"If I Let You Go" is a song by Irish

boy band A boy band is a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their Teenage, teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Many boy bands ...

Westlife Westlife are an Irish pop group formed in Dublin in 1998. The group consists of members Nicky Byrne, Shane Filan, Kian Egan and Mark Feehily. Brian McFadden was a member before leaving in March 2004. The group disbanded in 2012 and later reun ...

. It was released in the United Kingdom on 9 August 1999 as the second single from their self-titled debut album (1999). It became the band's second number-one hit, spending 11 weeks on the UK Singles Chart. The song has received a Platinum sales certification in the UK for selling over 600,000 in combined sales of purchased and streaming-equivalent sales. It is the band's 10th-best-selling single in paid-for sales and combined sales in the UK as of January 2019.

Composition

"If I Let You Go" composed in the traditional

verse–chorus form Verse–chorus form is a musical form going back to the 1840s, in such songs as "Oh! Susanna", " The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze", and many others. It became passé in the early 1900s, with advent of the AABA (with verse) form in the T ...

B major B major is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and its enharmonic equi ...

, with

Brian McFadden Brian Nicholas McFadden (born 12 April 1980) is an Irish pop singer and television presenter. He rose to fame in 1998 as a member of the Irish boy band Westlife. Following his departure from the group in 2004, McFadden released his debut solo ...

Shane Filan Shane Steven Filan (born 5 July 1979) is an Irish singer best known as a member of the pop vocal group Westlife, which was formed in 1998, disbanded in 2012, and regrouped in 2018. Westlife has released thirteen albums, embarked on twelve wor ...

, and

Mark Feehily Markus Michael Patrick Feehily (born 28 May 1980) is an Irish singer, best known as a member of the pop vocal group Westlife. Westlife has released twelve albums, embarked on thirteen world tours and won several awards, becoming one of the most ...

's vocals ranging from the chords of D₄ to A₅.

Music video

The music video was directed by Sven Harding and was filmed in

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

, Spain. It depicts the band walking along a beach and singing by a hillside surrounded by red and yellow flags.

Track listings

UK CD1 # "If I Let You Go" (radio edit) # "Try Again" # Enhanced CD UK CD2 # "If I Let You Go" (radio edit) # "If I Let You Go" (extended version) # Interview with Andi Peters UK cassette single and European CD single # "If I Let You Go" (radio edit) # "Try Again" Australian CD single # "If I Let You Go" (radio edit) – 3:38 # "Try Again" – 3:34 # "If I Let You Go" (extended version) – 6:07 # Enhanced CD

Credits and personnel

Credits are lifted from the UK CD1 and ''

'' liner notes. Studios * Recorded at

Cheiron Studios Cheiron Studios () was a recording studio located in the Kungsholmen district of Stockholm, Sweden. Founded in 1992 by Denniz PoP and Tom Talomaa, it was known for being a place where popular music acts of the late 1990s/early 2000s, such as Ba ...

(Stockholm, Sweden) * Strings recorded at Soundtrade Studios (Stockholm, Sweden) * Mixed at Mono Music Studios (Stockholm, Sweden) Personnel *

Jörgen Elofsson Kjell Åke Jörgen Elofsson (born 14 January 1962) is a Swedish songwriter. He was one of the writers of the songwriter-team at Cheiron Studios in Stockholm (along with Denniz PoP, Max Martin, Kristian Lundin, Andreas Carlsson, Rami Yacoub, Pe ...

– writing *

Per Magnusson Per Magnusson (born 30 May 1969) is a Swedish music producer and songwriter. His musical career took off in 1994 as one of the original team members of the now-legendary Cheiron Productions, meeting great international success working with Boyz ...

– writing, keyboards, production, arrangement, programming *

David Kreuger David Kreuger is a Swedish songwriter and music producer. Career David Kreuger began at Cheiron Studios in the spring of 1993. During the period 1993-1997, he worked with Per Magnusson on several projects. Together, they produced and wrote s ...

– writing, arrangement, programming *

Andreas Carlsson Andreas Mikael Carlsson (; born 3 April 1973) is a Swedish music producer and pop songwriter. Biography Carlsson was part of the Cheiron Studios team until the studio was closed down in 2000. In January 2001, former Cheiron-members Andreas Carl ...

– additional backing vocals * Mats Berntoft – acoustic and electric guitars * Tomas Lindberg – bass * Ulf & Henrik Janson – string arrangement * David Kreuger – production * Bernard Lohr – recording (strings), mixing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

Release history

References

External links

"If I Let You Go (Radio Edit)"

Official Westlife Website
{{Authority control 1999 singles 1999 songs Bertelsmann Music Group singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Number-one singles in Norway RCA Records singles Songs about loneliness Songs written by David Kreuger Songs written by Jörgen Elofsson Songs written by Per Magnusson UK singles chart number-one singles Westlife songs