Leave Out All the Rest

"Leave Out All the Rest" is a ballad by the American rock band Linkin Park, which was released as the fifth and final single from their third album, '' Minutes to Midnight''. Because of the song's popularity of digital sales during the release week of the album, it charted in the ''Billboard'' Pop 100 for that week. On the album, the song segues into " Bleed It Out". The single was released on July 15, 2008.

Background

The song's working titles were "Fear" and "When My Time Comes" according to the booklet. While writing, the group went through over thirty lyrical variations before completing the album version. The song combines various synths and samples with raw guitars and drums and powerful vocals. A demo which features Mike Shinoda doing lead vocals can be heard on the ''Making of Minutes to Midnight'' documentary, as well as the Linkin Park ''Underground 9.0'' CD where it is entitled "Fear". The song starts with a string sample and electric piano intro, followed by the verse. At the end of the song of the album version, a crowd can be heard which leads into " Bleed It Out", a song that features the background sound of a crowd throughout.

In a ''Kerrang!'' review/interview of the band, and the album, vocalist Chester Bennington said about the song, "We knew this was going to be a single from the very beginning, so we worked really hard on making sure it had great lyrics. I'm singing 'pretending someone else can come and save me from myself' during it because it's supposed to feel like an apology letter, as though I'm moving on but I want people to remember the good things and not the bad things. A lot of the song is about humility." Mike Shinoda has also stated that Rick Rubin (producer for ''Minutes to Midnight'') was the first to have said "This sounds like a massive single".

Media appearances

The intro to the song was featured on an English advert for the US television series '' Law & Order'' for Sky One.

It was also featured on the original motion picture soundtrack for the 2008 film ''Twilight''. It is played during the end credits. Also, the performance from "Road to Revolution" is available on the ''Twilight'' special edition DVD.

" Leave Out All the Rest" was the title of a '' CSI'' episode that aired on November 6, 2008. The band made a deal with CBS to work the song into the episode. It contained several elements of the song throughout, and pieces of the verses, as well as the chorus, were played at the opening and end of the episode.

In 2009 the German action-series ''Alarm für Cobra 11'' used a part of the song (the chorus) in an especially sad scene, it was the fourth time that a Linkin Park title was used in the series.

Music video

In an interview with MTV, Mike said that the video, directed by bandmate Joe Hahn, takes place in a futuristic, science fiction influenced setting, and depicts what the daily life of the band's members would be like if they lived in outer space. The band lives in a rundown, artificial habitat that is making its way across the galaxy. At first, they are seen passing the time performing mundane tasks, but then gravity is lost on board the vessel, sending the members floating into what looks like the Sun or a star. The video features no performance footage, though Chester Bennington is seen singing during most of his solo scenes.
The video has respectively been influenced by the British movie '' Sunshine'', borrowing similar imagery and a similar concept.
Hahn said:

The video leaked on May 30, 2008, the same day the band released a statement on their widget at MySpace, saying that the premiere for the video would be on June 2, 2008. It featured in the top ten songs of the week on VH1.

As of October 2022, the music video for "Leave Out All the Rest" has over 200 million views on YouTube.

While playing a show in Germany (München) in June 2008, Shinoda spoke with Warner Bros. Records Germany and they told him that the music video they've made for "Leave Out All the Rest" was not going to be released just yet due to the high success for the single "Given Up" in Germany. He later told this to the fans at the show.

Commercial performance

The song managed to spend one week on the '' Billboard'' Pop 100 without being officially released as a single, at #98. "Leave Out All the Rest" (Pop 100 chart) '' Billboard'', June 2, 2007 The song debuted on the US ''Billboard'' Hot Modern Rock Tracks at #35 and peaked at #11. It is one of Linkin Park's lowest charting songs in the UK to date, peaking at #90, as well as on the ''Billboard'' Modern Rock chart, peaking at only #11. "Leave Out All the Rest" debuted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at #99 and the ''Billboard'' Hot Digital Songs at #72. The single would later peak on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at #94. Despite its mediocre chart performance, the single was still certified Gold by the RIAA in 2009 and later reached Platinum in 2017. Despite the song charting poorly in the UK, it would eventually be certified silver by the BPI for 200,000 units sold in December 2021.

Track listings

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

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2007 songs
2008 singles
Linkin Park songs
Rock ballads
Song recordings produced by Rick Rubin
Songs written by Mike Shinoda
Warner Records singles