"Never Gonna Be Alone" is a song recorded by Canadian

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 ...

group

Nickelback Nickelback is a Canadian Rock music, rock band formed in 1995 in Hanna, Alberta. It is composed of guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist Ryan Peake, bassist Mike Kroeger, and drummer Daniel Adai ...

for their sixth studio album, ''

Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, or a contestant that on paper should be unlikely to succeed but yet still might. Origin Th ...

'' (2008). It was written by frontman

Chad Kroeger Chad Robert Kroeger ( Turton; born November 15, 1974) is a Canadian musician who is the lead singer and guitarist of the rock band Nickelback. In addition to his work with Nickelback, Kroeger has been involved with a variety of collaboration ...

with the record's producer,

Robert John "Mutt" Lange Robert John "Mutt" Lange (born 11 November 1948) is a South African record producer and songwriter, mainly known for his work in rock music as well as his previous marriage to Canadian singer Shania Twain, for whom he wrote and produced several ...

. "Never Gonna Be Alone" was released to American radio on September 29, 2009 as the album's sixth overall single and third US pop single. "Never Gonna Be Alone" became the group's tenth top 10

Adult Pop Pop music is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the ...

hit and was deemed by critics to be one of the album's best songs.

Composition

"Never Gonna Be Alone" is a

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

composed by Chad Kroeger and Mutt Lange. Kroeger's vocal style on the song is influenced by

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

. The song's lyrics speak of love or spirituality and find the narrator asking for a second chance. According to the sheet music published by Alfred Publishing Co., "Never Gonna Be Alone" was composed in the key of

E major E major (or the key of E) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, ...

and is set in

common time The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

to a "moderately slow" tempo of approximately 69 BPM. The song has a one

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

vocal range, from B to B.

Background and release

The song made its

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

n debut on

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

hot adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

radio station CJFM-FM in December 2008 before its release as a single and later went into rotation on other Canadian stations.

Roadrunner Records Roadrunner Records is an American record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock bands. Founded in the Netherlands in 1980, it is now a division of Warner Music Group and is based in New York City. History The label was launched in 1980 in t ...

officially serviced the song to American

contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR, contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by ...

on September 29, 2009. "Never Gonna Be Alone" serves as the third pop single in the US (after "

Gotta Be Somebody "Gotta Be Somebody" is the first official single released from Canadian rock band Nickelback's sixth studio album, '' Dark Horse''. It reached number 10 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, becoming their sixth and final top-10 hit. Background ...

" and "

If Today Was Your Last Day "If Today Was Your Last Day" is the third single from Nickelback's sixth studio album ''Dark Horse''. It was originally planned as the first single, to hit all U.S. radio formats September 30, 2008, but was scrapped as the first single in favou ...

") and fourth in Canada (including " I'd Come for You").

Commercial performance

"Never Gonna Be Alone" debuted at number 68 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart dated December 6, 2008 following the release of ''Dark Horse'' due to strong digital sales. The song re-entered the Hot 100 at 96 on the chart dated November 21, 2009 after it was released as a single. It later reached a peak position of 58 on the chart dated January 9, 2010. The song reached the top 10 on the

Adult Pop Songs The Adult Pop Airplay (formerly known as Adult Pop Songs and Adult Top 40) chart is published weekly by Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' magazine and ranks "the most popular adult top 40 as based on radio airplay detections measured by Nielsen B ...

chart in December 2009, becoming the group's tenth single to accomplish that feat. With the song's placement, Nickelback tied

Goo Goo Dolls The Goo Goo Dolls are an American rock band formed in 1986 in Buffalo, New York, by guitarist/vocalist John Rzeznik, bassist/vocalist Robby Takac, and drummer George Tutuska. After starting off as a cover band and then developing a punk sound, ...

for the most top 10 singles on the chart in the 2000s decade. "Never Gonna Be Alone" peaked at number 5 on the chart dated January 30, 2010, making it the group's ninth top 5 hit ("

Rockstar Rock Star or Rockstar may refer to: Films * ''Rock Star'' (2001 film), an American film starring Mark Wahlberg * ''Rockstar'' (2011 film), an Indian Hindi-language film by Imtiaz Ali * ''Rockstar'' (2015 film), an Indian Malayalam-language fi ...

" peaked just outside the top 5 at number 6 in 2006). In Canada, the song likewise entered the

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record chart in Canada; a n ...

chart upon the release of ''Dark Horse'', debuting at number 69 on the chart dated December 6, 2008. It re-entered the chart at the same position on the chart dated November 21, 2009 before reaching a peak position of 25 on the chart dated January 30, 2010.

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

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 ...

and premiered on November 10, 2009 on the social media accounts of

. It began airing on VH1 and

Fuse Fuse or FUSE may refer to: Devices * Fuse (electrical), a device used in electrical systems to protect against excessive current ** Fuse (automotive), a class of fuses for vehicles * Fuse (hydraulic), a device used in hydraulic systems to protect ...

on November 23. The video tells the story of a young woman (played by

Emily Bett Rickards Emily Bett Rickards (born July 24, 1991) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her role as Felicity Smoak on The CW series ''Arrow'', her first television credit. She has also reprised the role in the Arrowverse shows ''The Flash'', ''Legends ...

) who has lost her father and depicts the love between the two.

Synopsis

The video opens with the young woman in a limousine being taken to her wedding. She is holding a fake blue flower with her bouquet. As she walks down the aisle, she looks back at her mother and father, who are smiling proudly. The video uses a series of flashbacks – the woman's high school graduation, her father seeing her off to prom, and her father teaching her how to ride a bike – to highlight the shared memories between the two. A final flashback shows the father's funeral, where it is revealed that he passed when she was just a little girl. At the funeral, the girl holds two fake flowers in her hand, one yellow and one blue. She tosses the yellow one into her father's grave. The events in the flashbacks are shown again from a different perspective; each time the girl looks up at her father and sees him disappear in a shimmer of light. Back at the wedding, the girl is still looking back, seeing her father's ghost surrounded in light. The girl places the blue flower in her new husband's breast pocket, and the two wed. As they are leaving the church, the video cuts to her father once more, smiling proudly. He disappears for the final time, his daughter now fully grown up. Throughout, the video is intercut with scenes of the band singing in a room with a large, light-filled backdrop.

Use in media

The song is featured on the soundtrack of the Brazilian

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

, '' Caminho das Índias''.

Tracklisting

;International Promo CD #"Never Gonna Be Alone" ;Japanese Promo "Best Of" EP #"Never Gonna Be Alone" #"Gotta Be Somebody" #"If Today Was Your Last Day" #"Photograph" #"Rockstar" #"Someday" #"Feelin' Way Too Damn Good" #"How You Remind Me" #"Too Bad" #"Breathe" #"Leader Of Men"

Charts

Weekly charts

Year end charts

References

{{Authority control 2008 songs 2009 singles Nickelback songs Song recordings produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange Songs written by Chad Kroeger Songs written by Robert John "Mutt" Lange Roadrunner Records singles Music videos directed by Nigel Dick