For the music video for this song, see: My Immortal (music video)
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"My Immortal" is a song by American rock band Evanescence. It was released on October 20, 2003 as the third single from their debut studio album, Fallen.
The song's fictional words were written by former guitarist Ben Moody when he was 16 and the melody was written by Amy Lee on piano and she also added the bridge.[1][2][3] They originally recorded it for their 1998 EP Evanescence. They later recorded a demo for the demo CD Origin (2000), and the song was later included in the EP sampler released by Wind-up Records, Mystary (2003). The demo version placed on Origin was used by the label on their first studio album, Fallen, which was produced by Dave Fortman. The single version of the song was the re-recording Amy and Ben made for Fallen, called "band version" because of the additional guitar, drums and bass performance after the bridge of the song.
"My Immortal" is a piano rock ballad written in slow and free tempo with 80 beats per minute. Lyrically, it talks about "a spirit staying with you after its death and haunting you until you actually wish that the spirit were gone because it won't leave you alone."
Critical reception towards the song were positive with critics complimenting its piano melody. The song became Evanescence's second highest charting single, peaking within the top ten of more than ten countries. It topped the charts in Canada, Greece and Billboard's Adult Pop Songs. The single was certified Gold status by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).
An accompanying music video directed by David Mould was filmed entirely in black-and-white in Gothic Quarter, Barcelona on October 10, 2003. The video shows Lee sitting and singing on various locations, but never touching the ground, and shots of Moody walking and sitting by himself. The video was nominated in the category for Best Rock Video at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards. In 2005 the band was nominated in the category for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 47th Grammy Awards for "My Immortal". The song was performed by the band during their Fallen Tour and The Open Door Tour. It was also performed live during some of their television appearances and award ceremonies such as the Billboard Music Awards.
Background[]
The song was written by Ben Moody and Amy Lee, and produced by Dave Fortman and Moody. For Fallen, the label used Amy Lee's vocals and the keyboard from the Origin demo version.[4][5] This was the only master recording from Origin that Wind-Up ever released. The orchestral parts in the album version were arranged by the composer Graeme Revell for the Daredevil soundtrack.[6][7] "My Immortal" was mixed at Conway Recording Studios in North Hollywood while it was mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound in New York City.
"My Immortal" was originally recorded in 1997 as an outtake from Amy and Ben's 1998 EP Evanescence, which solely featured Amy Lee's vocals and piano accompanied by an acoustic guitar, and slightly different lyrics. The song was later re-recorded for their 2000 demo CD Origin, which contains a slightly rearranged piano, lyrics and bridge added by Lee.[8][3] The song was re-recorded by Amy and Ben for Fallen, which was the version the label rejected and they then used for the single, called "band version".[5] The song was featured on the Wind-up Records sampler EP called Mystary (2003).
The song was released as a single in the second half of 2003, and is called the "band version", which is the version Amy and Ben originally recorded for Fallen,[5] because of the addition of guitar, drums and bass after the bridge of the song. The later pressings of Fallen contain the single version of "My Immortal" as a hidden track. This version contains strings arranged by David Campbell.
Ben wrote the lyrics based on a fictional story, and Amy also helped write the lyrics and added a bridge.[8][3][9] Amy called it "Ben [Moody]'s song" as he wrote its lyrics.[10][11] Moody said that the song talks about "a spirit staying with you after its death and haunting you until you actually wish that the spirit were gone because it won't leave you alone." Amy Lee expressed some dissatisfaction with the demo version of it, saying, "It's not even a real piano. And the sound quality is bad because we had to break into the studio to record it late at night when no one was around because we couldn't afford a real session."[5]
In a 2024 interview, Lee discussed how the label insisted on including the Origin demo version of the song on Fallen:
The label really loved that song, which is what signed us. They were really attached to it and they'd listened to that recording so many times, for years, that by the time we were recording the album, they just couldn't get over the demo. So we recorded it beautifully with strings by David Campbell, in a real studio, my voice had matured, it's a much better recording, that's the “band version.” That's the version I love but they were like, “You know, we really prefer the demo.” And I was like, “You can't do this to me, please.” That was another fight we had to have, a huge one. I was like, “You cannot let this beautiful studio recording go, this has to be what's on the album.” And they were like, “No, there's magic in the demo.” So the compromise was that Fallen came out with two versions of “My Immortal” so even on the original, there's the demo, which they call the “main version” and the “band version,” which is the good version.[12]
Although Amy is "pretty open about the fact it’s not one of my favourite songs", she "couldn’t resist the opportunity to totally re-record it again" on the orchestral album Synthesis,[13] saying:
I seriously considered not putting it on the album, but it’s this really cool opportunity to do it again. The version that I hear 99.9 percent of the time, I’m in a grocery store and it comes on, is this old demo that I cannot stand. It’s not even a real piano and it’s me singing late at night at my dad’s work where they had a studio and he let us go in there and record and I was in high school. So part of me just wanted to rerecord it and it was just too good of an opportunity to put a new version with David Campbell’s beautiful arrangement at the top of the pile. But that song I’ve never really felt close to. It was written a really long time ago, but now it’s become this big part of our history between our fans and me and I think about the song and the way it makes me feel now. It’s about them, it’s about my relationship with our fans over the years.[14]
In an October 2021 interview with Grammy.com, Amy commented on how she felt differently about the song over the years:[15]
I used to have a hard time with "My Immortal" because it was just everywhere, and I didn't feel like it summed up our band. But I got over it. I'm over it. I love it now. It's back to what I was saying a minute ago, about being honest about nostalgia. That's the one song I didn't write the lyrics to. I helped a little bit, but they aren't my words. Those are Ben's words. I didn't want to sing it, but also, I just felt like they didn't mean a ton to me. All the other lyrics really mean something to me in my heart. But, over time, [we realized that song has] such an important and huge piece of our history with our fans — what it means to them and the experiences we've now had. On our first-ever trip to Europe, we played to a huge field of people singing it so loudly I couldn't hear myself. I just let them do it. That song, for me, has become really meaningful. It's about that. It's about our fans and our relationship. No, I don't have any songs that I hear and I'm just like "Ughhh!". Unless they're pre-Fallen.
A strings version of the band version was included on the deluxe remastered edition of Fallen in celebration of its 20th anniversary, but this does not include the band part after the bridge. Lee said:
I wanted to be able to share a version that doesn't have the band coming in, that stays peaceful, that stays in the intimacy of a ballad without the band, without it being the old demo version. I wanted to have a mix of that recording that just had the beautiful strings and the real piano and the better vocals so finally I made that and I like that and it wasn’t out there so I wanted to put it out there.[12]
Composition[]
"My Immortal" is a piano rock ballad written in the key of A major. According to the sheet music published by Alfred Music Publishing on the website Musicnotes.com, the song is set in common time and performed in slow and free tempo of 80 beats per minute. Lee's vocal range for the song runs from the musical note of A3 to C♯5. The lyrics of the song refer to a spirit that haunts the memory of a grieving loved one. In "My Immortal", Lee expresses her feelings through the line, "Though you're still with me / I've been alone all along." The song was described as a "goth-meets pop" song along with "Bring Me to Life" and "Going Under". A writer for IGN said that "'My Immortal' is a song of pain and despair caused by the loss of a family member or very close friend and how it drove her [Lee] to the edge of insanity." Talking about the composition and the meaning of the song, Tom Reynolds of The Guardian said, ["My Immortal" is] A whimpering post-breakup tune in which lead singer Amy Lee pitifully mourns the end of a relationship over a piano accompaniment that sounds like Pachelbel after the Prozac wore off. My Immortal closely follows the "quantum tragedy paradigm": the shorter the time two people spent together as a couple, the more overwrought the song is that describes their break-up. Judging by the lorry-load of anguish Lee spews out, she split from someone she dated for about an hour (if her lyrics are to be believed, the guy was a real freak, too).
Chart Performance[]
The song is the band's second most successful single of all time, generally peaking within the top 20 of more than 10 countries internationally. On the chart issue dated April 10, 2004, "My Immortal" peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, while on the Pop Songs chart it peaked at number 2 on March 27, 2004. It has peaked at number 19 on the Adult Contemporary chart as well. Later on February 17, 2009, "My Immortal" was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling more than 500,000 copies in the United States. The song managed to top the charts of Canada, Greece and Billboard's Adult Pop Songs in the United States. It also helped Fallen to move from number 9 to number 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling another 69.000 copies. On Billboard's Radio Songs the song peaked at number 7 on April 10, 2004. Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems placed the song at number six on the list of most played radio songs in 2004 with 317,577 spins.
On the Australian Singles Chart, "My Immortal" debuted at number 4 on January 25, 2004 which later became its peak position. The next eleven weeks, it remained in the top ten of the chart, and it was seen on the chart at number 44 on the week ending June 13, 2004. Later, the single received Platinum certification by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). On December 20, 2003, "My Immortal" debuted at number 7 on the UK Singles Chart which later became its peak position. However, on February 14, 2004 the song dropped out of the chart, before reentering at number 84 on July 18, 2008. After spending several weeks on different positions on the UK Rock Chart, on August 27, 2011, it peaked at number one. The next week, "My Immortal" moved to number two being replaced by the band's single "What You Want" (2011), and one week later it returned at number one on the chart. That achievement helped the song to reenter on the UK Singles Chart at number 81 on August 27, 2011 and at number 89 on October 22, 2011.
Covers and usage in media[]
"My Immortal" was featured on the soundtrack Daredevil: The Album from the movie Daredevil (2003) along with "Bring Me To Life", being used on a funeral scene. The song was also used in the first episode "No Such Thing as Vampires" of the American series Moonlight. "My Immortal" was played at the funeral of Rifleman Peter Aldridge, the 250th British soldier to die in Afghanistan, on January 20, 2010. Lucy Walsh, a contestant of the show Rock the Cradle covered the song during the 105th episode, "Judge's Picks".
Lyrics[]
Origin, Fallen, Mystary EP, Acoustic, and Band[]
I'm so tired of being here These wounds won't seem to heal When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears You used to captivate me These wounds won't seem to heal When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears |
Evanescence EP (Earliest)[]
I'm so tired of being here These wounds won't seem to heal When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears You used to captivate me These wounds won't seem to heal When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears I'd love to walk away and pull myself out of the rain When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears |
In other media[]
- "My Immortal" was featured on the soundtrack Daredevil: The Album from the 2003 Marvel film Daredevil, along with "Bring Me to Life".
- It is also featured during the Smallville season three episode "Memoria".
References[]
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070226054023/http://evanescencereference.info/music/Evanescence-DC101%20Interview%202.mp3
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20221014152540/https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/evanescences-future-uncertain-amy-lee-interview-6259161/
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Why Evanescence’s Amy Lee Has a Newfound Respect For “My Immortal” (2023)
- ↑ Cashmere, Paul (April 6, 2004). "Amy Lee Hates Evanescence My Immortal". Undercover News.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Wiederhorn, Jon (November 5, 2013). "Are There Clues To Evanescence's Problems In Their New Video?". MTV News.
- ↑ Fallen (2003), liner notes.
- ↑ Reeseman, Bryan (August 1, 2003). "In The Recording Studio With Evanescence: Recording Fallen". Mix.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lee, Amy (August 3, 2005). "Haunted Written Lyrics". EvBoard.
- ↑ Evanescence's Amy Lee On Her Upcoming Tour With Halestorm, Friendship With Lzzy Hale & How She Feels About "My Immortal" Today (October 21, 2021)
- ↑ Bottomley, C. (September 18, 2006). "Evanescence: Amy Lee Explains the New Songs". VH1.
- ↑ Campagna, Cathy A. (2003) "Evanescence: New Royalty". Metal Edge: 23.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Evanescence discusses Fallen, 20 Years of Truth, and the Struggle for Women in Rock". January 19, 2024. Rolling Stone Japan.
- ↑ Adams, Cameron (October 3, 2017). "Evanescence have removed the “compromise” rap from biggest hit". news.com.au.
- ↑ Baltin, Steve (November 13, 2017). "Evanescence Amy Lee Talks Orchestral Shows: 'I Think This Is Just A Really Cool Moment In Time'". Forbes.
- ↑ "Evanescence's Amy Lee On Her Upcoming Tour Halestorm, Friendship with Lzzy Hale & How She Feels About 'My Immortal' Today". Grammy.com. October 21, 2021.