"Let Me Be Myself" is the second main single (fourth, counting the promo singles " Citizen/Soldier" and "

Train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

") by rock band 3 Doors Down from their eponymous fourth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

. The song was released on December 2, 2008. The song is a

power ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner.J. M. C ...

, similar to previous hits by the band, "Be Like That" and "

Here Without You "Here Without You" is a song by American rock band 3 Doors Down. The power ballad was released on July 28, 2003, as the third single from the band's second studio album, ''Away from the Sun'' (2002). The song reached 5 on the US ''Billboard'' ...

Song meaning

"Let Me Be Myself" was written by Bradley Kirk Arnold, Matthew Darrick Roberts, Christopher Lee Henderson and Robert Todd Harrell. Lead singer, Brad Arnold, said the song has a lot of meaning to him personally, and cited it as his favorite track from the album. During a performance of the song on the famous

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

rock station,

K-Rock K-Rock may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media *Korean rock, rock music from Korea Musicians/bands * K-Rock, an American rapper from Memphis, Tennessee who has worked with artist like Tommy Wright III and the American rap group Three 6 Mafia. ...

, he stated that the song "is about just being yourself, without thinking of what people say". Arnold told '' Artist Direct'': "Let Me By Myself" is simply about standing in the light and being yourself. It's so easy to get lost being what someone else wants you to be and forgetting about who you want to be. That song is about getting back to those things, being happy with yourself and who you are."

Music video

The music video for the song is an incorporation of GEICO's cavemen. The music video follows around the GEICO caveman, who runs away from a party after not fitting in. Throughout the video, he is constantly approached by humans whom he pushes away. At the end of the video he meets up with several other caveman at the local bowling alley where he finally relaxes and has a good time. The video also includes actor

Michael Raymond-James Michael Raymond-James (born Michael Weverstad; December 24, 1977) is an American actor. He is best known for playing René Lenier in the first season of the HBO series ''True Blood'', Britt Pollack on the FX series ''Terriers'', Neal Cassidy/Ba ...

from '' True Blood''. The music video was preceded by about a month by a GEICO commercial featuring the song along with a scene reminiscent of the last scene of the music video. The commercials, however, ended differently in that the Caveman became depressed when he saw that the bowling alley's

pinsetter In bowling, a pinsetter or pinspotter is an automated mechanical device that sets bowling pins back in their original positions, returns bowling balls to the front of the alley, and clears fallen pins on the pin deck. Prior to the machine's ...

was sponsored by GEICO, and prominently displayed their slogan "So Easy A Caveman Can Do It." The music video ended on a happier note and does not feature the GEICO logo at all.

Chart performance

"Let Me Be Myself" debuted at #38 on ''

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 ...

s Adult Top 40 chart, peaking at #12. The song also reached #4 on the Hot AC Recurrent Chart.

Billboard.com ''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music ...

/ref>

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

* {{authority control 3 Doors Down songs 2008 singles Music videos directed by Shaun Silva Songs written by Brad Arnold Songs written by Matt Roberts (musician) Songs written by Todd Harrell Songs written by Chris Henderson (American musician) 2008 songs Universal Records singles Song recordings produced by Johnny K