |
The song was co-written by the members of Green Day (with Billie Joe Armstrong writing the lyrics), and was co-produced by Green Day and Rob Cavallo. There once was much debate about what this song was about. However, Billie Joe has confirmed to the public that the song was written as a memorial anthem about his father, a jazz musician and minor league baseball catcher, who died of lung cancer when Billie Joe was only ten years old.
In this melancholy ballad, Billie Joe, backed by the support of the other members of Green Day, takes a trip back to his painful childhood and thinks about the day he lost his innocence when his father died. Like many faced with such a traumatic event, Billie Joe never truly recovered, and he can't believe that twenty years have passed since the day. As Armstrong associates pain with the month September, the month his father died, he would rather not deal with anything related to the month prompting him to sing, "As my memory rests, but never forgets what I lost... Wake me up when September ends..."
This song is in the key of G major.
The video clip of the song, apart from Green Day, features the story of a teenage couple, played by Jamie Bell and Evan Rachel Wood.
The video strays from the original meaning of the song and instead focuses on the teenage couple as the boyfriend promises never to leave his girlfriend. The boy is orphaned and very poor, made apparent by the fact that his girlfriend is seen paying for their 'cheese fries'. Later, the girlfriend confronts him about something he did (open-ended), repeatedly yelling, "How could you do this to me?" Although the audience's initial assumption may be that he was unfaithful, subsequent scenes reveal that he in fact enlisted in the United States Marine Corps without her knowledge. The video then shows the boyfriend in battle (presumably in Iraq) being ambushed by enemy forces. The war scene cuts out with the boyfriend hiding after running from an explosion. It cuts back to the girlfriend again, where she is crying. Since the war scene suddenly cuts out, the viewer is left to think about what might have happened. It is hinted that the boy might have died when the girlfriend is seen crying. This video adds to the American Idiot anti-war sentiment of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Like the rest of the videos from the album American Idiot, Samuel Bayer was the director.
The song eventually became a tribute song to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and sound bytes were added from various news coverages to the song. A live version of the song, recorded on September 3, 2005 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts was released soon after and dedicated to the hurricane's victims. The song also became tribute for those who had lost their lives from the September 11, 2001 attack. The song has also been dedicated during performances in 2004 to Johnny Ramone after his death.
| Chart (2005) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Billboard Hot 100 | 6 |
| Pop 100 | 4 |
| Modern Rock Tracks | 2 |
| Mainstream Rock Tracks | 12 |
| Hot Digital Tracks | 3 |
| Hot Digital Tracks | 32 |
| Top 40 Mainstream | 3 |
| Adult Top 40 | 2 |
| Adult Contemporary | 13 |
| Hot Ringtones | 14 |
| World Chart Show | 2 |
| UK Singles Chart | 8 |
| Australian Singles Chart | 13 |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 1 |
| Chinese Singles Chart | 7 |
| Netherlands Singles Chart | 21 |
| Ireland Singles Chart | 13 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart | 10 |
| Russian Airplay Chart | 26 |
| German Single Charts | 22 |
| Israeli Single Chart | 1 |
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