The River (Good Charlotte song)

Infobox Single
Name = The River


Artist = Good Charlotte featuring M. Shadows & Synyster Gates
from Album = Good Morning Revival
Released =
Format = CD single
Recorded =
Genre = Alternative rock
Length = 3:16
Label = Epic, Daylight
Writer = Good Charlotte
Producer = Don GilmoreExtra chronology 2
Artist = Good Charlotte
Type = singles
Last single = "We Believe" (2005)
This single = "The River" (2007)
Next single = "Keep Your Hands off My Girl" (2007)

"The River" is a song by the pop-punk band Good Charlotte featuring M. Shadows and Synyster Gates of the hard rock band Avenged Sevenfold. The song was the first single from the Good Morning Revival album in North America and the second single throughout the rest of the world except for Australia due to a delay of it no being released there as well as Good Charlotte have not confirmed if they will release it in Australia.

The band's episodes of GCTV, in which the band uploads a video to their website of behind the scenes in the recording studio, photo shoots, etc, feature different songs from the "Good Morning Revival" album. On December 8, 2006, the second episode was released on Good Charlotte's website. "The River" was featured in the video and can be heard playing in the background.

The song was premiered January 4, 2007, on their official website, and via the band's MySpace.

Track listing

#"The River" (featuring M. Shadows and Synyster Gates)
#"The River" (Acoustic Version)
#"You're Gone"
#"The River" (Video)

Music video

A music video for the song was shot in mid-December, 2006, in Los Angeles, California with director Marc Webb who has done the Motivation Proclamation and Festival Song videos for the band before. It features Good Charlotte performing alongside the concrete L.A. river bank that runs through the city, contrasted with classic images of the beauty and history of Los Angeles. The video clip shows the two sides of L.A., the excitement and glamour of L.A. that the band witnessed early on in their career and then the deeper/darker hidden side of L.A. that people and the band saw after living there for years. MySpace celebrity Jeffree Star, is featured in the background throughout the video. There are two different videos for the song, one including M. Shadows and Synyster Gates, the other video is the version of the song without the members of Avenged Sevenfold featuring in it. GCTV Episode 3 shows the video shoot of "The River". The video featuring M. Shadows and Synyster Gates premiered on MTV on February 7th, 2007.

The original version of the video, that does not feature Avenged Sevenfold's guitarist Synyster Gates and vocalist M. Shadows was briefly shown on TRL, but the shortened clip made its way onto Youtube [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LFah0FFgUA Original Version Of Good Charlotte's 'The River' music video] ]

The music video for "The River" was added to United Kingdom music channels Kerrang! and Scuzz on 13 April 2007, indicating that it was the second single in the UK from Good Charlotte and it was released on 21st May 2007.

The video with Gates and Shadows features them morphing into one another, Benji into Joel, Shadows into Benji and so on.

Chart performance

"The River" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 93 in early February 2007 due to digital downloads, but fell off the chart the following week. [Katie Hasty, [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003540636 "Beyonce Stays Ahead Of Fall Out Boy Atop Hot 100"] , Billboard.com, February 1, 2007.] However, it went back onto the charts a few weeks later, landing at number 89. It is the first Good Charlotte single to land a spot on the Billboard Pop 100.

Trivia

* This is the first Good Charlotte video that Marc Webb has directed since 2001.
* This song references "The Prodigal Son", a parable that tells the story of a young man who runs off with his share of his father's inheritance and spends it all at once, having nothing soon after. Only in after he realizes his foolishness does he go back, despairing, to his father, who welcomes him with open arms.
* The first line of the song "as I walk through the valley of the shadow of LA" may be inspired by the line of the 23rd Psalm, "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death".
* In the video containing M. Shadows and Synyster Gates. Synyster Gates is seen playing his Schecter Signature guitar.
*The song was the subject of much controversy because of the inclusion of Synyster Gates and M. Shadows. Many of their fans felt that performing on this was another step towards selling out.

References

External links

* [http://www.goodcharlotte.com Official Site]
* [http://musicbox.sonybmg.com/good_charlotte/the_river The River on Sony Musicbox]
* [http://video.prodigymsn.com/ProdigyMSN.Videos/videos.aspx?t=1&v=68ed860e-7ade-496c-85d0-cf515df237ed The River on ProdigyMSN]

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