THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

14-Snow Patrol-Chasing Cars.

2006-Number 6 single.

Best Bit-At 2.49. The phrase ‘Chasing Cars’ came from the songs writer Gary Lightbody’s father, in reference to a girl Lightbody was infatuated with, he said,’You’re like a dog chasing a car, you’ll never catch it, and you just wouldn’t know what to do with it if you did.’

Gareth John Lightbody was born on June 15th, 1976, in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. In 1994 while studying English literature at the University of Dundee in Scotland he formed a band called ‘Shrug’ with two others. ‘Shrug’ was soon changed to ‘Polarbear,’ before ‘Snow Patrol’ was finally settled upon. In total there has been eight different members come and go since 1994, and at the time of writing the band remain active. The line up who played on ‘Chasing Cars’ were Gary Lightbody, (lead vocals, and guitar) Nathan Connolly, (guitar) Paul Wilson, (bass) Jonny Quinn, (drums) and Tom Simpson (keyboards.) The discography of Snow Patrol includes seven studio Albums released between 1998-2018, and 35 singles issued between 1998-2020. In the UK 13 of those singles have reached the top 40, with ‘Signal Fire’ from 2007 charting the highest at Number 4. In America on Billboard three of their Albums have achieved top 10 status, while ‘Chasing Cars’ remains their only entry on the Billboard Hot 100 top 40 singles chart, when making Number 5 in 2006.

‘Chasing Cars’ was the second of six singles released from Snow Patrol’s fourth studio Album ‘Eyes Open’ from May 2006. The song writing credits are shared amongst all five band members at that time, although Lightbody wrote the lyrics. ‘Chasing Cars’ and it’s parent Album ‘Eyes Open’ were produced by Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee, who has produced, mixed, and written for numerous artists since 1997, including all of the last five Snow Patrol Albums.

Gary Lightbody has said that he wrote ‘Chasing Cars’ in the garden of producer Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee’s garden, after drinking lots of wine the night before, he said that he wrote around 10 songs that night, and when he looked at them the next day nine of them were terrible, but ‘Chasing Cars’ stood out like ‘A diamond in the s–t.’ Lightbody has also said,’It’s the most pure and open love song I’ve ever written.’ Snow Patrol had already had success in the UK prior to ‘Chasing Cars,’ but they were relatively unknown in the States until the song was chosen as the music to be played during the second season finale of the American medical drama ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ bringing them to the attention of a very large audience.

‘Chasing Cars’ can brag of several accolades including being the most played song on UK radio in the 21st Century according to the musical licencing body ‘PPL.’ In December 2006 it was voted the ‘Best Song of All Time’ by listeners to the UK radio station ‘Virgin Radio’, and also at around the same time it was voted the ‘Best Song of the Decade’ by viewers of the UK television channel, ‘Channel 4.’ On a less prestigious note it is the highest placed song of the 21st Century on this ‘1000 Best Songs in the World Ever’ list. ‘Chasing Cars’ was also the very last song played live on the UK BBC long running music programme ‘Top of the Pops,’ on July 30th, 2006.

‘Chasing Cars’ is a love song. It is about being emotionally very close to someone, and feeling that together you can achieve anything that you want to.

‘All that I am, all that I ever was is here in your perfect eyes, they’re all I can see. I don’t know where, confused about how as well, just know that these things will never change for us at all.’