“How to Save a Life” by The Fray, Tuesday, June 25, 2024

In 2005, The Fray scored their first hit with “Over My Head” (Cable Car). The song peaked at number 8 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and topped several radio charts. While that song received critical acclaim from Billboard and Stylus Magazine, the piano-based pop-rock quartet band from Denver, Colorado, would be much less memorable today if it wasn’t for their second hit. After seeing the band live in Los Angeles, the music supervisor for the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy Alexandra Patsavas featured the song “How to Save a Life” in an episode in the massively popular ABC show. After the song’s feature in the episode, fans downloaded the ballad on iTunes.
 

I PRAY TO GOD HE HEARS YOU. The kickstart to the success of “How to Save a Life” has been credited to Grey’s Anatomy. But before the song was a single, it was the title track to The Fray’s debut album. How to Save a Life is peak mid-’00 piano pop rock. Every track is inoffensive and could be played in any coffee shop or grocery store without editing the lyrics or mellowing the instrumentation. Likewise, every song could easily fit on adult contemporary radio, and, in 2006, Top 40 stations. Several songs stick out on the album as potential singles when much of it fades into the background of a coffee shop conversation. “Over My Head” is an obvious single with its piano and late ‘90s guitar on the chorus. “How to Save a Life” is the obvious follow-up. Lead singer Issac Slade talked about the writing process for the song with Sauce. Slade and the Fray’s guitarist Joe King volunteered at a faith-based camp in Denver called Shelterwood, volunteering to mentor teens on weekends. One particular teen’s story inspired Slade to write “How to Save a Life,” when the singer realized that “no one could write a manual on how to save him.”

IF I STAYED UP WITH YOU ALL NIGHT.  Despite The Fray’s lead singer Issac Slade’s realization that there is no step-by-step process for saving a person from vices such as drug addiction, the lyrics to “How to Save a Life” sound instructive. These lyrics, according to Slade, refer to conversations the boy had with friends and family who offered the young addict an ultimatum: “Quit taking drugs and cutting yourself or I won't talk to you again.” Slade claimed all the boy needed was support. While the verses show the attempts at tough love, the chorus of “How to Save a Life” shows the speaker’s earnest hopes to save a friend as he questions, “Where did I go wrong?” The specifics of the lyrics aren’t what made the song a number 3 hit on Billboard’s Hot 100, but rather the sentiment of saving a life. The placement in TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, One Tree Hill, and Scrubs solidified “How to Save a Life” in mid-’00s pop culture. The song touched many fans who faced or whose loved ones faced addiction, illness, or tragedy. Ultimately, “How to Save a Life” is about doing the best you can, which is caring for someone you love. 

Read “How to Save a Life” by The Fray on Genius