"Windows Down" is a song by American boy band

Big Time Rush ''Big Time Rush'' is an American musical sitcom television series created by Scott Fellows that originally aired on Nickelodeon from November 28, 2009, to July 25, 2013, featuring the band Big Time Rush portrayed as a fictional version of th ...

from the re-release of their second studio album '' Elevate''. The song was released on June 25, 2012, and was released to US radio on July 24, 2012. The song's hook is sampled from " Song 2" by English rock band Blur.

Background and release

"Windows Down" was made available for

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

exclusively via Cambio.com on June 11, 2012. The group revealed the album artwork on June 13. The song was officially released as a single on June 25, via

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

. Kendall Schmidt believed that the track would "appeal to people of all ages," while

Carlos PenaVega Carlos Roberto PenaVega (; born August 15, 1989) is an American actor and singer. He starred on the Nickelodeon series ''Big Time Rush'' as Carlos García, and is a member of the group Big Time Rush (group), Big Time Rush. He was also the host o ...

hoped it "bring in some of the older demo."

Composition

The song was written by Blackbear,

Mike Posner Michael Robert Henrion Posner ( ; born February 12, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Detroit.For Posner's full name, see He signed with J Records in 2009 and released his debut single "Cooler Than Me" the follo ...

, Alexander James,

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (, ; born 23 March 1968) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the frontman, main vocalist, and lyricist of the rock band Blur (band), Blur and the co-creator and primary musical con ...

Dave Rowntree David Alexander De Horne Rowntree (born 8 May 1964) is an English musician, politician, solicitor, composer and animator. He is best known as the drummer for the rock band Blur (band), Blur. In his political career, Rowntree served on the Norf ...

Graham Coxon Graham Leslie Coxon (born 12 March 1969) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who came to prominence as a founding member of the rock band Blur. As the group's lead guitarist and secondary vocalist, Coxon is featured on all of Blur' ...

, Bei Maejor, and

Matt Squire Matt Squire is an American record producer, audio engineer, mixing engineer, and songwriter. His production, songwriting, and mixing credits include Panic! at the Disco, Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Kesha, One Di ...

, with production handled by the latter two while additional by CJ Baran. It features samples from " Song 2" by Blur. American singer/songwriter

Kesha Kesha Rose Sebert (born March 1, 1987), formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. Her first major success came in 2009 when she was featured on rapper Flo Rida's number-one single, "Right Round". Kesha's music and ima ...

originally created an early demo of the track, expected to appear on her second studio album ''

Warrior A warrior is a guardian specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal society, tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracy, social class, class, or caste. History ...

'' with the title "Woo Hoo", still using the Blur sample, but later sold the instrumental to Big Time Rush, and the song was re-written to create "Windows Down".

Critical reception

Nick Bassett from UK site ''The Re-View'' called "Windows Down" a "surefire summer pop hit", complimenting the use of the "Song 2" sample and wrapping up his article saying that it should "mark Big Time Rush as some hot, home-grown competition for our Transatlantic invading boybands".

Chart performance

"Windows Down" peaked at number 97 on ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and lasted one week on chart. The song also peaked at number 35 on the ''Billboard''

Mainstream Top 40 Pop Airplay (also called Mainstream Top 40, Pop Songs, and Top 40/contemporary hit radio, CHR) is a 40-song music chart published weekly by Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played o ...

and stayed on chart for three weeks.

Music video

The music video was filmed in Maui, Hawaii and was released on

Vevo Vevo LLC ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized in all caps until 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available ...

on June 22, three days before the single's iTunes release. It was directed by

Marc Klasfeld Marc Klasfeld is an American music video director. He has directed over two hundred music videos for artists such as Slipknot, Sum 41, Katy Perry, Jay-Z, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Britney Spears, Kid Rock, Michael Bublé, Nelly, Foo Fighters, Kelly ...

and was recorded over the course of five days. The video features the band doing various activities in Hawaii like surfing, paddle boarding, swimming in the ocean, and standing on top of Jeep Wranglers. Logan Henderson described the song as one that "embodies fun" and wanted to create a video to capture that.

Track listing

*Digital download #"Windows Down" – 3:12 *EU CD single #"Windows Down" – 3:13 #"Windows Down" (Instrumental) – 2:59

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Big Time Rush (group) 2012 singles Big Time Rush songs Columbia Records singles Songs written by Mike Posner Song recordings produced by Maejor Songs written by Maejor Songs written by Matt Squire Songs written by Damon Albarn Songs written by Dave Rowntree Songs written by Graham Coxon Songs written by Alex James (musician) 2012 songs Songs written by Blackbear (musician)