You Only Live Once (song)

Single infobox
Name = You Only Live Once


Caption =
Artist = The Strokes
from Album = First Impressions of Earth
Released = July 24, 2006 (Int'l)
September 26, 2006 (US)
Format = CD, 7"
Genre = Alternative rock
Length = 3:09
Label = RCA, Rough Trade
Producer = David Kahne
Gordon Raphael| Last single = "Heart in a Cage"
(2006)
This single = "You Only Live Once"
(2006)
Next single = —

"You Only Live Once" is the opening track and third single from "First Impressions of Earth", the third album from American rock band The Strokes. They have performed this song on several programs, most recently The Tonight Show and Late Night with Conan O' Brien. Released on July 24, 2006, the single hit #35 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. It also was the band's first single to fail to reach the UK charts.

A cover of Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me" was recorded as a b-side and features Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam sharing vocals with Julian Casablancas while Josh Homme, (of Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal), plays drums alongside Fabrizio Moretti.

The video for the single was directed by Samuel Bayer, who had previously helmed the "Heart In A Cage" video, and features the band performing the song in an enclosed room while sewage pours from the walls and fills the room. The video was set to premiere in the UK on May 24, 2006, but was delayed, due to last-minute edits, until June 21, 2006. Yahoo! premiered the video in the US on June 27.

An early demo version of the song, entitled "I'll Try Anything Once" is included as one of the b-sides on the "Heart In A Cage" single. It features only Nick Valensi playing keyboard while Julian Casablancas sings the lyrics softly, which are quite different from the album version of the song. Some of these lyrics were also present when The Strokes played the song for the BBC's Radio 1 Session, which aired on March 8, 2006.

It was also listed at #16 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2006.

An alternate music video for the song (directed by Warren Fu) was premiered on the social media site imeem on May 29, 2007. It contains the very end of "Ize of the World" and it works as a homage to "" and as a video protest against war, hunger and consumerism.

When the song was released as a single, The Strokes launched Operation YOLO (You Only Live Once), prompting all of their fans to call and request the single on radio stations. Their goal was to try and get out the word of the new single as fast as possible, by spreading the song by word of mouth. The Strokes Myspace page asked all users to put the song in their profile in an attempt to spread the single among the online community.

Track listing

UK, EU 7"

#"You Only Live Once"
#"Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)"

External links

* [http://thestrokes.imeem.com/ Alternate video for You Only Live Once]