"Days Go By" is the debut single of British electronic group

Dirty Vegas Dirty Vegas are an English house music group initially made up of Ben Harris and Paul Harris (no relation) on instruments and production and Steve Smith (British musician), Steve Smith on vocals. The group formed in 2001, then broke up in 2005 b ...

, released in the United Kingdom on 7 May 2001 as the lead single from their self-titled debut album (2002). The song initially peaked at number 27 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

the same month. The single's artwork was done by American artist Richard Phillips. In mid-2002, "Days Go By" became a US radio hit following its usage in a television advertisement for the 2003

Mitsubishi Eclipse The Mitsubishi Eclipse is a sport compact car that was produced by Mitsubishi Motors, Mitsubishi in four generations from 1989 until 2011. A convertible body style was added during the 1996 model year. The first two generations share the autom ...

, eventually peaking at number 14 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and receiving the

Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording The Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording (formerly known as Best Dance Recording) is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists f ...

in 2003. In the wake of its success in the US, it re-entered and peaked at number 16 on the UK Singles Chart, topped the

UK Dance Singles Chart The UK Dance Singles Chart and the UK Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the dance music genre (e.g. house, trance, drum and bass, garage, synthpop) in record s ...

, and reached number six in Canada.

Music video

Two male dancers—one young and wearing a tracksuit; the other older and wearing a suit, tie, and braces—each perform a routine of

popping Popping is a street dance adapted out of the earlier Boogaloo (funk dance) cultural movement in Oakland, California. As Boogaloo spread, it would be referred to as Robottin in Richmond, California, Strutting movements in San Francisco and San ...

, locking, the

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, and

breakdancing Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in ...

outside a restaurant. The dancers represent the same man at two different periods in his life, as evidenced by the orange high-top

Chuck Taylor All-Stars Chuck Taylor All-Stars or Converse All Stars (also referred to as "Converse", "Chuck Taylors", "Chucks", "Cons", "All Stars", and "Chucky Ts") is a model of casual shoe manufactured by Converse (a subsidiary of Nike, Inc. since 2003) that was i ...

trainers they wear. The young man's trainers are clean and new, while those worn by the older man are faded, scuffed, and held together with tape. One day out of every year, the older man travels to the restaurant and dances on the pavement from sunrise to sunset. He does so in the hope of bringing back a lost girlfriend, who gave him the orange trainers as a present when they were young but who ultimately left him because he could not stop dancing. The music pauses briefly while a few spectators voice their thoughts about the young woman's fate. At the end of the day, two of them leave to get a cup of coffee together; the older man catches a brief glimpse of his girlfriend's younger self, then picks up his belongings and leaves. The video was filmed at Chroni's Famous Sandwich Shop in

East Los Angeles East Los Angeles ( es, Este de Los Ángeles), or East L.A., is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 118,786, a drop of 6.1% from 2010, when it was 126,496. For statistical purpo ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Garland Spencer and Byron McIntyre portrayed the dancer's younger and older selves, respectively. There are two versions of the music video; one has the three band members observing from a table at the restaurant, while the other replaces those shots with footage of them in a silver

stopped at a traffic light. In addition to the replaced shots, the Eclipse version of the video includes footage of the car arriving at and departing from a traffic light, suggesting that they arrived in the morning and remained at the light all day to watch the man dance.

Mitsubishi Eclipse advert

A Mitsubishi executive saw the music video for "Days Go By" in a hotel room, and personally tracked the group down to procure rights to feature the song in an advertisement. The song was licensed to be used in the Mitsubishi ad, which began airing in early 2002. A New York radio station began playing the song, which was subsequently released to rhythmic and top 40 radio stations in mid-2002. American brand awareness for Mitsubishi went from 44% to 60% following the use of the song in the commercial.

Track listings

Original release

UK and European CD single, UK cassette single # "Days Go By" (7-inch mix) # "Days Go By" (full vocal mix) # "Days Go By" (acoustic) UK 12-inch vinyl :A. "Days Go By" (full vocal mix) :B. "Days Go By" (Lucien Foort remix) Belgian CD single # "Days Go By" (radio edit) # "Days Go By" (Lucien Foort Remix) Canadian 12-inch vinyl :A1. "Days Go By" (Vegas Mix) – 6:06 :B1. "Days Go By" (original extended) – 8:10 :B2. "Days Go By" (Lucien Foort Remix) – 9:00

Re-release

UK CD1 # "Days Go By" # "Days Go By" (

Scumfrog The Scumfrog (Jesse Houk) (born October 3, 1971) is a Dutch-American DJ/ remixer/ producer/artist, mostly known for his underground flavored remixes of artists like Kylie Minogue, Missy Elliott, New Order, and Annie Lennox and his collaborat ...

vocal remix) # "Days Go By" (

Paul Oakenfold Paul Mark Oakenfold (born 30 August 1963), formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Mass ...

vocal remix) UK CD2 # "Days Go By" (radio edit) # "Days Go By" (

Steve Osborne Stephen John "Steve" Osborne (born 1963) is a British record producer, living in Bath, England. He has worked with a wide variety of musicians, including Suede, the B-52s, A-ha, New Order, Elbow, U2, Happy Mondays, Placebo, Gregory Porter, Do ...

acoustic mix) # "1979" (live—

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

Evening Session) # "Days Go By" (video) One-track digital download # "Days Go By" – 7:12 Three-track digital download # "Days Go By" – 3:43 # "Days Go By" (Hydrogen Rockers vocal mix) – 6:51 # "Days Go By" (2001 acoustic) – 2:43

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Days Go By (Dirty Vegas Song) 2001 songs 2001 debut singles 2002 singles Dirty Vegas songs Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording Songs written by Victoria Horn Capitol Records singles Parlophone singles