Released March 10, 2015 Recorded 2014 Length 3:49 | Format CD
digital download Genre Hip hop
pop-rap Label Atlantic | |
"See You Again" is a song recorded by American rapper Wiz Khalifa, featuring American singer Charlie Puth. The track was commissioned for the soundtrack of the 2015 action film Furious 7 as a tribute to the late actor Paul Walker, who died in a single-vehicle accident on November 30, 2013 in Valencia, California. The artists co-wrote the song with its co-producers, DJ Frank E and Andrew Cedar, with additional production from Puth and mixing provided by Manny Marroquin. "See You Again" was released on March 10, 2015, as the soundtrack's lead single in the United States.
Contents
- Writing and development
- Composition
- North America
- Europe and Oceania
- Music video
- Synopsis
- Reception
- Live performances
- Credits and personnel
- References
"See You Again" became both Khalifa's and Puth's biggest single to date. It spent 12 non-consecutive weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100, tying Eminem's "Lose Yourself" and Black Eyed Peas's "Boom Boom Pow" for the longest-running rap number-one single in the country, and topped the UK Singles Chart for two consecutive weeks. It also reached number one in several other countries including Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland. The song holds the record for the most-streamed track in a single day on Spotify in the United States. It set the record for most streams in a single week worldwide, and in the United Kingdom also in a single week. On October 7, 2015, the video became the very first hip-hop song to reach a billion views on YouTube, and on September 3, 2016, it became the first hip-hop song to reach 2 billion views as well as being the second video ever to do so after Psy's "Gangnam Style". "See You Again" received three nominations at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Song Written for Visual Media. It was also shortlisted for the Song of the Year for the BBC Music Awards and was nominated for Best Original Song at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards. "See You Again" was the best selling-song of 2015 worldwide, with combined sales and track-equivalent streams of 20.9 million units according to IFPI.
Writing and development
"See You Again" was written by DJ Frank E, Charlie Puth, Wiz Khalifa, and Andrew Cedar. It was produced by DJ Frank E, Charlie Puth, and Andrew Cedar. Frank E and Puth were approached by their publishing company, Artist Publishing Group, to develop a melody that could pay tribute to the late Paul Walker for the film Furious 7 (2015). His publishing company's president Ben Maddahi then set up a first-time studio session for Puth with DJ Frank E at a studio in Los Angeles.
Puth became emotionally attached while writing the track, recalling a friend of his from Berklee Vail Cerullo who perished in a motorcycle accident. He was at first reluctant that the film's soundtrack label, Atlantic Records, would choose his vocal for the song. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Puth recalled: "It just seemed to occur from out of nowhere. And basically 10 minutes later Justin and I wrote it, we sent it off, and I thought we'd never hear about it again". Puth and DJ Frank E's output from the session was well received by Furious 7 filmmakers, Universal Pictures, and Atlantic. As a result, the track was further commissioned to include rapped verses by Khalifa based on the subject of family, combined with Puth's vocals and a piano melody. The song then went through an extensive note-giving and production process. Puth opined that his vocal was chosen by Atlantic because of his emotional attachment to the subject matter.
The song was chosen to be played at the end of the film. Following O'Conner's retirement send-off to be with his wife and family, the characters Brian O'Conner and Dominic Toretto drove on a mountain road and parted ways upon reaching a fork.
Composition
"See You Again" is a hip hop and pop-rap ballad. It was written in the key of B ♭ major with a time signature of 4
4 and has a tempo of 80 beats per minute (Andante/Andantino).
North America
In the United States, "See You Again" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts dated March 19, 2015, at number 100 and number 29 respectively, with first-week sales of 25,000 copies. On the chart issued for April 18, 2015, the song climbed from number 84 to number ten on the Billboard Hot 100, selling 168,000 copies as the chart's "Digital Gainer" that week. Its climb into the top ten was the chart's biggest since Katy Perry's "Roar" (2013). In its fifth week, "See You Again" sold 464,000 copies and rose from number ten to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The song marked Khalifa's second number one on the chart, following "Black and Yellow" (2011), and Puth's first. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for twelve non-consecutive weeks. After its twelfth week it was finally knocked off the top spot by OMI's hit, "Cheerleader". It is one of 33 songs to reach number one for at least 10 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. The song also topped the Mainstream Top 40 and Rhythmic charts for four weeks and three weeks respectively. The song also topped Hot Rap Songs and Hot R&B Hip Hip songs for 14 weeks each. As of July 7, 2016, "See You Again" has sold a total of 4,122,938 copies in the United States. The song fell out of the top ten on the chart dated August 29, 2015, spending a total of 19 weeks in the top ten.
The song holds the record for the most-streamed track in a single day on Spotify in the United States. It set the record for most streams in a single week worldwide during April 6 to April 12 (streamed 21.9 million times), and in the United Kingdom in a single week (streamed 3.72 million times from April 20 to April 26, 2015), which was broken by Justin Bieber's "What Do You Mean?" (streamed 3.87 million times from September 17 to September 23, 2015).
Europe and Oceania
"See You Again" debuted at number 20 on the UK Singles Chart issued for April 12, 2015 on streaming alone. It registered 1.8 million streams in the United Kingdom that week. Following its digital release, the song climbed to number one on the chart dated April 19, 2015. It sold 193,000 units that week, becoming the fastest-selling single in the United Kingdom of 2015. The song also broke the streaming record in the United Kingdom that week with a total of 3.68 million streams that week. It marked Khalifa's second number one on the chart—following his feature on Maroon 5's "Payphone" (2012)—and Puth's first. "See You Again" sold 142,000 units during its first week at number one, and broke its own streaming record with 3.72 million streams that week. Omi's "Cheerleader" replaced "See You Again" at number one the following week, selling approximately 1,000 units more than "See You Again" at number two.
In New Zealand, "See You Again" debuted at number 34 on the New Zealand Singles Chart dated March 30, 2015. It topped the chart in its third week, becoming Khalifa and Puth's first number one single in the country. In Australia, "See You Again" rose from number 59 to number one on the Australian Singles Chart issued for April 11, 2015, marking Khalifa and Puth's first number one hit on the chart. The song's climb to number one was the largest in Australian Singles Chart history.
Music video
The music video for "See You Again" was directed by Marc Klasfeld. It was uploaded to YouTube on April 6, 2015.
Synopsis
The video begins with a shot of a clifftop at sunset, followed by Khalifa walking down a highway road; Puth is then shown singing the chorus whilst sitting at, and playing, a piano located between two cars. Khalifa's rap verses and Puth singing the second chorus and bridge are interspersed with footage from Furious 7. After the bridge, we see the final scene from the film: Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O'Conner (Cody Walker, filling in for his brother, Paul), driving together, pull over in their cars and smile at each other one last time before driving away on separate roads into the sunset. As the camera pans up into the sky, a message reads "For Paul" and the video ends.
Reception
As of March 24, 2017, the video has received over 2.55 billion views, making it YouTube's second most-viewed video of all time, behind Psy's "Gangnam Style". It reached 2 billion views on September 3, 2016 and is the fastest video to accomplish the feat, doing so in 516 days — 168 days faster than "Gangnam Style". It has received over 13.8 million likes and over 425,000 dislikes as of March 24, 2017. The video is also the second video to reach 10 million likes; the only other two videos to have over 10 million likes are "Gangnam Style" and "Hello". The video was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Video and Best Collaboration at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, but lost both. On August 27, 2016, the music video succeeded "Gangnam Style" as the most liked YouTube video of all time, after "Gangnam Style" held the record for almost 4 years. Also, on February 19, 2017, the music video succeeded "Gangnam Style" as the most rated YouTube video of all time with over 13.8 million total ratings. In addition, the video is also the most shared YouTube video, and third most subscribed YouTube video; it became the third video to reach 1 million subscriptions driven.
Live performances
Khalifa and Puth performed "See You Again" live on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in March 2015 and on an episode of Saturday Night Live in May 2015. Diesel also performed the song live as a tribute to Walker during the 2015 MTV Movie Awards. Khalifa and Puth reprised the song in a performance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in April 2015. Khalifa has performed the song, without Puth, as part of the Boys of Zummer Tour, in which Khalifa co-headlines with Fall Out Boy. Puth performed the song at the Capital Jingle Bell Ball in 2015. Khalifa also performed the song on season 8 of The Voice, with season 7 finalist Chris Jamison singing Puth's parts. He recently performed the song at the Mnet Asian Music Awards 2016. The intentions were for the song to be performed as a collaboration between Wiz Khalifa and Taeyeon, member of girl group Girls' Generation but the stage was later cancelled for reasons unknown. Khalifa & Puth also performed the song at the 2016 Kids' Choice Awards.
Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from Soundtrack.Net and AllMusic