I got a lot of e-mails about it (.) One boy died in a car accident, and I guess it had been the last song he downloaded from his computer. This arose from the response that Slade got from the song: They created a website where fans were welcome to submit music videos they had made for the song. While this was the original intent of the song, the band has opened the song to interpretation. In the chorus, the singer laments that he himself was unable to save a friend because he did not know how. The verses of the song describe an attempt by an adult to confront a troubled teen. He lost his best friend and could not deal with it. The boy was losing friends and going through depression. As Slade says in an interview, the boy's friends and family approached him by saying, 'Quit taking drugs and cutting yourself or I won't talk to you again,' but all he needed was some support. Slade claims that the song is about all of the people that tried to reach out to the boy but were unsuccessful. And no one could write a manual on how to save him. Here I was, a protected suburbanite, and he was just 17 and had all these problems. One of the youngsters I was paired up with was a musician. Lyrically, the song is a lamentation from the perspective of a person unable to help a troubled friend.Īccording to lead singer Isaac Slade, the song was composed and influenced by his experience while working as a mentor at a camp for troubled teenagers: It was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 2007, but lost to ' Dani California' by Red Hot Chili Peppers. 'How to Save a Life' is the band's biggest hit single to date, topping the Adult Top 40 chart for 15 consecutive weeks and topping the Canadian Airplay Chart. The song has been certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA, and has sold 4.7 million downloads as of January 2015, the fourth best-selling rock song in digital history. It became the joint seventh longest charting single on the Billboard Hot 100, tying with Santana's ' Smooth' (1999), at 58 consecutive weeks.

The song is one of the band's most popular airplay songs and peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, becoming the band's highest charting song. ' How to Save a Life' is a song by American alternative rock band The Fray, released in March 2006 as the second single from their debut studio album of the same name.

Come Back for More by Al Fray