"If Today Was Your Last Day" is the third single from

Nickelback Nickelback is a Canadian Rock music, rock band formed in 1995 in Hanna, Alberta, Hanna, Alberta. Throughout its history, it has consisted of lead guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, rhythm guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist Ryan ...

's sixth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

''Dark Horse''. It was originally planned as the first single, to hit all U.S. radio formats September 30, 2008, but was scrapped as the first single in favour of " Gotta Be Somebody". Instead it was released on March 31, 2009. It was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who produced the entire album. The song was released as a digital download in the U.S. on November 11. "If Today Was Your Last Day" was released in the UK on June 15. The song was performed live for the first time on May 22 at the

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Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England. In the US, the song has sold over 1,500,000 downloads, as of February 2010. According to

Roadrunner Records Roadrunner Records is a Dutch–American record label focused on Heavy metal music, heavy metal and hard rock music. Founded in the Netherlands in 1980, it is now a division of Warner Music Group and is based in New York City. Formerly seen as ...

UK, the song is "dynamically swelling our bank accounts". The song has also apparently been around with Nickelback for a while, but had never been finished. The song received Gold certification in Australia. Lead vocalist/guitarist

Chad Kroeger Chad Robert Kroeger (, Turton; born November 15, 1974) is a Canadian musician who is best known for being the lead singer, lead guitarist, primary songwriter, and founding member of the rock band Nickelback. In addition to his work with Nic ...

has mentioned the song as his personal favorite from ''Dark Horse''. He had described the middle part of the song as "very motivational, and very positive". The song was used for promotional videos in the Winter Olympics in 2010, and was used as the closing song during NHL Tonight's 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs coverage.

Music video

The music video was shot with director

Nigel Dick Nigel Dick (born 21 March 1953) is an English music video director and filmmaker. Originally from Catterick, North Yorkshire, he is based in Los Angeles, California. He has directed music videos for artists such as Britney Spears, Toto, Ba ...

in March 2009. Performance portions of the video were shot at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska and in New York City. The other portion was shot in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. The music video premiered on 23 April. In the video, two teenage boys dressed in black seem to be up to some sort of business in Philadelphia. They record their journey on a camcorder and carry mysterious black bags with them. They stand on top of a bridge ready and open the bags to confetti with quotes from the song such as "Forgive your Enemy," "It's Never Too Late," "Call a Friend and Reminisce", and "Fall in Love" fall over the people beneath them. This inspires two women to hand out coats with messages similar to those on the colored paper, a well-dressed man to hand money to everyone he meets, an arguing couple make up, and a man presumably arguing with his boss to quit. All of the quotes refer to lines in the song "If Today Was Your Last Day".

Track listing

# "If Today Was Your Last Day" (album version) – 4:08

Charts

In November 2008, "If Today Was Your Last Day" debuted at number 35 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the US based on downloads only. After its release as an official single, it re-entered the Hot 100 and reached a new peak at 19. It is their second top twenty hit on the Hot 100 from ''Dark Horse'', and their ninth top twenty hit on the chart overall. In Canada, it debuted at 91 on the

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. It was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007 as the standard record chart in Canada; a new chart ...

also based on just downloads, and after its physical release in Canada and receiving airplay it made a re-entry on the chart at number 67 and would go on to reach number 7.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2008 songs Nickelback songs Songs written by Chad Kroeger Songs written by Mike Kroeger Songs written by Ryan Peake Music videos directed by Nigel Dick Song recordings produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange 2008 singles Roadrunner Records singles