"Without You" is a song written by Eric Silver and

Natalie Maines Natalie Louise Maines (born October 14, 1974) is an American singer. She is the lead vocalist for the all-female country band The Chicks. In 1995, after leaving Berklee College of Music, Maines was recruited by the Dixie Chicks to replace their ...

, and recorded by American

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, ...

group

Dixie Chicks The Chicks (previously known as Dixie Chicks) are an American country music band from Dallas, Texas. Since 1995, the band has consisted of Natalie Maines (lead vocals, guitar) and sisters Martie Maguire (vocals, fiddle, mandolin, guitar) and E ...

. It was released in August 2000 as the fifth single from their album ''

Fly Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...

''. In January 2001, it hit number one on the U.S. country singles chart. It also reached number 31 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.

History

Written by lead singer

and country songwriter Eric Silver, "Without You" is on the surface one of the Chicks' more conventional efforts, lacking the "attitude" factor that distinguished them at the time. A ballad that directly speaks of lost love :I thought by now the time, :Would take away these lonely tears. :I hope you're doing fine all alone, :But where do I go from here, 'cause — :Without you, I'm not okay :And without you, I've lost my way :My heart's stuck in second place :Ooo - ooo :Without you ... It was accompanied by

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

and soft

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

at the start, adding

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

s on the chorus,

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

into the bridge and a dramatic

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

part out of the bridge and into the last chorus, before finishing as it started. The tender melody is sung by Maines without excessive ornamentation, and the harmonies from

Emily Robison Emily Burns Strayer ( Erwin, previously Robison; born August 16, 1972) is an American songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and a founding member of the country band The Chicks, formerly known as the Dixie Chicks. Strayer plays banjo, dob ...

and

Martie Seidel Martha Elenor Maguire (née Erwin, previously Seidel; October 12, 1969) is an American musician who is a founding member of both the all-female alternative country band The Chicks and country bluegrass duo Court Yard Hounds. She won awards in na ...

are unobtrusive. "Without You" was performed on the Chicks' 2000 Fly Tour, but generally not on subsequent tours.

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 ...

for "Without You" was one of the Chicks' more startling. Directed by Thom Oliphant and Maines' husband

Adrian Pasdar Adrian Pasdar (born April 30, 1965) is an American film, television, and voice actor. He is known for his roles in '' Profit'', ''Near Dark'', ''Carlito's Way'', ''Mysterious Ways'', ''Heroes'' and as Glenn Talbot on ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.''. ...

, almost every scene consisted of a nude person against a completely white background, be it the three Chicks (from the shoulders up), a muscular African-American male, a very pregnant woman, another woman, or a baby. Vulnerability was the general tone. In contrast to their more light-hearted early videos from the same album, such as for "

Cowboy Take Me Away "Cowboy Take Me Away" is a song by recorded American country music group Dixie Chicks, written by Martie Maguire and Marcus Hummon. It was released in November 1999 as the second single from their album ''Fly''. The song's title is derived from ...

", here they looked much more serious, with Maines having longer hair and Robison having made her move to dark hair. The video ends on a very sad note, with a white-on-black inscription reading "Dedicated to the memory of Jackson Miles Ezell Oct. 7 – Oct. 11, 2000". The actress playing the pregnant woman in the video gave birth to a son shortly after the video was filmed, but the boy only lived four days. The Chicks were extremely devastated and offered to re-film a new video, but the mother asked that this one be released so the Chicks added the postscript in remembrance.

Chart performance

Year-end charts

Notes

References

{{Dixie Chicks 2000 singles The Chicks songs Country ballads Songs written by Natalie Maines Song recordings produced by Paul Worley Monument Records singles Song recordings produced by Blake Chancey 1999 songs