"Leave Right Now" is a song written by British singer-songwriter

Will Young William Robert Young (born 20 January 1979) is a British singer-songwriter and actor who came to prominence after winning the 2002 Pop Idol (series 1), inaugural series of the ITV (TV network), ITV talent contest ''Pop Idol'', making him the f ...

. It was written by

Eg White Francis Anthony "Eg" White (born 22 November 1966) is a British musician, songwriter and producer. He started his career in the cowpunk band Yip Yip Coyote in the 1980s and then formed Brother Beyond with his brother, David White, in the late ...

and produced by

Stephen Lipson Stephen J. Lipson (born 16 March 1954) is an English record producer, audio engineer, guitarist and songwriter. As a record producer, he has worked with many artists including Annie Lennox, Propaganda, Act, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Will Youn ...

for his second studio album, '' Friday's Child'' (2003). A song about

unrequited love Unrequited love or one-sided love is love that is not openly reciprocated or understood as such by the beloved. The beloved may not be aware of the admirer's deep and pure affection, or may consciously reject it. The Merriam Webster Online Dic ...

, it was released as the album's first single, becoming another number-one hit on the Irish and 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 ...

. White was awarded the

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy (formerly the BASCA) since 1956, and over 1,000 statuettes have been a ...

for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for "Leave Right Now" in 2004. The song was later also included on the international version of Young's third album, ''

Keep On ''Keep On'' is the third studio album by English singer Will Young. It was released on 21 November 2005, debuting at number 2 on the albums chart in the United Kingdom, as the album sold 107,318 copies in its first week. However, its biggest sal ...

'' (2005). It also served as the exit song for the ninth season of ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

''. Young performed it on the penultimate episode to accompany a video montage recapping the season on 25 May 2010.

Critical reception

Stylus Magazine ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...

'', who were mostly mixed to negative for Young's previous number ones, rated "Leave Right Now" with 9/10, saying "Better. Much, much better. By this time Will was comfortable as a popstar, prepared to add a little WTF to his videos (here he has a fight with the viewer in an art gallery), and had his style down pat: jacket and jeans rocked to a level not seen since Lovejoy and Tinker were bossing things in the late 80s. He had songs to match as well: 'Leave Right Now' is just one of the most English songs ever, which is understandable: what could be more English than a privately educated homosexual? The guy's a moderate genius—Dido with testicles and a heart." In 2007, ''

Freaky Trigger ''Freaky Trigger'' is an Internet publication and e-zine that focuses on popular culture with topics varying from music to cinema. It was founded by the music critic Tom Ewing in 1999 and features Pete Baran and Mark Sinker as editors. From 2000 ...

'' ranked the song at number 54 in their list of the "Top 100 Songs of All Time," with critic Pete Baran calling it "one of the ''ballsiest'' songs of the noughties." In 2020, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' ranked "Leave Right Now" at number 74 in its list of "The 100 greatest UK No 1 singles".

Commercial performance

The single went to number one in the

and stayed there for two weeks, selling 117,702 copies in its first week. As of December 2018, the single had sold 638,000 copies, (728,000 including streaming equivalent sales). The song has sold 50,000 copies in the United States according to ''

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 ...

'', with 32,000 of those occurring the week he performed on ''

''.

Music video

A music video for "Leave Right Now" was directed by

Kevin Godley Kevin Michael Godley (born 7 October 1945) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and music video director. He is known as the singer and drummer of the art rock band 10cc and later as part of collaboration duo Godley & Creme with Lol Creme ...

. The clip, which has no transitions and features actress

Kelly Wenham Kelly Wenham (born 28 November 1983) is an English actress, director, screenwriter and comedian. Life and career Wenham was born in Stockport. Her early career was spent in modelling, before answering a casting call for a bit part in '' Always ...

as one of the party guests, features Young at a party where a fight starts and he gets caught up in it.

Track listings

Credits and personnel

* Tracey Ackerman – backing vocals *Steve Barney – drums *

Anne Dudley Anne Jennifer Dudley (née Beckingham; born 7 May 1956) is an English composer, keyboardist, conductor and pop musician. She was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001. She has worked in the classical and pop genre ...

– orchestra arranger *

– producer, programming *Heff Moraes – mixing engineer *John Themis – guitar *Greg Wells – keyboards *

– protools *Will Young – guitar, vocals, writer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Cover versions

*In 2005, "Leave Right Now" was parodied by

Mario Rosenstock Mario Rosenstock (born 31 August 1970) is an Irish actor, comedian, impressionist and musician. Career Rosenstock first came to the attention of the Irish public playing the role of Dr. David Hanlon in the soap '' Glenroe'' in the 1990s.

for the radio show ''

Gift Grub ''Gift Grub'' is a series of short comic pieces broadcast on weekdays on The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show on the Irish commercial radio station Today FM, having been broadcast since May 1999. History A precursor to "Gift Grub" originally aired o ...

'', whose identically titled version poked fun at

Roy Keane Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971) is an Irish football pundit, coach and former professional player. He is the joint most successful Irish footballer of all time, having won 19 major trophies in his club career, 17 of which came during ...

's controversial departure from

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and his falling-out with

Alex Ferguson Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all time ...

. Rosenstock's version also reached number one on the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are bas ...

. *In 2005, "Leave Right Now" was covered in French by Pierrick Lilliu as "La même erreur" on his 2005 debut album, ''Besoin d'espace''. *In 2005, actor

Peter Gallagher Peter Killian Gallagher (born August 19, 1955) is an American actor. Since 1980, he has played roles in numerous Hollywood films. He is best known for starring as Sandy Cohen in the television drama series ''The O.C.'' from 2003 to 2007, recurr ...

recorded a version for his album ''7 Days in Memphis''. *In 2013, Australian artist

Anthony Callea Anthony Cosmo Callea (born 13 December 1982) is an Australian singer-songwriter and stage actor who rose to prominence as the runner-up in the 2004 season of '' Australian Idol''. Callea's debut single, a cover of Celine Dion and Andrea Bocel ...

recorded a version for his album, ''

Thirty 30 (thirty) is the natural number following 29 and preceding 31. In mathematics 30 is an even, composite, pronic number. With 2, 3, and 5 as its prime factors, it is a regular number and the first sphenic number, the smallest of the form , ...

''. *In 2018, English musical theatre actor

Lee Mead Lee Stephen Mead (born 14 July 1981) is an English musical theatre, television actor and occasional singer, best known for winning the title role in the 2007 West End revival of '' Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' through the BBC T ...

recorded a version for his album ''10 Year Anniversary''.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 19 Recordings singles 2003 singles 2003 songs 2010 singles Bertelsmann Music Group singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Number-one singles in Scotland RCA Records singles Song recordings produced by Stephen Lipson Songs written by Eg White Syco Music singles UK Singles Chart number-one singles Will Young songs