Released March 10, 2008 Recorded 2007 Label Epic | Format CD
digital download Genre Pop rock | |
Length 3:01 (album version)
3:21 (radio edit) | ||
"Bottle It Up" is a song by American singer and songwriter Sara Bareilles. Written by Bareilles and produced by Eric Rosse, it was released as the second single from her album Little Voice on March 10, 2008. Following its release, it reached became a top twenty hit on the Billboard Adult Alternative Songs and Adult Top 40 charts, peaking at numbers 16 and 15 respectively, while also reaching the top forty in the Netherlands. On August 20, 2013, the song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of over 500,000 copies.
Contents
Background
Bareilles has stated that she wrote "Bottle It Up" prior to her signing to Epic Records in about 2003, while pondering about the potential consequences of signing to a record label, along with her "hopes and fears about what it would feel like." She discarded the unfinished song until a year prior to the recording of her album Little Voice, when the song, as she said, "spoke to me again and sort of wrote itself as it was the answer to all my worries and I wrote it for love and it put to rest a lot of anxieties I had previously."
In an interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, she further explained that the song's lyrical content focuses on the music business and, more specifically, the struggles of being an artist with a record contract, stating: "Before I had a record deal, I wrote that song about what it would be like to have a record deal, and the struggles of how do you become an artist who feels like they haven't quote/unquote 'sold out,' and how do you stay true to your art and figure out how to make a living from it... The chorus says it all: 'I do it for love.' Music – and particularly songwriting – for me is such a passion, it’s a very sacred thing for me."
Music video
The official music video for "Bottle It Up" was directed by Marcos Siega and released on April 9, 2008. The video features Bareilles with a piano in different settings, and stated that the video is meant to symbolize how music is an important part of people's lives.
Track listing
- "Bottle It Up" (radio edit) – 3:21
- "In Your Eyes" (live) – 5:24