"If It's Love" is the second single from

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's fifth studio album, '' Save Me, San Francisco''. It debuted at No. 31 on ''Billboard''s Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks chart. and has since become Train's second-consecutive No. 1 hit from the album, as well as their fourth No. 1 overall. This ties the band with Matchbox 20 and Daughtry for second-most chart-topping singles in format history, and trailing only

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in total Adult Top 40 No. 1 placements. It is also the 100th single to go No. 1 in the format's history. In addition, it has reached No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100. A music video for the song debuted on

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

.com on May 11, 2010.

Background

In a 2010 interview with ''

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'',

Pat Monahan Patrick Monahan (born February 28, 1969) is an American musician. He is best known as the lead singer and sole constant member of the band Train. He has also collaborated with multiple artists and has recorded a solo album, '' Last of Seven''. ...

confirmed "If It's Love" was written the same day as their hit "Hey, Soul Sister" and was intended as a thank-you song to long-time fans of the band: Much like "Hey, Soul Sister", the track features a handful of pop cultural references including Winger (an American hard rock band that enjoyed popularity in the late 80s and early 90s), and "

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" (a song featured in the musical ''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical theatre, musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story, based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion (play), Pygmalion'' and on the Pygmalion (1938 film), 1938 film ...

''). In addition, the lyrics "There's no happy endings, No Henry Lee" refer to the inscription and the main character in Jamie Ford's 2009 novel '' Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet''. In a 2010 interview, Monahan explained the lyric "I wanna buy you everything except cologne, 'cause it's poison." In 2011, Slovenian media outlet 24ur reported similarities between "If It's Love" and "A veš", a song by Slovenian singer Alya, released in 2007. The band was then sued by Slovenian singer-songwriter Jan Plestenjak (the original author of the song) for copyright infringement, claiming the song's chorus was copied from his song "A veš". The matter was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum in June 2018.

Music video

As with the origins of the song, the music video is a thank-you to the fans. It references what the band supposedly did during their three-year hiatus, including clips of Jimmy pawning a guitar, Scott panhandling, and Pat sitting in bed as Train appears on ''Where are They Now?''. The video also features the band performing on a red carpet and at the Oakland Theater, and appearing in a commercial where Jimmy and Scott are wearing chicken suits. The video was directed by

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and Bill Fishman, with an cameo appearance by

Hugh Jackman Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian and British actor, singer, and producer. Beginning in theatre and television, Jackman landed his breakthrough role as Wolverine in the ''X-Men'' film franchise and the Marvel Cinem ...

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Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2010 singles Train (band) songs Songs written by Gregg Wattenberg Songs written by Pat Monahan 2009 songs Song recordings produced by Espionage (production team) Columbia Records singles