"Evergreen" is a song co-written by

Jörgen Elofsson Kjell Åke Jörgen Elofsson (born 14 January 1962) is a Swedish songwriter. He was one of the writers of the songwriter-team at Cheiron Studios in Stockholm (along with Denniz PoP, Max Martin, Kristian Lundin, Andreas Carlsson, Rami Yacoub, ...

Per Magnusson Per Magnusson (born 30 May 1969) is a Swedish music producer and songwriter. His musical career took off in 1994 as one of the original team members of the now-legendary Cheiron Productions, meeting great international success working with Boyzo ...

and

David Kreuger David Kreuger is a Swedish songwriter and music producer. Career David Kreuger began at Cheiron Studios in the spring of 1993. During the period 1993-1997, he worked with Per Magnusson on several projects. Together, they produced and wrote so ...

, and originally recorded by Irish boy band

Westlife Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporarily di ...

. The song appears on their album ''

World of Our Own ''World of Our Own'' is the third studio album recorded by Irish boy band Westlife. It was released through RCA Records on 12 November 2001. This is their third album release under RCA and Sony Music. It was also the band's third album to be re ...

''. It was composed in the traditional

verse–chorus form Verse–chorus form is a musical form going back to the 1840s, in such songs as " Oh! Susanna", " The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze", and many others. It became passé in the early 1900s, with advent of the AABA (with verse) form in the T ...

in C major, with Filan and McFadden's vocal ranging from the chords of F#₃ to B₄.

Credits and personnel

*Written by

and

*Published by

BMG Music Publishing Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) was a division of a German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America on 1 October 2008. Although it was established in 1987, the music co ...

/ Good Ear Music / Peer Music / Warner-Chappell Music *Produced and arranged by

and

for A Side Productions *Co-produced by Jörgen Elofsson *Stockholm Session Orchestra arranged and conducted by Ulf and Henrik Janson *Recorded at Olympic Studios, London, and A Side Productions' Studios, Stockholm *Engineered by Peter Lewis *Assistant engineering by Tim Roe *Orchestra recorded at R.O.A.M. Studios, Stockholm *Orchestra engineered by Fredrik Andersson *Mixed by Bernard Löhr at Olympic Studios, London, and Mono Studios, Stockholm *Keyboards by Per Magnusson *Programming by David Kreuger *Guitars by Esbjörn Öhrwall *Bass by Tomas Lindberg *Backing vocals by Anders von Hofsten, Jeanette Olsson and United Colours of Sound *Mastered by Richard Dowling at Transfermation

Will Young version

In 2002, the song was chosen to be the winner's single for the first series of ''

Pop Idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and par ...

'' and was recorded by the three finalists:

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

Gareth Gates Gareth Paul Gates (born 12 July 1984) is an English singer-songwriter and actor. He was the runner-up in the first series of the ITV talent show ''Pop Idol'' in 2002. As of 2008, Gates had sold over 3.5 million records in the UK. He is ...

and

Darius Danesh Darius may refer to: Persian royalty ;Kings of the Achaemenid Empire * Darius I (the Great, 550 to 487 BC) * Darius II (423 to 404 BC) * Darius III (Codomannus, 380 to 330 BC) ;Crown princes * Darius (son of Xerxes I), crown prince of Persia ...

. During the final, the song was performed by both Young and Gates. Young went on to win the show, and released "Evergreen" as a double A-side single, along with " Anything Is Possible", which was also recorded by the final three and performed by the final two. The song was later included on Young's debut album, ''

From Now On From Now On may refer to: Film * ''From Now On'' (1920 film), an American film of 1920 * ''From Now On'' (film), a 2007 Portuguese film directed by Catarina Ruivo Music Albums * ''From Now On'' (Jaki Graham album) or the title song, 1989 * ''Fro ...

'' (2002). Gates' version of the song was also released as a B-side to his single, "Unchained Melody".

Chart performance

"Evergreen" went straight to the number one spot in 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 ...

and stayed there for three consecutive weeks, before being knocked off the top spot by Gates' debut single, "

Unchained Melody "Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. North wrote the music as a theme for the prison film '' Unchained'' (1955), hence the song title. Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack.Robert Rodr ...

". It was the best-selling song of 2002 and was also the fastest-selling debut in UK chart history, selling 403,027 copies on its day of release and over 1.1 million copies by the end of the week. The song went on to sell over 1.79 million copies and in 2012 it appeared 14th in the official list of the all-time best-selling singles in the UK. It was the biggest selling single of the 21st century in the UK until 2015, when it was overtaken by " Happy" by Pharrell Williams.

Track listing

#"Anything Is Possible" #"Evergreen"

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

"Evergreen" lyrics
{{authority control 2001 songs 2002 debut singles UK Singles Chart number-one singles Pop Idol Gareth Gates songs Westlife songs Will Young songs Songs written by Jörgen Elofsson Songs written by Per Magnusson Songs written by David Kreuger Number-one singles in Scotland Pop ballads 2000s ballads Sony BMG singles