| "Learn to Fly" | ||||||||
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| Single by Foo Fighters | ||||||||
| from the album There Is Nothing Left to Lose | ||||||||
| Released | October 18, 1999 | |||||||
| Format | CD | |||||||
| Recorded | 1999 | |||||||
| Genre | Alternative rock | |||||||
| Length | 3:55 | |||||||
| Label | Roswell/RCA Records | |||||||
| Certification | Gold (RIAA)[1] | |||||||
| Foo Fighters singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Learn to Fly" is the first single from the Foo Fighters' third album There Is Nothing Left to Lose. It was released on two different singles in the UK in 1999. "Learn to Fly" is one of the band's most successful and recognized singles, including a #19 peak on the Billboard Hot 100 and a #1 peak on Hot Modern Rock Tracks, beating their single "This Is a Call"'s previous peak of #2.
The song is in the key of B major, and in 4/4 time signature.
Contents |
Music video
The music video for the song takes place on an airplane, parodying the movie Airplane!. Two airline mechanics (played by Jack Black and Kyle Gass from Tenacious D) hide "World Domination brand 'Erotic' Sleeping Powder"[2] in the coffee-maker, which ends up incapacitating everyone who drinks the coffee. The band, having avoided the coffee (choosing liquor instead), finds themselves forced to land the plane. For the video, each band member (Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel and Taylor Hawkins) portrays himself as well as several other roles. Also, as in the music video for "Monkey Wrench (song)", a Foo fighters song is played as Muzak in the beginning, this time with "Everlong" from The Colour and the Shape.
The video was filmed in London, England in a cabin crew training airplane. The video won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video.
Characters Dave Grohl portrays
- Himself
- The pilot
- A flamboyant flight attendant
- A teenage girl who is a big fan of the band
- One of the overweight ladies
- An FBI agent
Characters Nate Mendel portrays
- Himself
- One of the co-pilots of the plane
- A nerd-like man sitting between the two obese women portrayed by Grohl and Hawkins
- A flight attendant who accidentally mixes the drugs with the coffee
- A baby
Characters Taylor Hawkins portrays
- Himself
- A female flight attendant
- One of the co-pilots of the plane
- One of the overweight ladies
Track listing
- Disk 1
- "Learn to Fly"
- "Iron and Stone" (The Obsessed cover)
- "Have a Cigar" (Pink Floyd cover)
- Disk 2
- "Learn to Fly"
- "Make a Bet"
- "Have a Cigar" (Pink Floyd cover)
Chart positions
| Chart (1999) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart | 36 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 72 |
| Eurochart Hot 100 Singles | 65 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart | 23 |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 52 |
| UK Singles Chart | 21 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 19 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 2 |
Note 1: Billboard's artist chart history for the band shows the peak as #13. However, the Billboard Hot 100 chart which ran in the March 4, 2000, issue of Billboard magazine, the song's final appearance on the chart (at #50), lists the peak of the song as #19. ("Learn to Fly" reached #19 on January 22, 2000.)
Trivia
 |
Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (June 2008) |
- The song was played in space as a wake-up call for Space Shuttle Mission STS-118 on 2007-08-18 (day 11 of the mission). It was the second Foo Fighters wake-up call played on that mission.[3]
- The song was played in the episode, "My Unicorn", of the TV series Scrubs.
- Jack Black and Kyle Gass from Tenacious D make an appearance in the music video playing the maintenance crew who drug the plane and are arrested at the end. Grohl has done the drum work on both Tenacious D albums, and has played the demon in the "Tribute" music video, and The Devil in the feature-length film The Pick of Destiny. Tenacious D and Grohl have also collaborated as cast members in the film clip for I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News) by the Eagles of Death Metal.
- The song appears in the ending credits of the 2002 film, Life or Something Like It, starring Angelina Jolie.
- The song is a playable track in the music video game Rock Band, and can be exported to Rock Band 2.
- In the music video, the airplane music that starts before the song is an arrangement of their previous single, "Everlong".
See also
References
- ^ RIAA Gold & Platinum Searchable Database - Foo Fighters singles. RIAA.com.
- ^ http://www.foofighters.com/faq.php?id=06.04#goto Foo Fighters FAQ. Accessed December 27, 2006
- ^ Fries, Colin (2007-06-25). "Chronology of Wakeup Calls". NASA. http://history.nasa.gov/wakeup%20calls.pdf. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
| Preceded by "The Chemicals Between Us" by Bush |
Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single November 6, 1999 |
Succeeded by "The Chemicals Between Us" by Bush |
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