Don't Speak

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"Don't Speak" is a song by American rock band No Doubt, featured on their third studio album, Tragic Kingdom (1995). Released as an album track in 1996 by Interscope Records, the song was initially written as a love song by lead singer Gwen Stefani and her brother, former band member Eric Stefani.[1] However, after several revisions, Gwen reworked the lyrics into a breakup song, reflecting the end of her seven-year relationship with bandmate Tony Kanal.[2][3]

Despite the song's substantial airplay in the United States, "Don't Speak" was not allowed to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 since a physical single was not issued for the song in the US, which was a rule at the time. Instead, "Don't Speak" topped the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart for 16 weeks. Outside the United States, it topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, becoming No Doubt's most successful international single. "Don't Speak" was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 40th Grammy Awards.[4][5]

"Don't Speak" was ranked at number 495 on Blender magazine's "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born".[6] The song is a playable track in the 2009 video game Band Hero,[7] and was also released as a downloadable song for 2008's Rock Band 2,[8] as well as part of the No Doubt Track Pack for Guitar Hero III.[9] The song has been sampled by multiple hip hop artists, including in Rakim's song "Dedicated"[10] and Ice Cube's "War & Peace".[11]

Background and composition

"Don't Speak" is an alternative rock[12][13][14][15] power ballad[16] written by lead singer Gwen Stefani and her brother Eric Stefani, and produced by Matthew Wilder. It was originally a love song, but Stefani rewrote the lyrics almost completely after her breakup with the band's bass player Tony Kanal. According to her, "It used to be more upbeat, more of a Seventies rock-type thing. [When] Tony and I broke up... it turned into a sad song." The opening chords are reminiscent of the intro to the 1979 pop hit "Breakfast in America" by the British rock band Supertramp.[17] A live version that exists from April 1994 shows off a bouncy tune that has the same skeleton as the released version, but not the same urgency.[18] The band performed part of the original song on VH1 Storytellers on August 10, 2000.[19]

The band's lead guitarist Tom Dumont said about the song's composition:

There's a lot of stories about that song, because that one unfolded over a longer period of time. Originally, Gwen's brother wrote most of that song, and then after we got at it as a band, Gwen changed the lyrics around to fit her life. Musically, we brought it to another level, but near the end we reworded it. There's an earlier version of the song where the verses are totally different, which is a really beautiful version and it's awesome but it's way more jazzy and really different. That song had a long incubation process.[2]

Sheet music for "Don't Speak" shows the key of [[E-flat major|E Template:Flat major]].[20] A demo version also appeared on a demo CD, which was presented to Interscope Records prior to the release of Tragic Kingdom.[21]

Critical reception

British magazine Music Week rated the song three out of five, writing that "this Californian quartet sound more like Swedish Eurovision hopefuls on this debut UK offering but, if radio bites, it could be a smash."[22]

Chart performance

Upon release, "Don't Speak" immediately began to receive extensive airplay and it eventually became the most widely played song on American radio in 1996.[23] It reached number one on Billboard's Hot 100 Airplay chart and maintained that position for 16 non-consecutive weeks, a record at the time.[24] Despite its copious airplay, "Don't Speak" was not allowed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 since no commercial single was released for it in the United States (a requirement for charting purposes at the time).[25] Slate magazine music critic Chris Molanphy has stated that if the song had been eligible to chart, it almost certainly would have claimed the number one spot.[26] An import CD did sell in the US, but this format was not allowed to chart either.[27]

On other Billboard charts, "Don't Speak" stayed at number two on Modern Rock Tracks chart for five consecutive weeks.[28] The song also proved to be a crossover hit, reaching number one on the Adult Top 40 chart for 15 consecutive weeks as well as numbers six and nine on the Adult Contemporary and Rhythmic Top 40 charts, respectively.[28] It was ultimately placed at number one on the Hot 100 Airplay year-end chart of 1997.[29]

Internationally, "Don't Speak" was also very successful. In February 1997, it peaked at number one in both the United Kingdom and Ireland for three weeks. Elsewhere in Europe, "Don't Speak" reached the top position in Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. Australia was another major music market where the song received widespread airplay, debuting at number one and maintaining the peak position for eight weeks.

Music video

The video was directed by Sophie Muller and it is the first of the long-time collaboration between the band and the director. Before the music starts, at the beginning of the music video, there is a scene of Kanal picking a rotten orange from a tree (these scenes are usually cut out when VH1 airs this video). The majority of the video for "Don't Speak" takes place on Stage 2 at Mack Sennett Studios in Silver Lake as the band plays. Other scenes tell the story of how the media mainly focused on Stefani while the band was always in the background.[30] The second half of the video features snippets of live footage filmed during the band's performance with Dog Eat Dog and Goldfinger at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City on August 21, 1996. The video also features clips of Dumont playing together with Foo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear. The video ends with Kanal replacing the orange in the tree, which is actually footage of Kanal in reverse pulling the orange off.

Tensions in the band had been running high and they reportedly were on the verge of breaking up the day before they were scheduled to film the video. They decided to go ahead and film it as a form of "therapy".

The video won the award for Best Group Video and was nominated for Video of the Year at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards. It has one billion views on YouTube as of May 2023, and 700 million of the views come from 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 alone. The video, now remastered in 4K, was uploaded on October 7, 2009.

There is an alternate version of the video showing just the live performance part. Both versions of the video are included on the DVD release The Videos 1992–2003 (2004).

Track listings

Australian, Japanese, and UK CD single[31][32]

  1. "Don't Speak" – 4:23
  2. "Don't Speak" (alternate version) – 4:23 (*)
  3. "Hey You" (acoustic version) – 3:27 (*)
  4. "Greener Pastures" (from The Beacon Street Collection album) – 5:05

European CD single; UK 7-inch and cassette single[33][34][35]

  1. "Don't Speak" – 4:23
  2. "Greener Pastures" (from The Beacon Street Collection album) – 5:05

(*) Recorded at York Street Studios, Auckland, New Zealand, in September 1996.

Charts

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Certifications

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Release history

Region Date Format(s) Label(s) Ref.
United States 1996 Radio Template:Hlist Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
United Kingdom February 10, 1997 Template:Hlist Template:Hlist [72]
Japan February 21, 1997 CD Template:Hlist [73]

Cover versions

Notes

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References

External links

Template:No Doubt singles Template:MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video

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