"Paralyzer" is a song 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 ...
band
Finger Eleven
Finger Eleven is a Canadian Rock music, rock band from Burlington, Ontario, formed in 1990. They have released seven studio albums (six as Finger Eleven and one as Rainbow Butt Monkeys), with their album ''The Greyest of Blue Skies'' bringing th ...
. It was released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, ''
Them vs. You vs. Me'', on March 1, 2007. The song received high airplay in both the United States and Canada, and was performed live on the March 14, 2007 episode of ''
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009. It resumed production on March 1, 2010 and ended on February 6, 2014.
The fourth incarnation of the ...
'' and again ten months later on January 9, 2008, in a testament to the longevity of the single's success. The song has surpassed "
One Thing" to be Finger Eleven's most successful single.
Composition
Finger Eleven's frontman
Scott Anderson has said that the single has a feel distinct from the rest of Finger Eleven's music, possessing more of a
funk rock
Funk rock is a fusion genre that mixes elements of funk and rock. James Brown and others declared that Little Richard and his mid-1950s road band, The Upsetters, were the first to put the funk in the rock and roll beat, with a biographer stat ...
or
dance-rock
Dance-rock is a dance-infused genre of rock music. It is a post-disco genre connected with pop rock and post-punk with fewer rhythm and blues influences. It originated in the early 1980s, following the decline in popularity of both punk and disc ...
sound. However, the song has also been characterized as
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...
. The style of the song has been compared to (though inspired by) "
Take Me Out", a 2004 single by
indie rock
Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...
band
Franz Ferdinand
Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I.
Fr ...
. Finger Eleven occasionally performed "Take Me Out" during the middle of ''Paralyzer'' in live performances as a part of a medley along with "
Trampled Under Foot
"Trampled Under Foot" is a song by English rock group Led Zeppelin. A funk-influenced piece with John Paul Jones on clavinet, it was included on their 1975 album '' Physical Graffiti''. The song was released as a single in several countries an ...
" by
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...
and "
Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" by
Pink Floyd. "Paralyzer" is about feeling uncomfortable in a dance club.
Drummer Rich Beddoe said "It's something the whole band feels". He added,
The single has three versions; one is the original CD version, while the other two are
radio edit
In music, a radio edit or radio mix is a modification, typically truncated or censored, intended to make a song more suitable for airplay, whether it be adjusted for length, profanity, subject matter, instrumentation, or form. Radio edits may al ...
versions, in which the line containing the word "
shitty" is either censored or replaced with "shady". The song alludes to the band's prior hit "
One Thing" with the lyric ''"I should just stay home, if one thing really means one".
Music video
The video was released on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and 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 Google, and is the second mo ...
. It starts with a man, walking, who begins to intersperse his steps with dance moves. He looks into windows and in the reflection, he sees himself with dancers around him, but when he turns he sees a woman. The two begin to dance with the symbolic dancers returning in greater numbers every time the chorus repeats. The video alternates between shots of the band playing on a rooftop that overlooks the dancers in a seemingly abandoned street.
The video reached number eight on
VH1's weekly ''
VSpot Top 20 Countdown''. On the channel's year-end Top 40 Videos of 2007, it placed at number 23, despite only having spent (at the time) one week on its weekly ''Top 20 Countdown''.
Chart performance
"Paralyzer" debuted on the U.S.
''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number 97 in June 2007. It proceeded to slowly gain in airplay and digital sales over the months. For the chart week of November 24, 2007 (over six months after the song was released), it became the band's first-career top 10 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, rising from number 14 to number 10. The song then rose to peak at number six on the Hot 100 over a month later, for the chart week of January 5, 2008. The song became the band's first number one on the Mainstream Rock and Alternative charts. It also became their second top five song on the Alternative Chart after "One Thing", which had peaked at number five, and it later tied 30 Seconds to Mars "The Kill (Bury Me)" and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus "Face Down" for the record of spending the most weeks on that chart (52 weeks). The record has since been broken by
Rise Against's "
Savior
Savior or Saviour may refer to:
*A person who helps people achieve salvation, or saves them from something
Religion
* Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will rule for seven, nine or nineteen years
* Maitreya
* Messiah, a saviour or l ...
". It also found great success on the ''Billboard'' Adult Top 40, eventually climbing peaking at number three, their second top three song on that chart after "One Thing", which had reached number two. It also hit number one on its
recurrent chart. The song topped three million digital downloads in the United States in late December 2010, and as of January 2015, the song has sold 3.4 million copies in the U.S.
The track peaked at number 12 on the Australian Singles Chart based on downloads alone; an amazing achievement considering eighty percent of single sales come from physical releases. "Paralyzer" is one of the most successful hits for the band. At the end of the year, the single ranked number 58 for the year in Australia.
The single has been certified double platinum (2,457,058 downloads) by the RIAA.
RIAA Gold and Platinum Program - Finger Eleven
/ref>
On the Canadian Singles Chart, the song became the band's second number one following 2003's "One Thing." It also did well on the Canadian Hot 100, reaching number three. The song later debuted at number 10 on the New Zealand RIANZ
Recorded Music NZ (formerly the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ)) is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell recorded music in New Zealand. Membership of Recorded Mus ...
chart in February 2008, becoming the band's first charting song there. It climbed to number seven the following week.
Usage in media
The song has been featured on the television series ''Gossip Girl
''Gossip Girl'' is an American teen drama television series based on the novel series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series, developed for television by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, ran on The CW network for six sea ...
'' and ''Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''. It is also a playable song in the rhythm game ''Rock Revolution
''Rock Revolution'' is a music video game developed by Zoë Mode and HB Studios and published by Konami. The game was released on 15 October 2008 for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. As with similar titles, the game uses various ...
'' by Konami
, is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has casino ...
; although the game's producers have stated that all songs will be covers, the song is one of two for which the game uses the original master recording (the other being "Given Up
"Given Up" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. The song was released as the fourth single from their third studio album, ''Minutes to Midnight''. It was released on February 17, 2008 in the UK as a digital download. The song was not as ...
" by Linkin Park). The song is also a playable song in the rhythm game ''Band Hero
''Band Hero'' is a spinoff video game as part of the ''Guitar Hero series'' of music rhythm games, released by Activision on November 3, 2009, for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Nintendo DS consoles. The game is struct ...
'' by Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...
. The song is also on the ''Rock Band'' Network, and was introduced as DLC into ''Rocksmith
''Rocksmith'' is a music video game produced by Ubisoft, released in October 2011 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms in North America. ''Rocksmith'' was released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 during September 2012 in Australian and Europ ...
'' by Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', ...
. The song is also part of the third game in the Guitar Hero On Tour Series for the Nintendo DS, '' Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits''.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Finger Eleven
2007 singles
Finger Eleven songs
Funk rock songs
Dance-rock songs
Canadian Singles Chart number-one singles
2006 songs
Wind-up Records singles
Torch songs
Songs about alcohol
Songs about mental health
Song recordings produced by Johnny K