Let Her Go
"Let Her Go" is a song written and recorded by English singer-songwriter Passenger. It was recorded at Sydney's Linear Recording and co-produced by Mike Rosenberg and Chris Vallejo. The recording features Australian musicians Stu Larsen, Georgia Mooney, Stu Hunter, Cameron Undy, and Glenn Wilson. "Let Her Go" was released in July 2012 as the second single from Passenger's fourth album, All the Little Lights.
The song has achieved international success, topping the charts in many countries around the world, and has sold over one million digital copies in the UK, and over four million in the US as of July 2014. In 2014, the song was nominated for the Brit Award for British Single of the Year, and won Passenger the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Most Performed Work.
Background
The lyrics of the song are poetic and melancholic, describing the regrets associated with ending a relationship. The chorus describes situations in which one does not appreciate what he/she has until it is gone, and relates this to love. The verses give detailed scenes involving a heartbroken man dealing with his breakup. The song's intro is inspired by the outro of The Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Slow Cheetah"."Let Her Go" is driven by a chorus which is repeated five times throughout the song. The second half of the final chorus is performed a cappella. Including acoustic guitar and vocals from Rosenberg, backing vocals, piano, drums, bass, and strings, the song is instrumentally diverse. The song is performed in the key of G major, played with a capo on the seventh fret of the guitar.
Commercial performance
"Let Her Go" was released in July 2012 as the second single from Passenger's third album All the Little Lights. The song became a hit first in the Netherlands after Dave, a Dutch fan, e-mailed Passenger expressing his wish to introduce the song to some Dutch radio stations, claiming it could be a hit there. This resulted in the song trending on Dutch stations and finding enormous commercial success with the Dutch public. The song became a hit first in the Netherlands, reaching number two in the Dutch Top 40 in November 2012 and spending a total of four non-consecutive weeks at that position. The next month that year, it topped at number-one.Since 2013, and after initial success in the Netherlands, "Let Her Go" has reached number-one in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland, number two in the UK Singles Chart, number five in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on Billboard Hot Rock Songs, making it his first international success. The song has sold over 1 million digital copies in the UK, and over 4 million in the US as of July 2014. In 2019, 10 October, Let Her Go surpassed one billion streams on the music service Spotify, becoming the 42nd most played song on the service.
Music video
The music video was uploaded on July 25, 2012, directed and produced by the Australian video artist Dave Jensen and Tavic. It shows the stage being prepared for a Passenger concert, with footage of Passenger performance with his backing band and shots of the audience present reacting.As of July 2020, the video has received over 2.7 billion views on the video-sharing website YouTube, making it the 23rd most viewed video of all time on the site.
Track listing
Cover versions
, the runner-up of the fifth season of The X Factor Australia, performed it during the show. He also covered it in his debut self-titled album released through Sony Music Australia on 29 November 2013. The album debuted at number one on the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association.In October 2013, a piano-driven version of the track was sung by young Italian singer Violetta Zironi during season 7 of the Italian version of The X Factor. The track was also recorded and included in her debut EP Dimmi che non passa released in December 2013.
British singer Birdy recorded a cover version called "Let Him Go" in 2013 on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. It was also covered by Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation on the album Hydra in 2014 and The Q-Music Sessions, as well as by Jasmine Thompson on the album Bundle of Tantrums.
An unreleased acoustic version of the song was donated to support college radio in the USA on the 2013 College Radio Day Vol. 2 album. The song was limited to being on only the CD version of the album.
Italian pianist Costantino Carrara published a piano arrangement of this song on December 6, 2013, that quickly became the most popular Let Her Go piano cover of all the time with more than 20 million views.
In February 2013, a club remix of the song was released by German DJ and producer Florian Marley featuring Passenger's vocals. It has also been remixed by French DJ David Guetta and Norwegian producer Kygo.
In August 2014, Glen Templeton made a country cover of the song.
In October 2014, Bulgarian singer Maria released a song with, also Bulgarian singer, Azis called: "Чуй ме". The original version had an intro that featured Let Her Go, but later on was officially edited due to copyright, and now the song has a different tone at the beginning.
Internationally known rapper B-Flo sampled the song on the single on his second solo album, Floville, made in 2014.
In January 2015 British indie band Scars on 45 covered the song on the album From Cover to Cover: 30 Years at Nettwerk.
In popular culture
"Let Her Go" was used in a Budweiser commercial shown during Super Bowl XLVIII. It was used also in the season 7 finale of the Canadian Show Heartland as the send-off song.The intro and first half of the first verse were used in the UK television show, Stella in episode 7 of series 3.
A cover version by British singer Jasmine Thompson was used in the eleventh episode of the sixteenth season of .
It was used in The Vampire Diaries 100th episode.
On the popular streaming website Twitch, a remix of the song is frequently used on streams by watchers trying to annoy the streamers.
The song is also as a playable track in Guitar Hero Live.
Bluegrass band The Travelin' McCourys recorded the song at Nashville studio the Butcher Shoppe, on January 13, 2017.
The song also featured on the episode Monsters in the moonlight, from FX original series Better Things, in 2019.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
| Chart | Position |
| Australia | 3 |
| Austria | 4 |
| Belgium | 12 |
| Belgium | 25 |
| Canada | 61 |
| Germany | 5 |
| Israel international songs | 5 |
| Italy | 20 |
| Netherlands | 30 |
| Netherlands | 23 |
| New Zealand | 6 |
| Slovenia | 6 |
| Spain | 6 |
| Sweden | 2 |
| Switzerland | 4 |
| UK Singles | 4 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 97 |
| US Adult Top 40 | 32 |
| US Hot Rock Songs | 16 |
| Chart | Position |
| Italy | 98 |