“Too Close” by Alex Clare

song info

    “Too Close” by Alex Clare (official video) is a soul song. In 2012, Clare’s song “Too Close” was featured in a Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 commerical. Following its use in the commercial, the song debuted at #68 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Before gaining critical success, Alex Clare dated ill-fated singer Amy Winehouse for a year. They met while he performed and worked at a bar she frequented, The Hawley Arms in Camden, North London.

    
    U.S. Billboard Hot 100: #28, down from last week #24, down from previous week #20, down from previous week #13, down from previous week #12 (twelve), down from previous week #11 (eleven), 39 weeks on chart, peak #7 (seven)
    Rock: #6 (six), last week #6 (six), down from previous week #5 (five), down from previous week #4 (four), previous week #4 (four), down from previous week #3 (three), 32 weeks on chart, peak #2 (two)
    Alternative: #14, last week #14, previous week #14, previous week #14, down from previous week #12 (twelve), down from previous week #11 (eleven), 33 weeks on chart, peak #1 (one)
    Pop: missing week, missing week, #10 (ten) [22 Dec 2012], down from last week #8 (eight), down from previous week #7 (seven), down from previous week #4 (four), 26 weeks on chart, peak #4 (four)
    Dance/Club Play: peak #31
    Adult Contemporary: peak #26
    Adult Pop: #9 (nine), down from last week #7 (seven), down from previous week #6 (six), down from previous week #4 (four), previous week #4 (four), previous week #4 (four), 27 weeks on chart, peak #4 (four)
    Radio Songs: #17, down from last week #14, down from previous week #11 (eleven), down from previous week #9 (nine), down from previous week #7 (seven), down from previous week #6 (six), 23 weeks on chart, peak #5 (five)
    Digital Songs: #55, down from last week #54, down from previous week #49, down from previous week #32, up from previous week #35, down from previous week 24, 40 weeks on chart, peak #5 (five)
    On-Demand Songs: #31, down from last week #22, down from previous week #19, previous week #19, down from previous week #16, down from previous week #13, 30 weeks on chart, peak #7 (seven)
    Rock Airplay: #18, down from last week #13, down from previous week #11 (eleven), down from last week #10 (ten), down from previous week #8 (eight), up from previous week #9 (nine), 32 weeks on chart, peak #2 (two)
    Rock Digital Songs: #9 (nine), up from last week #10 (ten), down from previous week #7 (seven), previous week #7 (seven), up from previous week #11 (eleven), down from previous week #5 (five), 23 weeks on chart, peak #2 (two)
    Canadian Hot 100: #49, down from last week #46, down from previous week #39, down from previous week #36, up from previous week #38, down from previous week #30, 24 weeks on chart, peak #14
    MySpace Songs: out of chart, #16 [22 Dec 2012], down from last week #13, down from previous week #7 (seven), up from previous week #8 (eight), 8 weeks on chart, peak #2 (two)
     Billboard information for the week of Jan 5, 2013
     Billboard chart listings courtesy of Billboard Magazine

link to the static song information page for this song:
http://www.thissideofsanity.com/music/songs/to/tooclose.php

    Summary quotation from Wikipedia:

    “Too Close” is a song by British singer-songwriter Alex Clare. The track was first released in the United Kingdom on 15 April 2011 as the second single from Clare’s debut studio album, The Lateness of the Hour (2011). The track was written by Alex Clare and Jim Duguid and produced by Diplo and Switch, with co-production fromAriel Rechtshaid and Mike Spencer. On July 9, 2012 it was certified gold by the RIAA.

    In March 2012, “Too Close” was selected as the soundtrack to Microsoft’s advertisement for Internet Explorer 9, released the following month. The exposure propelled the song to international success. This marked a turnaround in Clare’s musical career and fortunes. Prior to it entering the singles chart, Clare had been forced to take a job as an estate agent after being dropped by his record label. The song also appears in the end credits of the film Taken 2 and also played in the TV show The Vampire Diaries. The song peaked at number 4 on the UK Singles Chart, number 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and has been certified double platinum by the RIAA.

    Musically, “Too Close” is an alternative rock song with dubstep and soul influences. Lyrically, the song describes the protagonist who is not ready for a committed relationship and he must end things with his love interest in good terms. In March 2012, “Too Close” was selected as the soundtrack to Microsoft’s advertisement for Internet Explorer 9, released the following month. The feature saw the track achieve international success. By October 18, 2012, the song had reached number 7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It had previously peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart and at number 1 in Germany. In May 2012, an instrumental version of the song was used in an advertisement for the UK version of the television series Revenge. The song also appears in the end credits of the film Taken 2, released in October 2012. The song has sold over 2 million digital downloads in the US as of October 2012.

Music video

    A music video to accompany the release of “Too Close” was first released onto YouTube on 15 March 2011 at a total length of four minutes and eighteen seconds. The video contains Clare singing in a chair intermixed with scenes of a heavily dramaticized and inaccurate representation of a Kendo match between two heavily-padded athletes in black uniforms. The fight takes place in an urban setting resembling a deserted factory building.

    The video opened to very small numbers but two months after the Internet Explorer 9 advert campaign, it gained popularity and the video quickly accumulated over 3 million views and by October 13, 2012 has just under 28.5 million. By 24 February 2013, it has more than 40 millon views.

    An alternate music video was released to YouTube on August 28, 2012.

—from Wikipedia (the Wikipedia:Text of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License applies to Wikipedia’s block of text and possible accompanying picture, along with any alterations, transformations, and/or building upon Wikipedia’s original text that ThisSideofSanity.com applied to this block of text)

Proverb:

Wine, women, and food give gladness to the heart. —Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) Scribal Texts