"Drowning" is a song by American boy band

Backstreet Boys Backstreet Boys (often abbreviated as BSB) are an American vocal group consisting of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, and cousins Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson. Lou Pearlman formed the group in 1993 in Orlando, Florida. The gr ...

, released on September 25, 2001, as the only single from their

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

, '' The Hits – Chapter One''.

Background

The song was written by

Andreas Carlsson Andreas Carlsson (; born 3 April 1973) is a Swedish music producer and pop songwriter. Biography Carlsson was part of the Cheiron Studios team until the studio was closed down in 2000. In January 2001, former Cheiron-members Andreas Carlsson, Kri ...

, Rami and Linda Thompson, and produced by Rami and

Kristian Lundin Kristian Lundin (born 7 May 1973) is a Swedish composer, music producer and songwriter. Biography Kristian's worked on the song " Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)" which he co-produced with Max Martin for the Backstreet Boys. He co-wrote & pro ...

. The song was initially recorded for the '' Black & Blue'' album but was excluded due to the limited track listings left. Several elements of the song, such as the piano intro and the chorus, are very similar to "Långsamt farväl" released by the Swedish artist

Mauro Scocco Mauro Scocco (born 11 September 1962) is a Swedish pop artist of Italian descent. He has been described as "one of the sharpest songwriters in Sweden". Scocco was the singer for the pop group Ratata (1980–83) transformed into a duo with Joh ...

in 1997.

, co-writer of "Drowning", sang backing vocals on

Lisa Nilsson My Lisa Karolina Nilsson (born 13 August 1970) is a Swedish singer. She was discovered by the producer William (Billy) Butt and she is perhaps best known in Sweden for her 1992 hit, '' Himlen runt hörnet'', written by Mauro Scocco and Johan ...

's version of "Långsamt farväl" released in 2003. In Finland, "Drowning" was compared to the 1995 song "Älä sano huomisesta" by Hausmylly.

Chart performance

The song peaked at number 28 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on November 13, 2001. It reached the top ten in several European countries, reaching number three in Sweden, number four in the UK, and number five in Norway.

Music videos

Official version

The official music video was directed by

Nigel Dick Nigel Dick (born 21 March 1953) is a British music video and film director, writer and musician from Catterick, England, now based in Los Angeles, California. He directed the Britney Spears videos " ...Baby One More Time" and " Oops!... I Did I ...

, who directed their music videos for " As Long as You Love Me" and "

All I Have to Give "All I Have to Give" is a song by American boy band Backstreet Boys, produced and written by Full Force, and released as the third and final single from their second album ''Backstreet's Back'' and the sixth and final single from their US debut ...

". It featured the band gathered around monuments and an old building resembling a church. The video is notable for its frequent used of the

contre-jour Contre-jour ( French for "against daylight") is a photographic technique in which the camera is pointing directly toward a source of light and an equivalent technique of painting. Description Before its use in photography, contre-jour was us ...

technique, which puts the subject directly against the source of light, thus giving a clear, dark outline of the figure. In the video, the group are often seen as

silhouette A silhouette ( , ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhou ...

s moving and singing against the background. This was filmed in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Unreleased version

Before the final video was produced, a different concept was in production. The concept was eventually abandoned and the official video was produced instead. One of the preliminary cuts of this original video was leaked to the public. This video was done, then canceled and replaced by the end of the month. It features the band members dressed in black outfits, which can be seen in the photograph on the CD single cover. The video was shot mainly using

green screen Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to r ...

to place the band on an arid salt flat. The sun is initially shining, but dark clouds quickly fill the sky in the first chorus, and it begins to rain in the second verse. A flood of water fills the area and the storm continues to get worse. At the key change, and at the end of the song, the band members are hit with a large wave. Through the rest of the video they simply sing in a shallow depth of water.

Track listings

UK CD1 # "Drowning" (short radio edit) – 4:10 # "

Everybody (Backstreet's Back) "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" is a song by American boy band Backstreet Boys, written and produced by Denniz Pop and Max Martin. It was released as the first single from the band's second international studio album ''Backstreet's Back'' in Ju ...

" (Sharp London vocal mix) – 7:58 # "

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" (

Morales Morales is a Spanish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alfredo Morales (born 1990), American footballer * Alvaro Morales (disambiguation), several people * Amado Morales (born 1947), Puerto Rican javelin thrower * Bartolomé Mo ...

club version) – 7:25 UK CD2 # "Drowning" (radio edit) – 4:13 # "Drowning" (Dezrok radio mix) – 4:04 # "Drowning" (Rizzo & Harris radio mix) – 4:02 # "Drowning" (video) – 4:32 UK cassette single # "Drowning" (radio edit) – 4:13 # " As Long as You Love Me" (

Jason Nevins Jason Nevins (born December 15, 1972) is an American songwriter, record producer and remixer, who is most widely known for his pop and dance productions, including his multi-platinum, multi-million selling production of " It's Like That" by Ameri ...

radio mix) – 3:38 # "

" (

Soul Solution Soul Solution is a house/ electronic dance music production duo from New York City formed by Bobby Guy and Ernie Lake. Biography As artists they made six appearances on the ''Billboard'' Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. Five times under the Sou ...

club mix) – 7:36 European CD single # "Drowning" – 4:25 # "Back to Your Heart" – 4:21 Australian CD single # "Drowning" – 4:25 # "Back to Your Heart" – 4:21 # " Shape of My Heart" (video) – 3:50 Japanese CD single # "Drowning" (album version) # "The One" (album version) # "Drowning" (TV track) # "The One" (instrumental)

Personnel

– producer, recording engineer, mix engineer * Rami – producer, recording engineer, mix engineer * John Amatiello – assistant recording engineer, Pro Tools engineer * Thomas Lindberg – bass * Esbjörn Öhrwall – guitar * Jonathan Lindström – pedal steel guitar *

Tom Coyne Tom Coyne may refer to: * Tom Coyne (writer), American writer and professor * Tom Coyne (broadcaster) (1930–2015), British television presenter * Tom Coyne (music engineer) (1954–2017), American mastering engineer * Thomas Coyne (cricketer) (187 ...

– mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

In popular culture

"Drowning" and their other single "

The One The ONE is a shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is built on the site of the former Tung Ying Building at 100 Nathan Road. It was developed by Chinese Estates Holdings and opened in 2010. Owner Joseph Lau Luen-hung g ...

" were both licensed and used in the 2002–2003

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series ''

Hanada Shōnen Shi is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Makoto Isshiki. It was serialized in Kodansha's Seinen manga, ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Mr. Magazine'' from 1993 to 1995, with its chapters collected in four ''tankōbon'' volumes. The ...

''. "Drowning" was used for the ending theme, while "The One" was the opening theme.Anime News Network
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drowning (Backstreet Boys Song) 2001 singles 2001 songs Backstreet Boys songs Jive Records singles Music videos directed by Nigel Dick Song recordings produced by Rami Yacoub Songs written by Andreas Carlsson Songs written by Linda Thompson (actress) Songs written by Rami Yacoub UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles