King for a Day is a song by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band Pierce the Veil released on June 5, 2012. It features guest vocals by

Kellin Quinn Kellin Quinn is an American singer and musician. He is the lead vocalist and keyboardist of the post-hardcore band Sleeping with Sirens. Aside from his band, he is well-known for collaborating with other artists. Career Quinn is the vocalis ...

of Sleeping with Sirens. It is the first official single from their third studio album '' Collide with the Sky'' (2012). On August 6, 2012, an official music video was released. The song charted on

Hot Rock Songs Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (formerly known as Rock Songs and Hot Rock Songs) is a record chart published by ''Billboard'' magazine. From its debut on June 20, 2009, through October 13, 2012, the chart ranked the airplay of songs across alternati ...

and the Digital Rock Songs charts, both published by ''

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 advertise ...

''. "King for a Day" was nominated for both Best Single and Best Video at the 2013

Kerrang! Awards The Kerrang! Awards are an annual music awards show in the United Kingdom, founded by the music magazine ''Kerrang!'' and focusing primarily on rock music. The annual awards features performances by prominent artists, and some of the awards of mo ...

Background and recording

The title of the song came from drummer

Mike Fuentes Michael Jay Fuentes (born July 11, 1958) is an American former Major League Baseball player. He attended Florida State University, where he was the 1981 recipient of the Golden Spikes Award. Career Fuentes was selected by the Montreal Expos with ...

.''

Revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...

''
Pierce the Veil Frontman Vic Fuentes Discusses New Song, “King for a Day,” Featuring Kellin Quinn of Sleeping With Sirens
/ref> In an interview with

, lead vocalist Vic Fuentes said he was impressed by the title. Together with Curtis Peoples and Steve Miller, Fuentes started to write the song lyrics in a small cabin in

Big Bear Lake Big Bear Lake is a reservoir in the San Bernardino Mountains, in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It is a snow and rain fed lake, having no other means of tributaries or mechanical replenishment. At a surface elevation of , it ...

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 ...

which became later a small recording studio. Because of the fans, the band contacted Kellin Quinn of Sleeping with Sirens asking if he was interested in being featured on the song. They never met before but Fuentes decided to write to him on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. Quinn decided to collaborate with Pierce the Veil. His vocal parts were recorded in a second studio. While producing the song, Pierce the Veil and Kellin Quinn wrote together via email.

Meaning

This song is about getting pushed past the breaking point. In an interview, Fuentes stated he sometimes has too many things around his mind at once so he isn't able to control his mind or his body at times.

Music video

An official music video was directed by Drew Russ who would get involved later in their music video for " Bulls in the Bronx". On June 25, 2012 ''

Alternative Press Alternative press may refer to: Individual publications * ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine Alternative journalism * Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) ** Alternative media (U.S. political ri ...

'' announced Pierce the Veil started working on a new music video. On August 2, 2012, the band published an official trailer for the music video.Michele Bird: ''Alternative Press''
Pierce The Veil release “King For A Day” video preview
/ref> Four days later the video officially was premiered on

Vevo Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, di ...

. The video portrays Vic Fuentes and Kellin Quinn as bankers. The bank manager Mr. Smalls asks both to stay in the bank overnight to correct the sales values for an IRS audit. In doing this they discover that Mr. Smalls transferred more than $2,500,000 to an

offshore bank An offshore bank is a bank regulated under international banking license (often called offshore license), which usually prohibits the bank from establishing any business activities in the jurisdiction of establishment. Due to less regulation and ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

(although it is written as "Switerland" in the music video), which was most likely the reason for the forced pay cut the employees had taken a week before. At the beginning of the second verse, Quinn and Fuentes meet with other people (played by the other band members of Pierce the Veil) who plan to rob the bank. In the chorus, Fuentes and Quinn enter the building in black suits. In the bridge, the gang arrive and get into the bank. Mr. Smalls is caught by a robber while all the bankers hide. The robbers get into the safe-deposit and start collecting the money in bags, which they later give to the employees. While he is tied up Mr. Smalls pees all over himself. When they're ready to flee, one of the robbers shoots Mr. Smalls with a water gun at which point he realizes they have cheated him. At the end of the video, the robbers celebrate their victory while Mr. Smalls is arrested due to

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...

and

embezzlement Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...

and sentenced to 25 years in prison, which was released on the news station the robbers watch during their celebration. A behind-the-scenes-video was published on October 3, 2012, on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

Reception

Commercial

"King for a Day" was released as the first single of '' Collide with the Sky'' on June 5, 2012.Tyler Common: ''

''
Pierce The Veil release “King For A Day” lyric video featuring Kellin Quinn
On the same day a lyric-video was published on

which got nearly 30 million views. On August 6, 2012, the official music video was released and has garnered 137 million views as of October 17, 2021. The single charted on the U.S. ''

'' Digital Rock Songs where it peaked at 29, and on the

chart with a peak of 37.Charts
US Digital Rock SongsUS Hot Rock SongsUK Rock & Metal Singles
/ref> The song also peaked at 28 in the UK Rock & Metal Singles Charts. In November 2014, the song was certified

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

for having sold more than 500,000 units in the U.S. On October 29, 2019, it was announced the single went Platinum, selling more than one million units digitally. On May 12, 2015, it was revealed that "King for a Day" will be one of the playable songs in the video game ''

Guitar Hero Live ''Guitar Hero Live'' is a 2015 music rhythm video game developed by FreeStyleGames and published by Activision. It is the seventh main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xb ...

''. It was also announced that ''King for a Day'' will be available for downloadable content for ''

Rock Band 4 ''Rock Band 4'' is a 2015 music video game developed and published by Harmonix. ''Rock Band 4'' allows players to simulate the playing of music across many different decades and genres using instrument controllers that mimic playing lead and bas ...

'' when pre-ordered digitally on

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

. On August 17, 2022, "King for a Day" reached 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hard Rock Streaming Songs Chart, 7 on the Rock Streaming Songs Chart, 6 on Alternative Streaming Songs Chart, and 21 on Alternative Digital Song Sales Chart thanks to a surge in usage of the song on Tik-Tok.

Awards

Readers poll ** 2012: ''Best Single'' (won) *

Rhian Jones: ''

Musicweek ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music Wee ...

''
Kerrang! Awards 2013 - all the winners
/ref> **

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

: ''Best Video'' (won) ** 2013: ''Best Single'' (nominated)

Charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control Pierce the Veil songs Songs written by Vic Fuentes 2012 songs 2012 singles Vocal collaborations