Released March 18, 2013 Genre Folk rock, pop rock | Format Digital download Length 3:12 | |
 | ||
Recorded 2011–12
at Westlake Recording Studios
(Los Angeles, United States) Label KIDinaKORNER
Interscope
Universal | ||
"On Top of the World" is a song by American rock band Imagine Dragons for their major-label debut extended play Continued Silence (2012), where it appears as the third track. The song also appears on their debut studio album Night Visions (2012) as the fifth track. "On Top of the World" was released digitally as a single on March 18, 2013.
Contents
Composition
"On Top of the World" primarily features guitar and piano instrumentation, with vocals performed by lead singer Dan Reynolds. Originally published in the key of C major, the song itself expresses a celebration of accomplishment for the band after striving for years to become successful. The song itself incorporates the chord progression F-C-G-Dm in the chorus, with the pre-chorus using Am and G to create a different break in the song. The song "On Top of the World" is found to be a positive, upbeat track, unlike other songs found on Night Visions, including "Bleeding Out" and "Hear Me".
The song is built on a sample of minimalist composer Steve Reich's "Clapping Music" from 1972.
Usage in media
Imagine Dragons performed the song live on the Australian version of The X Factor in 2013.
"On Top of the World" was licensed for inclusion on the soundtrack of EA Sports game, FIFA 13. The band, longtime fans of the FIFA video game series, reacted positively to its inclusion in the game and stated that it would be "a lot of fun hearing the track play while we are doing bicycle kicks and screaming at the screen." It also served as the opening theme of the short-lived CBS comedy series Partners. "On Top of the World" was performed by the PS22 Chorus during Barack Obama's second United States presidential inauguration. It also featured in Konami video game Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 as well as being used in a Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 advert. It was also featured in the film The Incredible Burt Wonderstone several times.
The song is featured in the Liv and Maddie episode "Twin-a-Rooney", performed by Dove Cameron in the title role of Liv Rooney. Dove Cameron's version appears on the compilation album Disney Channel Play It Loud.
Hunter Hayes covered the song live on his US tour.
The song was used by ESPN for their coverage of the NBA for the 2013-14 NBA Season
The song was used during Cartoon Network's 2013 Hall of Game Awards.
The song was used in trailers for the films The Croods (2013) and Island of Lemurs: Madagascar (2014).
WPVI-TV in Philadelphia uses the song to promote their morning news, Action News Mornings.
The song is used in the Coca-Cola promotional video "Moments of Happiness", shown exclusively at the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.
The song was featured in the soundtracks of Alpha and Omega: The Legend of the Saw Tooth Cave and The Angry Birds Movie.
In the fall of 2016, Ford used this song in their year-end event sales commercial.
Music video
As a part of the Palladia documentary Imagine Dragons: The Making of Night Visions, which originally aired on November 7, 2012, the band filmed a video of themselves performing "On Top of the World" and subsequently uploaded it to YouTube.
On November 13, 2013 the band released an official music video for the song. The video satirizes a popular conspiracy theory that the 1969 Moon landings were faked, the footage having been directed by Stanley Kubrick, and that Kubrick then made references to the fakery in various of his subsequent films. In the video, a rock band similar to the Beatles (played by the members of Imagine Dragons) pretend to be astronauts for the faked moon landing. The taping goes awry as fans of the band stream into the sound stage and turn the event into a rock concert, much to the chagrin of Kubrick and President Richard Nixon, who is also on hand; the crowd might be discovering by being there, that the landings were fake or just be happy to be at the concert. The people at home might be agreeing now that the conspiracies were real, though just how many people are aware or not is not exactly shown. The video also briefly references another popular conspiracy theory from around the same time, that Beatles member Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced by a look-alike.
The video was filmed in Provo, Utah, Imagine Dragons' original hometown, and includes cameos from various celebrities associated with Provo or Brigham Young University, including Jon Heder, the cast of the TV show Studio C, guitarist Robbie Connolly, and members of The New Electric Sound. Whit Hertford plays Kubrick, and singer Aja Volkman, Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds' wife, appears as Reynolds' character's wife.
Commercial performance
The song peaked at 79 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and 10 on the Hot Rock Songs charts. It has also charted in the top ten in Australia (No. 10), Austria (No. 6), Netherlands (No. 10), New Zealand (No. 10), Poland (No. 7), and Portugal (No. 1). Despite having not yet been released to mainstream radio, it has received airplay on contemporary hit stations, such as 97.1 ZHT in Salt Lake City.
The song reached a million copies sold in the U.S. in April 2014. It's the fourth million seller from the Night Visions album.
Personnel
Adapted from Night Visions liner notes.
Certifications
Since May 2013 RIAA certifications for digital singles include on-demand audio and/or video song streams in addition to downloads.