Here It Goes Again

Track

Written by Damian Kulash Jr., the three-minute "Here It Goes Again" is set in common time at a "Moderately fast rock" tempo of 144 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of C major, with the vocal range spanning from C₄ to A₄. Kulash also sang and played the guitar in the original mix, which was produced by Tore Johansson with co-production done by Eric Drew Feldman, Howard Willing and Ken Sluiter. Andy Ross was another guitarist on the track and was keyboardist as well. Other instruments on the recording include drums performed by Dan Konopka and bass by Tim Nordwind. David Carlsson and Petter Lindgård were the song's engineer, with Jens Lindgård being the engineering assistant. Recorded at Gula Studion in Malmö, Sweden, it was mixed at The Village Recorder in Los Angeles by Dave Sardy, and finally mastered by Robert Vosgien at Capitol Mastering, also in Los Angeles.

Music video

The music video of the song is an elaborate performance of the band dancing on treadmills in a single continuous take. Choreographed by Trish Sie and directed by Sie and the band, it took a total of seventeen attempts to complete the video. As in the band's video for "A Million Ways", Tim Nordwind lip-syncs the lead vocals instead of Damian Kulash, following the format from the dance choreographed for the song "C-C-C-Cinnamon Lips", which Tim sings. The video debuted on YouTube on July 31, 2006. As of March 2010, it had been viewed over 50 million times, but the video was taken down and reposted and now currently has over 35 million views. It premiered on VH1's Top 20 Countdown that same day. OK Go performed the dance routine live at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards.

The music video won the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video and the 2006 YouTube awards for Most Creative Video.

In "The Must List" on the August 18, 2006, issue of Entertainment Weekly, the video was ranked number nine: "The votes have been tallied, and this year's award for Best Use of Treadmills in an Alt-Pop Music Video goes to... http://okgo.net/news.aspx". In July 2011, the music video was named one of "The 30 All-TIME Best Music Videos" by Time Magazine.

In popular culture

Parodies

Parodies of the video have appeared on The Simpsons, The Fairly OddParents and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

UK Surf Mix

During the summer of 2006, the band recorded a slower version of "Here It Goes Again" "in their attic". This version, dubbed "UK Surf" or the "UK Surf Mix", was released on iTunes in the UK the same day as the single. After being featured in the January 2007 Grey's Anatomy episode "Great Expectations", it was released in the US through iTunes on February 1, 2007 as a digital download.

Commercial performance

On the American Billboard Hot 100 chart, issue dated September 16, 2006, "Here It Goes Again" debuted at number 87, and by the next week it rose to its peak into the top 40 at 38. The track lasted a total of 20 weeks. Additionally, it reached into the top 40 onto the Pop 100 at number 34, as well as number 17 on the Adult Top 40 and Alternative Songs charts. "Here It Goes Again" was also a top-40 hit in other countries. On the UK Singles Chart, it debuted at number 36, while on the Official New Zealand Music Chart its peak position was 28. In Australia, the song began at number 67 on the ARIA top 100 singles chart, and rose to 63 the next week and also topped the Hitseekers chart, which surveys tracks by bands that have not reached into the top 50 of the main chart. It was also number ten on the FDR Ukrainian Rock chart.

UK / AU CD Single (2006)

1. "Here It Goes Again"
2. "The Lovecats"

UK one-sided 7" Single (2006)

1. "Here It Goes Again"

Credits and personnel

Credits are adapted from liner notes of the single release.