Single – The Story

Single – CD and Digital

The game changing single from Brandi Carlile. Read more about the the Album, The Story here.

The Story was written by Phil Hanseroth for the Fighting Machinists, before they had met Brandi Carlile.

In a Rita Houston interview in 2007 Phil says of this song, “It was one of those songs I just wrote. I wrote the melody first….I plucked it right of the air”

This song appeared in a beer commercial in Portugal, on the Olympic ad for General Motors in 2008, and more recently in 2022 an add for NorthFace – covered by Japanese Breakfast. “It was a joy to take on the iconic ballad “The Story,’” Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner says. “I think the song captures the depths of human tenacity and the spirit of the journey so well.”

In an LA Times article, “According to Carlile’s manager, Mark Cunningham, the title track from her 2007 album “The Story” helped make her a star in Portugal after it was used in a beer commercial there. Likewise, its use in a General Motors ad that aired during the Olympics (which caused controversy with some of her more eco-minded fans) helped sell thousands of downloads on iTunes and brought the album back to life after its traditional marketing cycle had passed.”

It was their first Triple A (adult album alternative) radio top 10 single entering 9 the week of April 21 2007.

The song has also been covered by Dolly Parton for the Covers album in 2017, as well as by LeAnn Rimes for her album Remnants in 2016 and more recently by German heavy metal band Serious Black in 2022.

In December 2022, Brandi Carlile performed the song on SNL which created a new popularity with the song reaching an all time high on the US Itunes charts at #2. Second only to Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas is you.

General Motors

In 2008 when GM used the song in their Olympic commercial this is what Brandi Carlile wrote in response to this:

Brandi Carlile, singer of “The Story” in GM’s new ad, on reason for allowing its use

Why “The Story” Is In A GM Commercial

Hey all,

I’m writing you from a plane bound for Portugal. While we are gone you may have already heard our song “The Story” in an Olympic advertisement for GM. Depending on how you feel about music and advertising in general, you may be wondering why a band like us would do something like this. Well I have a few good reasons, so allow me to shine a little light on the subject.

When GM first approached our band to use “The Story” in their 2008 Olympic ad visions of SUVs and full-size pick-up trucks driving through a rugged mountain range were dancing through my head. I promptly and politely declined. (Although I don’t want to be a hypocrite, our band did tour in a GM gas-guzzling van for many years) But, when they came back to us and offered to involve us in an ad campaign promoting hybrids, bio fuel, bio hybrids, hydrogen fuel cell cars and yes, even the infamous electric car the Chevy Volt, I felt the need to think twice about having the opportunity to be a part of a huge American car company creating an ad campaign for environmentally responsible cars. We feel they allowed more than a fair amount of input from us and made an honest effort to create an environmentally conscious ad. We are proud of it.

I also believe in American jobs. Keeping people employed in the US and building fuel-efficient/alternative cars could help reduce and one day help eliminate our dependency on foreign oil. To really make a positive impact regarding the climate crisis we all need to work together to make the change, even GM.

Regardless of what my feelings are about the agenda behind the sudden wave of corporate environmental awareness, its still awareness just the same.

Thanks for hearing us out. The twins and I are proud to say that every last penny from the GM ad is being donated and split between several environmental organizations exploring alternative energy and effecting change on a grass roots level…sweet!

Names and links to these organizations are soon to follow just as soon as the paperwork is done! J

And yes dad, we are still loud mouth tree huggers…sorry.

xobc

Right before the 2022 SNL The Story performance, Chris Willman from Variety asked her in an interview about it:

With “Saturday Night Live,” it’s hard to think of very many people who’ve done it twice in the same calendar year. We don’t know what that means, except that people really like to see you on TV, so that speaks for itself.

Can I tell you what I’m doing? I hope this is a good idea, but I’m gonna do “The Story.” I was young when we put that song out, and it’s such a special song and it resonated with people so much beyond us. It just left us. It went to other people, the other people covered it, and it got put in movies and television commercials, and we kind of kept working and worked our way up as we watched that song almost have this little parallel life to us, almost kinda like — to a much smaller level — Joni with “Both Sides.” It’s been on every “American Idol” and “The Voice” and it’s like a go-to karaoke song. And I think, man, if I’m gonna get an opportunity like this, maybe I should treat it more like a victory lap than this constant make-or-break feeling I always have about everything I do. And maybe I should just go on there and just sing that wonderful song that I’ve had with me for all these years and kind of have a reclamation of sorts.

It’s one of few Brandi Carlile singles that has been officially released in different formats and versions including:

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don’t mean anything
When you’ve got no one to tell them to
It’s true, I was made for you

I climbed across the mountain tops
Swam all across the ocean blue
I crossed all the lines, and I broke all the rules
But, baby, I broke them all for you
Oh, because even when I was flat broke
You made me feel like a million bucks
You do
I was made for you

You see the smile that’s on my mouth
It’s hiding the words that don’t come out
And all of my friends who think that I’m blessed
They don’t know my head is a mess
No, they don’t know who I really am
And they don’t know what
I’ve been through like you do
And I was made for you

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to where I am
Oh, but these stories don’t mean anything
When you’ve got no one to tell them to
It’s true, I was made for you
Oh love it’s true, that I was made for you

Writer/s: Phillip John Hanseroth
Publisher: Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind