"Paralyzer" is a song by Canadian
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
band
Finger Eleven
Finger Eleven is a Canadian Rock music, rock band from Burlington, Ontario, formed in 1990. They have released seven studio albums (six as Finger Eleven and one as Rainbow Butt Monkeys), with their album ''The Greyest of Blue Skies'' bringing th ...
. It was released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, ''
Them vs. You vs. Me'', on March 1, 2007. The song's release as a single preceded the release of ''Them vs. You vs. Me'' by five days. The song received high airplay in both the United States and Canada, and was performed live on the March 14, 2007 episode of ''
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the fourth and sixth installment of ''The Tonight Show''. Hosted by Jay Leno, it aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009, replacing ''The Ton ...
'' and again ten months later on January 9, 2008. The song has surpassed "
One Thing" to be Finger Eleven's most successful single.
Composition
Finger Eleven's frontman
Scott Anderson has said that the single has a feel distinct from the rest of Finger Eleven's music, possessing more of a
funk rock
Funk rock is a fusion genre that mixes elements of funk and Rock music, rock. James Brown and others declared that Little Richard and his mid-1950s road band, The Upsetters (American band), the Upsetters, were the first to put the funk in the ...
or
dance-rock
Dance-rock is a dance- infused genre of rock music. It is a post-disco genre connected with pop rock and post-punk with fewer rhythm and blues influences. It originated in the early 1980s, following the decline in popularity of both punk and dis ...
sound. However, the song has also been characterized as
alternative rock
Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
,
hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...
,
and
post-grunge
Post-grunge is an offshoot of grunge that has a less abrasive or intense tone than traditional grunge. Originally, the term was used almost pejoratively to label mid-1990s alternative rock bands such as Bush (British band), Bush, Candlebox, Colle ...
. The style of the song has been compared to (though inspired by) "
Take Me Out
A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.
Film
In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each ...
", a 2004 single by
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...
band
Franz Ferdinand. Finger Eleven occasionally performed "Take Me Out" during the middle of ''Paralyzer'' in live performances as a part of a medley along with "
Trampled Under Foot" by
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...
and "
Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" by
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...
. "Paralyzer" is about feeling uncomfortable in a dance club.
Drummer Rich Beddoe said "It's something the whole band feels". He added,
The single has three versions; one is the original CD version, while the other two are
radio edit
In music, a radio edit, or a "clean version," is a modification, typically truncated or censored, intended to make a song more suitable for airplay. It may be censored for profanity, vulgarities, or subject matter; or adjusted for length, instr ...
versions, in which the line containing the word "
shit
''Shit'' is an English-language profanity. As a noun, it refers to fecal matter, and as a verb it means to defecate; in the plural ("the shits"), it means diarrhea. ''Shite'' is a common variant in British and Irish English. As a slang ...
ty" is either censored or replaced with "shady". The song alludes to the band's prior hit "
One Thing" with the lyric ''"I should just stay home, if one thing really means one".
Music video
The video was released on
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
. It starts with a man, walking, who begins to intersperse his steps with dance moves. He looks into windows and in the reflection, he sees himself with dancers around him, but when he turns he sees a woman. The two begin to dance with the symbolic dancers returning in greater numbers every time the chorus repeats. The video alternates between shots of the band playing on a rooftop that overlooks the dancers in a seemingly abandoned street.
The video reached number eight on
VH1
VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...
's weekly ''
VSpot Top 20 Countdown''. On the channel's year-end Top 40 Videos of 2007, it placed at number 23, despite only having spent (at the time) one week on its weekly ''Top 20 Countdown''.
Chart performance
"Paralyzer" debuted on the U.S.
''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number 97 in June 2007. It proceeded to slowly gain in airplay and digital sales over the months. For the chart week of November 24, 2007 (over six months after the song was released), it became the band's first-career top 10 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, rising from number 14 to number 10. The song then rose to peak at number six on the Hot 100 over a month later, for the chart week of January 5, 2008. The song became the band's first number one on the Mainstream Rock and Alternative charts. It also became their second top five song on the Alternative Chart after "One Thing", which had peaked at number five, and it later tied 30 Seconds to Mars "The Kill (Bury Me)" and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus "Face Down" for the record of spending the most weeks on that chart (52 weeks). The record has since been broken by
Rise Against
Rise Against is an American punk rock band from Chicago, formed in 1999. The group's current line-up comprises vocalist/rhythm guitarist Tim McIlrath, lead guitarist Zach Blair, bassist Joe Principe and drummer Brandon Barnes. Rise Against's mu ...
's "
Savior
Savior or saviour may refer to:
*A person who helps people achieve salvation, or saves them from something
Religion
* Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will rule for seven, nine or nineteen years
* Maitreya
* Messiah, a saviour or li ...
". It also found great success on the ''Billboard'' Adult Top 40, eventually climbing peaking at number three, their second top three song on that chart after "One Thing", which had reached number two. It also hit number one on its
recurrent chart. The song topped three million digital downloads in the United States in late December 2010, and as of January 2015, the song has sold 3.4 million copies in the U.S.
The track peaked at number 12 on the Australian Singles Chart based on downloads alone; an amazing achievement considering eighty percent of single sales come from physical releases. "Paralyzer" is one of the most successful hits for the band. At the end of the year, the single ranked number 58 for the year in Australia.
The single has been certified double platinum (2,457,058 downloads) by the RIAA.
On the
Canadian Singles Chart
The Canadian music charts are a collection of record charts reflecting the music consumption of people in Canada. '' RPM'' and '' Billboard'' are the biggest publications to have published Canada's official charts for decades. However, the first ...
, the song became the band's second number one following 2003's "One Thing." It also did well 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 ...
, reaching number three. The song later debuted at number 10 on the New Zealand
RIANZ
Recorded Music NZ (formerly the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ)) is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell recorded music in New Zealand. Membership of Recorded ...
chart in February 2008, becoming the band's first charting song there. It climbed to number seven the following week.
In September 2023, for the 35th anniversary of Alternative Airplay,
''Billboard'' published a list of the top 100 most successful songs in the chart's history; "Paralyzer" was ranked at number 45.
Usage in media
The song has been featured on the television series ''
Gossip Girl
''Gossip Girl'' is an American teen drama television series created and developed by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage and based on the series of novels of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar. It follows a group of students on Manhattan's ...
'' and ''
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
''. It is also a playable song in the rhythm game ''
Rock Revolution'' by
Konami
, commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...
; although the game's producers have stated that all songs will be covers, the song is one of two for which the game uses the original master recording (the other being "
Given Up" by
Linkin Park
Linkin Park is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Agoura Hills, California, in 1996. The band's current lineup consists of vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn, bass ...
). The song is also a playable song in the rhythm game ''
Band Hero
''Band Hero'' is a 2009 rhythm game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the second Spin-off (media), spin-off of the ''Guitar Hero'' series, following ''DJ Hero'' (2009). The game was released on November 3, 2009, for the P ...
'' by
Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
. The song is also on the
''Rock Band'' Network, and was introduced as
DLC into ''
Rocksmith
''Rocksmith'' is a music video game produced by Ubisoft, released in October 2011 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms in North America. ''Rocksmith'' was released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 during September 2012 in Australian and Europ ...
'' by
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...
.
The song is also part of the third game in the Guitar Hero On Tour Series for the Nintendo DS, ''
Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits''.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Finger Eleven
2006 songs
2007 singles
Finger Eleven songs
Funk rock songs
Dance-rock songs
Canadian dance songs
Canadian Singles Chart number-one singles
Wind-up Records singles
Torch songs
Songs about alcohol
Songs about mental health
Song recordings produced by Johnny K