Hey, Soul Sister

{{Infobox single | Name = Hey, Soul Sister | Cover = Hey Soul Sister.jpg | Artist = Train | Album = Save Me, San Francisco | Border = yes | B-side = | Released = August 11, 2009 (Digital)January 26, 2010 (Airplay)July 12, 2010 (Country mix) | Format = Digital download | Recorded = 2009 | Genre = Folk rock, Roots rock | Length = 3:37 | Label = Columbia/BNA (Country version) | Writer = Amund BjørklundEspen LindPatrick Monahan | Producer = EspionageMartin Terefe, Gregg Wattenberg | Certification = 5x Platinum (RIAA) It is the 8th most downloaded song in history, the most downloaded song of all time for Columbia Records, the top-selling song on iTunes in 2010 and the second overall best-selling song in the US in 2010. The single received a quintuple platinum certification by the RIAA on February 14, 2011

Composition

"Hey, Soul Sister" is a mid-tempo pop song. Written in the key of E major, the beat is set in common time and moves at 97 bpm. The song is characterized by a signature pattern played on a ukulele,:

Monahan has since confirmed this in multiple radio interviews.

Music video

The video was filmed in front of Chango Coffee at the corner of Morton Ave and Echo Park Ave in Echo Park, Los Angeles, California. The video intercuts images of Train singing with a woman walking around her apartment and a man painting the words to the song on the landscape.

Appearances in other media

Train Recently performed this song at Dick Clark's Rocking New Year Eve 2011 on 31st December 2010.Train performed the song on the show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld on Fox News which aired during the early morning broadcast on April 20, 2010. They have also performed the song on numerous talk shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Live with Regis and Kelly, Lopez Tonight, and The Howard Stern Show. They also performed the song before the 2010 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby on ESPN. Samsung Electronics in North America used the song in advertising some of its products, including its 3D TVs and silent washers.

It has also been played in several TV shows as in the episode "Second Chances", Hellcats in its first episode and Medium. It was also been played in the Canadian TV show "Being Erica", in chapter 3x11. "Hey, Soul Sister" can also be heard on "Ko'olauloa", the sixth episode of Hawaii Five-0 where it was sung and played live by a little boy.

The song was performed on ABC's Dancing With The Stars on May 4, 2010 and on America's Got Talent on July 21, 2010. A cover of the song was also performed by "Munch's Make Believe Band," the animatronic show located at Chuck E. Cheese's restaurants. The Dixie Chicks covered this song while on their 2010 tour with The Eagles.

Glee covered the song in the November 30, 2010 episode (2nd Season) with actor Darren Criss singing the solo in a performance with the Dalton Academy Warblers. "Hey, Soul Sister" was also covered by 2010 X Factor Australia winner Altiyan Childs for his self-titled debut album.

The song was also performed by Street Corner Symphony on the second season of the tv show The Sing-Off durning episode 2- Songs From The Past 5 Years.

The dance troupe from Strictly Come Dancing performed a quickstep to the song in 2010.

Track listing

;Australian single # "Hey, Soul Sister" – 3:36

;Other versions

Karmatronic Radio Edit – 3:40

Karmatronic Club Mix – 6:45

Karmatronic Instrumental – 6:45

Country Version – 3:37

Single Version – 3:35 (slightly different instrumentation near the end)

Chart performance

"Hey, Soul Sister" debuted at #98 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ended Oct. 17, 2009, becoming their first charting single in five years (2004's "When I Look to the Sky" being their previous chart entry.)

On the week of Jan. 30, 2010, in its 16th week on the Hot 100 chart, "Hey, Soul Sister" leaped to #7 from #23 on an 81% digital single sales increase from the previous week, thus becoming Train's second career Top Ten hit on the chart. It reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the week of April 10, 2010, their highest on the chart to date.

The song climbed to #1 on the Hot Digital Songs chart for the week of April 10, 2010, and stayed in the top spot for three weeks.

In addition to revitalizing Train's career in their native country, "Hey, Soul Sister" has also become a big international hit; it was #1 on the official Dutch and Australian singles charts for 7 weeks and 4 weeks, respectively, and also became their first Irish number one single. The single charted at #2 in New Zealand (their highest in the country to date), and reached #3 on both the Canadian and Belgian singles charts.

On April 24, 2010, "Hey, Soul Sister" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #64, marking the band's first appearance on the chart since "She's On Fire" reached a peak of #49 in 2001. On May 2, 2010, the single climbed into the UK Top 40 at #36 and has since reached a peak of #18. It has been in the official charts for 21 weeks.

The single sold 687,000 copies in 2009 which made it that year's #131 song. It went on to sell 3,319,000 more units in the first half of 2010 and forty two weeks after its release still stood at number 16 on the Hot 100 chart. By the end of December 2010, it had sold 4,310,000 digital copies, becoming the second biggest selling digital song of that year.By the end of January 2011, it had sold 5,001,000 digital copies.

BNA Records, a country music label owned by Sony Music, released the song to the country music format in June 2010. It debuted at #60 on the Hot Country Songs charts for the week ended July 10, 2010.

As of the January 20, 2011 issue of Billboard, "Hey, Soul Sister" has spent 22 weeks at number one on the Adult Contemporary chart.

In Canada the song became the sixth best selling of 2010 with 244,000 copies.

Charts

{| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Chart (2009–2010) ! Peakpositions |- |Australian Singles Chart | style="text-align:center;"|1 |- |Austrian Singles Chart | style="text-align:center;"|4 |- |Belgian Singles Chart (Wallonia) | style="text-align:center;"|5 |- |Belgian Singles Chart (Flanders) | style="text-align:center;"|8 |- |Dutch Top 40 | style="text-align:center;"|1 |- |French Singles Chart | style="text-align:center;"|15 |- |French Digital Singles Chart | style="text-align:center;"|10 |- |German Singles Chart | style="text-align:center;"|7 |- |Hungarian Airplay Chart | style="text-align:center;"|1 |- |Irish Singles Chart | style="text-align:center;"|1 |- |Italian Singles Chart | style="text-align:center;"|2 |- |New Zealand Singles Chart | style="text-align:center;"|2 |- |Norwegian Singles Chart | style="text-align:center;"|11 |- |Swedish Singles Chart | style="text-align:center;"|3 |- |Swiss Singles Chart | style="text-align:center;"|4 |- |European Hot 100 | style="text-align:center;"|3 |- |UK Singles Chart | style="text-align:center;"|18 |- |- |- |- |- |}

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable sortable" !Chart (2010) !Position |- |Australian Singles Chart |style="text-align:center;"|4 |- | Canadian Hot 100 |style="text-align:center;"|6 |- |Denmark (Tracklisten) |style="text-align:center;"|27 |- |European Hot 100 Singles |align="center"|30 |- |Germany (Media Control AG) |align="center"|53 |- |align="left"|German Airplay Chart |align="center"|5 |- |Hungarian Airplay Chart |align="center"|3 |- |Italian Singles Chart |align="center"|13 |- |Netherlands (Dutch Top 40) |align="center"|9 |- |US Billboard Hot 100 |align="center"|3 |- |}

Sales and certifications

See also

List of Dutch Top 40 number-one singles of 2010

List of number-one singles in Australia in 2010

References

External links

Performance on CSI: NY

Glee version of the song

Official Music Video

Category:2009 singles Category:Train (band) songs Category:Songs written by Amund Bjorklund Category:Songs written by Espen Lind Category:Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks number-one singles Category:Billboard Adult Contemporary number-one singles Category:Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Category:Number-one singles in Australia Category:Rock ballads Category:Singles certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America Category:Singles certified platinum by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry