Everybody's Fool (song)

"Everybody's Fool" is the third track on the first studio album, Fallen. It was released as the album's fourth single on June 4, 2004.

After the success of "My Immortal", Lee stated that "Imaginary" would become the band's next and final single from the album. However, the release of "Imaginary" was scrapped and "Everybody's Fool" was released instead.

Background

"Everybody's Fool" was written by Amy Lee, Ben Moody and David Hodges and produced by Dave Fortman. The Millennium Choir performed background vocals for the song. According to Lee, the song talks about celebrities who have completely false images. It has been misinterpreted as a message against Christian faith, due to the band's denial of being a Christian band. During an interview, Lee explained: "My little sister was really getting into these, I don't want to offend anyone, but like really fake, cheesy, slutty female cracker-box idols, and it really pissed me off. She started dressing like them and she was like 8 years old. So I gave her the talk and I wrote a song." She later revealed that the song was written for American pop singers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera adding, "At this point, everybody knows that Britney is fake. The song is not about Britney Spears; it's about a lot of people in this industry. It's so fake, the whole Hollywood thing. 'Look at how perfect I am!' Nobody looks like that. It's all fake and it's really hurting a lot of girls' and women's self images. Where are all the normal people?". 

Composition

According to the sheet music published by Alfred Music Publishing at the website Musicnotes.com, "Everybody's Fool" is written in the key of F major.^[7] It is set in a time signature of common time and performed in a tempo of 92 beats per minute. Lee's vocals in the song range from the note of A₃ to the note of D₅. 

Music video

An accompanying music video for "Everybody's Fool" was directed by Philip Stolzl and was filmed in Los Angeles, California in Mid-April 2004. The video features Amy playing as a superstar model who is contracted to a company that sells Lies products (pizza, energy drinks and dolls). As the video progresses, it becomes more apparent that she is unhappy with the way she is portrayed in the media.

Reception

Johnny Loftus of Allmusic classified "Everybody's Fool" as a nu metal song. Adrien Begrand of PopMatters concluded that the song "take[s] things to a more over-the-top, theatrical level." Scott Juba of The Trades rated the song with A, and wrote: "As far as the band's single, 'Everybody's Fool', is concerned, it is a song about the stinging betrayal of deception and the refusal to become blinded by deceit any longer. There is a defiance in Lee's voice that gives the track a bold edge, and the song's heavy drums and soaring guitars further enhance the strong sound. The band surely has another chart topping hit on their hands." Simon Cusens of ABC Online gave the song 3 out of 5 stars calling it "a cold, sad and angry song that I would only like to listen to without it being repeated again." Joe D'Angelo of MTV News wrote that "rolling acoustic guitar and billowing synthesizers pave the way for the harsh power chords that open the song" adding that Lee's voice was "disembodied" in the opening lines "Perfect by nature/ Icons of self-indulgence/ Just what we all need/ More lies about a world that/ Never was and never will be."

The song peaked at number 36 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart on May 8, 2004. On June 13, 2004, "Everybody's Fool" debuted at number 23 on the Australian Singles Chart which later became its peak position. It spent five weeks on the chart appearing at number 42 in its last week on July 11, 2004. On the UK Singles Chart, "Everybody's Fool" debuted at number 24 on June 12, 2004 which later became its peak position. The next week, it fell at number 40 and it was last seen on the chart on June 26 at number 49. It also charted in other European countries upon its release.

Credits

• Amy Lee – writing, piano, keyboards, vocals
• Ben Moody – writing, producing, guitars, percussion
• David Hodges – writing, piano, keyboards, string arrangements
• Francesco DiCosmo – bass guitar
• David Campbell – additional string arrangements
• Dave Fortman – producer, mixer
• Jeremy Parker – engineer
• Graeme Revell – string arrangements, orchestral conduction
• The Millennium Choir; Beverly Allen, Dwight Stone, Eric Castro, Geri Allen, Joanne Paratore, Karen Matranga, Lesley Paton, Melanie Jackson, Rick Stubbs, Susan Youngblood, Talaya Trigueros – background vocals

Lyrics

Fallen version

Demo version