"Just Say Yes" is a song by Northern Irish–Scottish
alternative rock
Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
band
Snow Patrol
Snow Patrol are a Northern Irish–Scottish Rock music, rock band formed in 1994 in Dundee, Scotland, consisting of Gary Lightbody (vocals, guitar), Nathan Connolly (guitar, backing vocals), and Johnny McDaid (piano, guitar, keyboards, backi ...
, released as the single to follow "
The Planets Bend Between Us" in October–November 2009, depending on the region. The song, produced by
Jacknife Lee
Garret "Jacknife" Lee is an Irish music producer and mixer. He has worked with a variety of artists, including the Cars, U2, R.E.M., the Killers, Robbie Williams, Snow Patrol, Bloc Party, Two Door Cinema Club, AFI, the Hives, Weezer, One Direc ...
, is one of the three new songs and the lead single of the band's first
compilation album
A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...
, ''
Up to Now'' (2009). The lyrics were written by
Gary Lightbody and the music was composed by Snow Patrol. "Just Say Yes" has its origins as a song written for pop singer
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Renée Stefani Shelton ( ; born October 3, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter and fashion designer.
Stefani rose to fame as a member and lead vocalist of the band No Doubt, whose hit singles include " Just a Girl", " Spiderwebs", an ...
, who rejected it.
Nicole Scherzinger
Nicole Prascovia Elikolani Scherzinger ( ; ; born June 29, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and television personality. She was a member of the girl group and dance ensemble the Pussycat Dolls between 2003 and 2010. With ...
of
the Pussycat Dolls
The Pussycat Dolls were an American girl group and dance ensemble, founded in Los Angeles, California, by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995 as a neo-burlesque troupe. At the suggestion of Jimmy Iovine, Antin decided to take the troupe mainstrea ...
was then given permission by Lightbody to record it for her solo debut album, which was later shelved.
Snow Patrol later took the song back and recorded it for their compilation album ''Up to Now''. The song, having an electronic, synthpop sound, marks a distinct change in the Snow Patrol's sound, with writer Gary Lightbody calling it their most adventurous single to date. The video, directed by
Blue Leach, features light effects and projection to bring a trippy, dreamy feel. The song was used in a music campaign for
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...
in the Netherlands. It was also used in the trailer for the 2010 film
Leap Year
A leap year (also known as an intercalary year or bissextile year) is a calendar year that contains an additional day (or, in the case of a lunisolar calendar, a month) compared to a common year. The 366th day (or 13th month) is added to keep t ...
. The city of
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...
,
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
was given permission to use the song in their successful bid to be crowned
UK City of Culture 2013.
It performed well commercially, reaching the top 10 on the singles chart in countries like Belgium, Denmark and Ireland and topped the charts in the Netherlands. However, the critical reaction was mixed. Reviews generally praised the song for encompassing the band's past and new sound. The negative reviews criticized the song for being too linear, and for not having any "spark".
Background
The song was written by Gary Lightbody in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
with producer Jacknife Lee. He wrote it at the request of the band's label in the United States for pop singer Gwen Stefani's then upcoming album.
However, Stefani rejected it.
Later, Lightbody allowed
Pussycat Dolls
The Pussycat Dolls were an American girl group and dance ensemble, founded in Los Angeles, California, by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995 as a neo-burlesque troupe. At the suggestion of Jimmy Iovine, Antin decided to take the troupe mainst ...
lead singer Nicole Scherzinger to record it. Scherzinger had loved the song, and felt grateful and "blessed" upon being given permission to record it, even calling it an "honour" to sing something written by Lightbody.
Scherzinger felt influenced by the Northern Irish Lightbody's accent, and attempted to record the song with an accent herself, with Lightbody acting as the producer.
Though she was nervous about doing justice to the song, she was relieved when Lightbody told her that her singing had made his mother cry.
The song was due to feature on Scherzinger's solo debut album ''
Her Name is Nicole'' (2006) which was subsequently scrapped. A brand new debut album ''
Killer Love
''Killer Love'' is the debut solo studio album by American singer Nicole Scherzinger which features special guest appearances from Sting, Enrique Iglesias & 50 Cent. It was released on March 18, 2011, by Interscope Records, in association with i ...
'' was released in 2011, scrapping much of the earlier recorded material. According to
ASCAP
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...
, who register recordings and song rights in the US, The Pussycat Dolls also recorded and registered the song. When Snow Patrol's label in the United Kingdom heard the song, they were shocked to learn that Lightbody had given away the song in the first place.
Lightbody then reclaimed the song for the band.
At the
V Festival
V Festival, often referred to as V Fest or simply V, was an annual music festival held in the United Kingdom during the third weekend in August. The event was held at two parks simultaneously which shared the same bill; artists performed at one ...
in August 2009, Lightbody in an interview to ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...
'' revealed that the song was to be the band's next single and that it will feature on the compilation ''Up to Now'', accompanying the
Reworked Tour of November–December 2009. Where Scherzinger's recording was a soft and slow song with an electronic beat, the new recording was far from that.
The band changed the texture fully to predominantly electronic and synth.
Drummer
Jonny Quinn called the song a progression for the band.
The song is about "loving someone so much that you get exasperated they aren't showing the same amount of passion that you are". ''
The Denver Post
''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in the Denver metropolitan area. it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 mil ...
'' described the song as an "electronic-infused, '80s-kissed track".
Lightbody, who as a teenager loved dance music and frequented nightclubs, says "Just Say Yes" is a song that the band has always "had in them", but expressed surprise at the fact it took 15 years to happen.
Quinn admitted the band were worried and knew they were taking a chance with the song. He felt a lot of people might hate it, but said the band had no regrets doing it.
Promotion and release
The song received its first airplay on
Zane Lowe
Alexander Zane Reed Lowe (born 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence through pr ...
's
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 Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...
show on 17 September 2009. Lightbody joined Lowe on air via phone from Toronto, the band's scheduled tour stop. The song made
Xfm's main playlist, was also added on BBC Radio 1's C list on 30 September 2009 and was later promoted to the B list on 7 October and the A list on 21 October 2009. It was later added to
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...
's C list on 10 October 2009, and got played 5 times a week. The song became one of the three top songs in rotation on several radio stations in Netherlands.
[ ] Additionally, it was picked up for
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...
's
Comes With Music campaign on the TV and internet, which ran for eight weeks.
The band appeared on
T4 programme on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
twice. On 31 October, they made an appearance on a special show called "4Music Favorites: Snow Patrol", giving an interview, playing "Just Say Yes" and past singles "
Chasing Cars
"Chasing Cars" is a song by Northern Irish–Scottish alternative rock band Snow Patrol, released on 6 June 2006 in the United States and 24 July in the United Kingdom as the second single of their fourth album, '' Eyes Open'' (2006). The son ...
" and "
Chocolate
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods.
Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...
". The next night, the band visited the T4 Studio to play the single.
The single was released on 30 October 2009 in Ireland and the Netherlands
and 2 November 2009 in the UK, about a week before the album was released.
In the United States, the single was released digitally on the
iTunes Store and
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevu ...
on 23 October 2009 (although the US iTunes Store records a 1 November release).
[ Note: Need iTunes to view link.] The b-side of the physical single is a remix of the song, called the "Thin White Duke Mix". It was done by
Stuart Price.
Music video
The music video for the song was produced by James Bolton and directed by Blue Leach, who has previously directed the video/mini-film for the sixteen-minute "
The Lightning Strike", which was used during live performances and is included on ''Up to Now''. The video for "Just Say Yes" premiered on 22 September 2009 on
MSN and
AOL, respectively for users in the United Kingdom and the United States. The video was shot in an
inflatable dome (called the Eventhaus Plus)
in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
. The dome was enhanced by lighting and projection.
The video features the band members dressed in white performing the song on their instruments. The whole performance is supplemented by several light effects projected on the dome's white background, giving the appearance of a disco/nightclub.
The video has been described as a "spacey, mental hospital-esque padded bandshell underneath trippy, rave-ish lights".
Spinner.com praised it, calling the light effects "impressive", saying they added a "dreamy spin" to the performance.
MTV
MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
reviewer Chris Ryan felt that there was plenty about the video to make fun of, but found it to be good.
''
Filter'' called it a "perfect winter time companion".
Track listing
*CD single:
#"Just Say Yes" – 4:42
#"Just Say Yes" (
Thin White Duke Mix) (Edit) – 4:14
*Australian iTunes:
[ Note: Need iTunes to view link.]
#"Just Say Yes" – 4:42
#"Just Say Yes" (Thin White Duke Mix) – 7:26
#"Shut Your Eyes" (Live) – 9:09
Live track recorded at V Festival,
Chelmsford
Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...
on 23 August 2009.
*UK/Irish iTunes:
[ Note: Need iTunes to view link.]
#"Just Say Yes" – 4:42
#"Just Say Yes" (Video) – 4:12
*US iTunes/Amazon.com:
#"Just Say Yes" – 4:42
Critical reception
''
EW'' called Scherzinger's version "elegant" and ''
Rap-Up
''Rap-Up'' is a magazine launched in 2001 by founder Devin Lazerine. The publication was originally a website devoted to hip hop, until Lazerine decided to pitch the possibility of a magazine to several publishers. The magazine is focused on the ...
'' magazine "understated".
Critical reaction towards Snow Patrol's version was mixed. ''
Q'' magazine picked the song as their Track of the Day on 15 October 2009. It noted the change in musical direction with the usage of beats and synthesizers, but still calling it "undoubtedly Snow Patrol", writing that the song was trademark Snow Patrol: Lightbody's love-ridden lyrics with stadium-sized guitar lines and a sweeping chorus. MTV reviewer Chris Ryan liked the song, and wrote that the vocal parts and the video's light show were very cheesy but they went well with the song. He however noted that the song had the same style of build-up and release of past hits "
Run" and "Chasing Cars", with "some
Simple Minds
Simple Minds are a Scottish Rock music, rock band formed in Glasgow in 1977, becoming best known internationally for their song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (1985), which topped the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' Billboard Hot 100, Hot 100 ...
/sedated in the 80s keyboards" added to "up the romance."
''
Planet Sound'' gave the single 7 out of 10. Reviewer
John Earls said that the song encompassed the band's early sound and recent ballads, and felt it will keep the listener intrigued as to what the band does next.
However, ''
Digital Spy
Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...
''s review of the single was negative. Reviewer Mayer Nissim gave it 2 stars out of 5 and said that the song does not succeed as a new sound for the band, and that it merely sounded as if it had been created on a "few floaty keys". He criticised the song for utilizing the "same over-earnest lyrics and soporific melodies as ever", and sarcastically noted that guitarist Nathan Connolly was not lying when he said that the band will continue to sound like "Snow Patrol", no matter what musical direction they take.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
's Fraser McAlpine gave the single 2 stars out of 5. He said that it "wanted" itself to be seen as something magical, but did not have good enough tricks to do so. He criticised the linearity of the song, citing that it had only two melody lines: one for the verse and another for the chorus. The song has gained popularity with the
Emmerdale
''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British television soap opera that is broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a List of fictional towns and villages, fict ...
fanbase after being used as backing music for
Jackson Walsh and
Aaron Livesy's second kiss.
Commercial performance
The song was described as being a potential worldwide hit, in the vein of the Snow Patrol song "Chasing Cars".
The single did well on the iTunes Store, becoming the top selling song on the Dutch and Irish iTunes and the third best selling single in Belgium. In the French-speaking part of the country,
Wallonia
Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium—along with Flemish Region, Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the c ...
, the song debuted the first position on the component Ultratip chart. The single did well in the Netherlands. It was chosen as the "Record of the Week" in the Netherlands by two radio stations: by
Radio 538 for week 39 of 2009 and by
3FM. It subsequently debuted at the top of the
Dutch Tipparade and 3FM
Mega Top 50
__NOTOC__
Mega Top 30 is a Dutch music chart compiled by SoundAware and broadcast every Saturday from 14:00 - 16:00 on NPO 3FM. It originally started on November 30, 1963, as the ''Tijd voor Teenagers Top 10''. Throughout the years, the chart has ...
in its first week on both charts, and also became the highest-charting single of the band in the Netherlands by reaching the first position, succeeding the success of "
Shut Your Eyes" and "
Crack the Shutters" which peaked at fourteen. The song also peaked at the second position on the Dutch
Single Top 100
The Dutch Single Top 100 or Single Top 100 is a Dutch chart, based on official physical single sales, legal downloads and since July 2013 streaming and composed by Dutch Charts. It is one of the three official charts, the other two being the Du ...
chart, which contains physical and digital sales, and became the most downloaded song in the country.
In the United States, for the 25th anniversary of ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
''s
Adult Alternative Airplay
Adult Alternative Airplay (also known as Triple A or Triple A Airplay, and formerly Adult Alternative Songs and Triple A Songs) is a record chart currently published by ''Billboard'' that ranks the most popular songs on adult album alternative radi ...
chart in early 2021,
the magazine would rank "Just Say Yes" at number 85 on its list of the top 100 most successful songs in the history of the chart.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
References
External links
*
*
{{authority control
2009 singles
Snow Patrol songs
Song recordings produced by Jacknife Lee
2009 songs
Dutch Top 40 number-one singles
Interscope Records singles
Rock ballads
Synth-pop ballads
Songs written by Gary Lightbody
2000s ballads
pt:Just Say Yes (canção)