"All My Life"
Standard artwork
Single by Foo Fighters
from the album One by One
B-side
ReleasedSeptember 24, 2002[1][2]
RecordedMay 2002
Genre
Length4:24
LabelRoswell, RCA
Songwriter(s)Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett
Producer(s)Foo Fighters, Nick Raskulinecz
Foo Fighters singles chronology
"The One"
(2002) 		"All My Life"
(2002) 		"Times Like These"
(2003)
Music video
"All My Life" on YouTube

"All My Life" is a song by American rock band Foo Fighters, released as the first single from their fourth album, One by One. The song won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance, and spent ten straight weeks at number 1 on the Alternative Songs chart and it peaked at number 3 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. It was also a top 5 hit on the UK Singles Chart.

Background

According to Dave Grohl, the song "was originally an instrumental and it went through a few different versions. At first it was really dissonant and noisy. The middle section sounded like "Wipe Out" [by the Surfaris]. It was just nuts! We recorded the instrumental and I had no idea how I was gonna sing it. Again, that was another one that our manager said, "That's the song!" And we said, "Really? You think that's the one people will like?"[6] Grohl has said that the song is about how he enjoys performing oral sex on women. "['All My Life'] is a little dirty. I'm very fond of giving oral sex to women. It's a pleasure-giving experience - giving someone something that they'll remember for the rest of their lives, and if you do it right, they will."[7][8]

Release and reception

The song won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance, spent ten straight weeks at number 1 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, and peaked at number 3 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. It was also a top 5 hit on the UK Singles Chart.

It also became the 6th best performing alternative song on the Alternative Songs chart of the decade and the 10th best performing rock song on the Rock Songs chart of the decade. Dave Grohl notes that the band wanted a heavier-sounding song for a single, saying the band was "coming out with "Learn to Fly" and "Next Year" and other songs that had middle-of-the-road melodies."[6] In September 2023, for the 35th anniversary of Alternative Songs (which by then had been renamed to Alternative Airplay),[9] Billboard published a list of the top 100 most successful songs in the chart's history; "All My Life" was ranked at number 55.[10]

In March 2005, Q magazine placed "All My Life" at number 94 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. It was nominated for the Kerrang! Award for Best Single.

"All My Life" is widely regarded as one of the Foo Fighters' best songs. In 2020, Kerrang ranked the song number two on their list of the 20 greatest Foo Fighters songs,[11] and in 2021, American Songwriter ranked the song number five on their list of the 10 greatest Foo Fighters songs.[12]

Other versions

A version recorded during Episode 8 of Series 20 of Later... with Jools Holland on November 26, 2002, at the BBC Television Centre was released on the DVD "Later... Louder with Jools Holland". An unaired interview with Dave and Taylor recorded on the same day was included as an exclusive bonus feature on the DVD.

A live version filmed at Hyde Park on June 17, 2006, was released on the Live at Hyde Park DVD.

A live version filmed at Wembley Stadium on June 7, 2008, was released on the Live at Wembley Stadium DVD.

In other media

The song appeared in the 2003 film Identity and in the 2004 film The Perfect Score. It was also released as downloadable content for the Rock Band video game series on August 18, 2009. The song is also playable on both Rock Revolution and Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits.

Welsh rock band Feeder, use the opening lines from this song as an interlude during live performances of "Lost and Found". It was also used in the promotional video for the Australian Tennis Open by Eurosport(Din).

Part of the song was used to highlight nominee Spider-Man in the Best Movie montage at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards.

In Chile, the song was featured in the children's puppet television show 31 Minutos episode "Ahorrando", while they fighting Calcetín con Rombos Man and the iron.

Personnel

Track listing

CD1:

  1. "All My Life"
  2. "Sister Europe" (The Psychedelic Furs cover)
  3. "Win or Lose"

"All My Life" (Director's Cut video) [enhanced section]
"Win or Lose" is a reworked version of an older song, "Make a Bet" (from Learn to Fly Disc 2).

CD2:

  1. "All My Life"
  2. "Danny Says" (Ramones cover)
  3. "The One"

7" vinyl/Japanese CD single:

  1. "All My Life"
  2. "Sister Europe" (The Psychedelic Furs cover)

Promo

  1. "All My Life" (Radio Edit) 4:13
  2. "All My Life" 4:22

Music video

The video, directed by Grohl, is a performance video because he wanted to "sort of show everybody this is what it's like when we play live" as opposed to the comedic videos the band had done before such as "Big Me" and "Learn to Fly". In the video, the band (with Chris Shiflett making his first appearance in an official Foo Fighters music video) performs the song on stage in front of a video screen at The Forum in Inglewood, California, near Los Angeles (the video was actually shot inside Bakersfield's Mechanics Bank Arena, which was called Centennial Garden at the time).[13] At the conclusion, it is revealed that they had been performing in an empty arena.[14] In January 2021, Grohl revealed that he has dreams about still being in Nirvana and that there is an empty arena waiting for them to play.[15][16]

The video was included on a DVD extra that was packaged with the CD version of the album. As of November 2023, the song has 107 million views on YouTube.

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2002–2003) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[17] 20
Europe (European Hot 100 Singles)[18] 22
Germany (Official German Charts)[19] 93
Ireland (IRMA)[20] 14
Italy (FIMI)[21] 30
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[22] 95
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[23] 46
Norway (VG-lista)[24] 13
Scotland (OCC)[25] 5
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[26] 37
UK Singles (OCC)[27] 5
UK Rock & Metal (OCC)[28] 1
US Billboard Hot 100[29] 43
US Alternative Airplay (Billboard)[30] 1
US Mainstream Rock (Billboard)[31] 3

Year-end charts

Chart (2002) Position
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[32] 159

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[33] 2× Platinum 140,000‡
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[34] Gold 30,000‡
Mexico (AMPROFON)[35] Gold 30,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[36] Platinum 600,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ^ "Welcome to Foofighters.com". WaybackMachine. Archived from the original on October 12, 2002. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  2. ^ "Note Worthy". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 2002-09-13. p. 12. Sessions Records will release the Foo Fighters' new single, "All My Life," on 7-inch vinyl on Sept. 24
  3. ^ Gallucci, Michael (March 2, 2013). "Top 10 Alt-Rock Videos From 2002". Diffuser.fm. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
  4. ^ Thomas, Jeremy (November 15, 2014). "The 8 Ball: Top 8 Post-Grunge Bands". 411MANIA. Archived from the original on May 30, 2016. Retrieved December 18, 2014. Songs like "Everlong," "All My Life" and "I'll Stick Around" are landmark post-grunge tracks
  5. ^ George, Richard (November 11, 2009). "Foo Fighters Greatest Hits Review". IGN. Retrieved December 18, 2014. Most, like I once did, would try to define Grohl and his Foo companions (Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel and Chris Shiflett) as strictly being hard rock. And with hits like "Pretender", "All My Life" and "Everlong", it's tough to argue that point.
  6. ^ a b Kerrang! Legends: Foo Fighters pg.114
  7. ^ Carroll, Grace (July 31, 2015). "10 INNOCENT SONGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW WERE ABOUT SEX". Gigwise. Giant Digital. Retrieved October 18, 2016.
  8. ^ "Cash For Questions - Q 2003". www.fooarchive.com. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  9. ^ Rutherford, Kevin (September 7, 2023). "Alternative Airplay Chart's 35th Anniversary: Foo Fighters Remain No. 1 Act, 'Monsters' New Top Song". Billboard. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  10. ^ "Greatest of All Time Alternative Songs". Billboard. Archived from the original on October 6, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  11. ^ Law, Sam (July 3, 2020). "The 20 greatest Foo Fighters songs – ranked". Kerrang. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
  12. ^ Uitti, Jacob (November 24, 2021). "The Top 10 Foo Fighters Songs". American Songwriter. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
  13. ^ Moss, Corey (August 13, 2002). "Foo Fighters Out To Show They Can 'Really Do It Up'". MTV News. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
  14. ^ "The stories behind every Foo Fighters video". Loudersound.com. October 5, 2016. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
  15. ^ Mikelbank, Peter; Boucher, Michael. "Dave Grohl 'Still Dreams' He's in Nirvana, Reveals Why He Won't Sing Kurt Cobain's Songs on His Own". People. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
  16. ^ Carter, Emily (January 11, 2021). "Dave Grohl: I still dream about Nirvana, but I won't sing Kurt's songs". Kerrang!. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
  17. ^ "Foo Fighters – All My Life". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  18. ^ "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. October 26, 2002. p. 17. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  19. ^ "Foo Fighters – All My Life" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  20. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – All My Life". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  21. ^ "Foo Fighters – All My Life". Top Digital Download. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  22. ^ "Foo Fighters – All My Life" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  23. ^ "Foo Fighters – All My Life". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  24. ^ "Foo Fighters – All My Life". VG-lista. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  25. ^ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
  26. ^ "Foo Fighters – All My Life". Singles Top 100. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  27. ^ "Foo Fighters: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  28. ^ "Official Rock & Metal Singles Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
  29. ^ "Foo Fighters Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  30. ^ "Foo Fighters Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  31. ^ "Foo Fighters Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  32. ^ "The Official UK Singles Chart 2002" (PDF). UKChartsPlus. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  33. ^ "ARIA October 2023 Single Accreditations" (PDF). dropbox.com. ARIA. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  34. ^ "Brazilian single certifications – Foo Fighters – All My Life" (in Portuguese). Pro-Música Brasil. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  35. ^ "Certificaciones" (in Spanish). Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas. Retrieved July 22, 2020. Type Foo Fighters in the box under the ARTISTA column heading and All My Life in the box under the TÍTULO column heading.
  36. ^ "British single certifications – Foo Fighters – All My Life". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
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