"Building a Mystery" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter

Sarah McLachlan Sarah Ann McLachlan OC OBC (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. As of 2015, she had sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is '' Surfacing'', for which she won two Grammy Awards (ou ...

from her fourth studio album, '' Surfacing'' (1997). At a live performance, Sarah explains the song as being "basically about the fact that we all... have insecurities to hide, and we often do that by putting on a facade." She also goes on to say that "unfortunately, if we just be who we are, that's usually the more attractive and beautiful thing". Released on June 9, 1997, the song was an immediate top-40 and

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

hit that paved the grounds for her future songs " Sweet Surrender", " Adia", and "

Angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles inc ...

", all from ''Surfacing'', and it has received several awards. Commercially, "Building a Mystery" was Canada's most successful single of 1997, topping the country's official chart for eight weeks, and peaked at number 13 in the United States. "Building a Mystery" won the

Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a female in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The awar ...

at the

40th Grammy Awards The 40th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 25, 1998, at Radio City Music Hall, New York City. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Rock icon Bob Dylan, Alison Krauss & Union Station, and R. Kelly were the ...

Censorship

The album version of "Building a Mystery," and the live albums '' Afterglow Live'' and '' Mirrorball'' contain the line, "A beautiful fucked up man." The radio version replaces this line with "A beautiful but strange man" or the original lyric garbled beyond recognition, and during performances on radio or television, Sarah sings the line "A beautiful messed up man."

Reception

The song won the

Juno Award for Single of the Year The Juno Award for Single of the Year has been awarded since 1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle Eas ...

in 1998. The track also made

the recipient of the

at the Grammy Awards of 1998, beating

Mariah Carey Mariah Carey (; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Referred to as the " Songbird Supreme", she is noted for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style and signature use of the ...

Shawn Colvin Shawn Colvin (born Shawna Lee Colvin, January 10, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. While Colvin has been a solo recording artist for decades, she is best known for her 1998 Grammy Award-winning song " Sunny Came Home". Early ...

Paula Cole Paula Cole (born April 5, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter. After gaining attention for her performances as a vocalist on Peter Gabriel's 1993–1994 Secret World Tour, she released her first album, ''Harbinger'', which suffered from a la ...

and Jewel. It came in at number 91 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the '90s".

Chart performance

"Building a Mystery" became McLachlan's biggest chart hit in Canada, spending eight weeks at number one on the '' RPM'' Top Singles chart and ranking at number one on the magazine's year-end chart for 1997. It also topped the ''RPM'' Adult Contemporary and Alternative 30 charts. In the United States, it debuted at number 18 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in early September 1997 and peaked at number 13 a month later. In Australia, the song gained minor popularity, reaching number 97 in March 1998.

Music video

Directed by

Matt Mahurin Matthew S. Mahurin (born January 31, 1959) is an American illustrator, photographer and film director. Mahurin's illustrations appear in ''Time'', ''Newsweek'', '' Mother Jones'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Esquire'', ''Forbes'', and ''The New York Tim ...

, the music video for the song features Moist front man David Usher. It features a man, described as McLachlan's boyfriend, taking points of light from wherever he travels and stitching some sort of garment. When McLachlan investigates in his absence, she finds that he has been assembling a skirt so decorated as to be lit with stars.

Legacy

On 23 October 2001, "Building a Mystery" became the first song ever publicly played on an Apple

iPod The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...

. Apple founder, chairman and CEO

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; ...

selected and played a short portion of the song during the presentation in which he first introduced the iPod to the public at Apple Campus in

Cupertino, California Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 57, ...

Track listings

US CD and cassette single # "Building a Mystery" – 4:06 # " I Will Remember You" – 4:53 US maxi-CD single and Australian CD single # "Building a Mystery" – 4:06 # "I Will Remember You" – 4:53 # " Possession" – 4:39 # "

" (soft drum mix) – 4:30

Personnel

Personnel are lifted from the '' Surfacing'' liner notes. * Sarah McLachlan – writing, vocals, acoustic and electric guitars * Pierre Marchand – writing, background vocals, production, recording, mixing * Michel Pepin – additional electric guitars * Brian Minato – bass * Ash Sood – drums

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 1997 singles 1997 songs Arista Records singles Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Juno Award for Single of the Year singles Music videos credited to Alan Smithee Nettwerk Records singles RPM Top Singles number-one singles Sarah McLachlan songs Songs written by Pierre Marchand Songs written by Sarah McLachlan