The One That Got Away is an acoustic song written by Pink and Billy Mann. It was performed at some shows on tour.
“the classic ‘Is this the one? Or is the grass really greener?'”
LYRICS (Click the image for lyrics
I’m Not Dead Tour
AVO Sessions
Runaway was written by Pink and Billy Mann.
Pink said of song such as Runaway that “It’s been especially hard for [my parents] hearing me write about things they never knew about … My mom’s like, ‘Were you really that angry? Was I really that in denial? Was I really that bad a parent?’ ‘No, Mom – you were great. You didn’t try to run me over with your car. I made it up.’ But by writing all of it down and sharing it with the world, I’ve broken with most of it.”
LYRICS (Click image for lyrics)
U + Ur Hand was released in August 2006 as the third single from I’m Not Dead, written by Pink, Max Martin, Lukasz Gottwald and Rami Yacoub. It was released with the B-side Crash and Burn.
U + Ur Hand is credited for re-energizing Pink’s career in the USA and sales of I’m Not Dead in the country, as the album re-entered the Billboard 200 with the song’s success, after weeks out of the chart. It was ranked #29 on Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 2007 chart and peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Pink’s seventh Top 10 hit on the chart.
Pink wrote the song with Max Martin, Luke Gottwald, and Rami to mock the men who would flirt with her in clubs. The title refers to the line “looks like it’s just me and my hand tonight,” which was a phrase she had heard guys using.
The song caused controversy in the U.S. because of its allegedly “racy” references to masturbation, and consequently some radio stations refused to play it. Pink and her publicist stated that she wasn’t allowed to sing U + Ur Hand on the U.S. television show American Idol because of such references. After being asked to change the title and lyrics to U + Ur Heart, she said, “You want me to rewrite my song for you. For American fucking Idol? What does that even mean, how do you have sex with your heart?” She performed Who Knew instead.
Pink reportedly wanted U + Ur Hand to be the second single from I’m Not Dead, but Who Knew was released as the second and U + Ur Hand was instead released as the third. The single had success in Europe, reaching number ten in the United Kingdom, number four in Germany and number 11 in France; it peaked inside the top ten on the European Hot 100 Singles chart. In Australia the song peaked at number five on the ARIA Singles Chart and is certified platinum for sales of 70,000 copies. It was ranked at number 25 on ARIA’s Top 100 Singles of 2006.
It was released to radio in the United States in October 2006. In January 2007 U + Ur Hand debuted on the Hot 100 at number 94, and it peaked at number nine. It was the most successful single from I’m Not Dead in the U.S., and her highest charting song since Just Like a Pill. U + Ur Hand peaked at number 24 on the Canadian Hot 100, in the first edition of the chart provided by Billboard.
Billboard magazine credited the single with causing an increase in the U.S. sales of I’m Not Dead, which returned to the Billboard 200 albums chart in the same period the single entered the Hot 100. The album later re-entered the top 100 on the strength of U + Ur Hand and a resurgence of interest in Who Knew. According to Tom Carraba, Zomba Label Group general manager and executive vice president of sales and marketing, the “patience” of radio stations, the “great” music video for the single and Pink’s participation in Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveShow tour was responsible for the increase in popularity of U + Ur Hand, which consequently led to renewed interest in the album. Carraba said the single “is the vehicle that will reignite the U.S. marketplace. We think we have a number-one record on our hands.” One program director at the radio station WBBM-FM attributed the success of the single to its appeal to women, calling it “a female anthem” and “very fitting to people who are sick of getting hit on by guys at the club, and want to give them a nice buzz off … [i]t’s relevant to what’s going on with young people”.
The song was well received by music critics. Rolling Stone said in their review of I’m Not Dead that Pink “sets a proudly bitchy tone in the song”, and Allmusic described Pink as “taunting and teasing” in “U + Ur Hand”. British newspaper The Guardian wrote, “the pithy put-downs of [U + Ur Hand] make bearable the sudden shift from classy beats to lumpen power pop”. Entertainment Weekly told that “including one that’s destined to be an instant word-of-mouth smash: the irresistibly rude U + Ur Hand, in which Pink tells a drunken club suitor just whom he’ll be having sex with later (the title provides the answer).” NY Times also praised: “Pink stays playfully upbeat when she’s irritated. U + Ur Hand uses a Joan Jett stomp to give a singles-bar Lothario a brusque brushoff, warning, I’m not here for your entertainment/ You don’t wanna mess with me tonight. PopMatters asks listener to rock out with this song.
Lyrics (Click image for lyrics)
Pink shot the music videos for U + Ur Hand and Stupid Girls at the same time, before the decision was made to release the latter as the first single from I’m Not Dead. Dave Meyers directed both videos. The U + Ur Hand video was shot in Sun Valley, California, at the Haziza Gallery in Los Angeles, at La Center Studios and at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California in December 2005. Pink stated that in the U + Ur Hand video she was “glammed” up and that it took four hours of make-up and one hour of shooting for every different look in the video. She said she wanted it to be “a colorful video”. The outfit that Pink was wearing in the bedroom scene consisted of pieces of black lace that was imported from France and cost US$300 per yard of the fabric. The actor in the tea garden scene is Tristan Castro.
The music video for U + Ur Hand premiered on Canada’s MuchMusic network in July 2006, and was released in Europe at the end of August. In the United States it premiered on MTV’s Total Request Live in September as the “First Look” for that day. The video reached number one on TRL six days after its debut, Pink’s second video to reach the top on the countdown after the video for her 2003 single Trouble. It shows Pink as “Lady Delish”, in a Garage, training in a Gym, sitting on a balcony, in a ‘Tea Garden’, at a party and on a bed.
The video features Pink posing as several of New Zealand artist Martin Emond’s characters, including “Baby Red Knuckles”, “Rocker Bikergirl” and “Hard Candy”. In the video, she has six different looks. During the video, Pink is shown reading a book with pictures of each scene that follows. The use of these characters was uncredited and unauthorised. At the time of the video release, Illicit Streetwear and the Martin F. Emond estate were reviewing their options to take action.
I’m Not Dead Tour
I’m Not Dead Tour Summer 2007
Funhouse Tour
Summer Carnival Tour
The Truth About Love Tour
iTunes Festival
Wetten Dass
The Ellen Show
Leave Me Alone (I’m Lonely) was the sixth single from I’m Not Dead, released in March 2007 with Dear Mr President. It was written by Pink and Butch Walker.
In the beginning of February 2007, before its official release as a single, the song was put on the B-list of BBC Radio 1. It debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 60, and it rose to number 34, her lowest-peaking UK single at that time. In Australia the single debuted at number 11 and peaked at number five, becoming Pink’s fourth top five hit from the album I’m Not Dead; the single also reached the top five in New Zealand and was certified Gold in October 2008, selling over 7,500 copies.
The music video consists of performances from Pink’s I’m Not Dead Tour. The video mostly includes shots of performances of Leave Me Alone (I’m Lonely), but it also includes clips of performances of songs such as Stupid Girls, Fingers, The One That Got Away and U + Ur Hand.
LYRICS (Click image for lyrics)
Funhouse Tour
Summer Carnival Tour
The Truth About Love Tour
iTunes Festival
Cuz I Can was written by Pink, Max Martin and Lukasz Gottwald. It was released as a promo single for I’m Not Dead.
In Cuz I Can, Pink says she plays by her own rules boasts about her “bling”, a contrast to the anti-consumerist content of “Stupid Girls”. Referring to the song, she called herself “a walking contradiction” and “a hypocrite sometimes.”
The song was used as the opening performance of the I’m Not Dead tour.
Lyrics (click image for lyrics)
I’m Not Dead Tour
I’m Not Dead US Club Tour 2006
NYC Flashmob
MTV TRL
Sydney 2008
I’m Not Dead was written by Pink and Billy Mann.
According to Pink, the sixth and title track, I’m Not Dead, is her first “subtle” and “poetic” self-written song: “Usually it’s very much more cartoon-y and blunt, the way I write songs. I don’t really know diplomacy or subtlety.” The song was inspired by how Pink and producer Billy Mann felt about the end of their working relationship: “We were scared to move on from each other, after seeing how much that little bit of time together changed us, and how scary change is.”
Lyrics (Click image for lyrics)
I’m Not Dead Tour 2007
Summer Carnival Tour
AVO Sessions
T4
NYC Flashmob
Stupid Girls
Who Knew
U + Ur Hand
Nobody Knows
Dear Mr President
Leave Me Alone (I’m Lonely)
Dear Mr President was written by Pink and Billy Mann and featured the Indigo Girls. The song is an open letter to then President of the United States, George W. Bush. It was released in December 2006 along side Leave Me Alone (I’m Lonely).
The song criticizes several areas of Bush’s administration and terms in office, including the Iraq War, No Child Left Behind Act, disapproval of equal rights for homosexuals, lack of empathy for poor and middle class citizens, Bush’s strong religious beliefs, and Bush’s drinking and drug usage in college. Pink felt that it was one of the most important songs she had ever written.
The song received mostly positive reviews from music critics. Bill Lamb noted that Pink has rarely made songs about social problems: “the searing anti-Bush “Dear Mr. President” (…) “a folkie singalong” (…) The Indigo Girls lend their sizable instrumental and background vocal punch” and he highlighted it. Robert Christgau noted that Pink thinks “Bush did coke and teens care about the homeless.” Entertainment Weekly described Dear Mr. President “with its incongruous folkie social concern and Bush-baiting applause lines.” Los Angeles Times said that Pink taps her inner Ani DiFranco on the confrontational “Dear Mr. President.” NY Times noted that the song is “well meaning” and “hectoring” and that it grows even more sententious. PopMatters praised the single with long overview: “Oh, and speaking of presidents, Pink’s musical letter to the Commander-in-Chief (“Dear Mr. President”) is just as topical. The Indigo Girls tag along for moral support and, with lyrics like “How can you say, ‘no child is left behind’ / we’re not dumb and we’re not blind” or “You’ve come a long way, from whiskey and cocaine”, you just know that if she’d made the song a few years earlier, it would have been featured in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911. You also get the impression that this is personal for Pink, that she’s not doing it to be trendy. On the lyric page for “Dear Mr. President”, there’s a picture of Pink in an oval frame. Red, white, and blue ribbons are tied to the frame and her father’s dog tags share the reddish page.” Rolling Stone told that Pink writes a scathing letter in “Dear Mr. President” (“You’ve come a long way from whiskey and cocaine!”) and critic praised “cooing righteous folk harmonies with Indigo Girls.” Sal Cinquemani was mixed: “”Dear Mr. President,” which cleverly uses George W. Bush’s own words against him, pales next to Missundaztood’s “My Vietnam.”
Lyrics (Click image for lyrics)
A music video was released for the song as a live video from Pink’s I’m Not Dead Tour.
Funhouse Tour
Summer Carnival Tour
NYC Flashmob
Live in Melbourne 2012
AOL Sessions
VH1 Storytellers
Cafe de Paris 2008
iTunes Festival
US Club Tour 2006
AVO Sessions
Nobody Knows was written by Pink and Billy Mann and released as the fourth single from I’m Not Dead in November 2006 with the B-side Words.
Nobody Knows is a ballad which deals with feelings of depression and loneliness.
Released in November 2006 in the UK, Nobody Knows only peaked at number 27 on the Singles Chart, Pink’s lowest peaking single at the time and the first I’m Not Dead single to miss the top ten.
The song was released in January 2007 in Australia where it also peaked at number 27 on the ARIA Singles Chart.
Nobody Knows reached number 17 in Germany and number 74 on the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles chart. Although it reached the top 40 on the majority of charts on which it appeared, it was not as successful as the album’s preceding singles. In Canada the song was released to radio in mid-January shortly after the success of U + Ur Hand.
LYRICS (Click image for lyrics)
The music video was shot in London by director Jake Nava. The first scene features Pink in a hotel room (shot in The May Fair hotel) staring out of a window to London at night, that changes to sunrise. She then watches TV but finds there’s hardly anything on apart from a melting snowman and puts her head under her pillow before accessing her laptop computer. During the video she messes up the room by throwing everything around, and she is later seen sitting in the fetal position in a shower. Another scene shows Pink walking down a street, past a couple in love and some drunken men. The video ends with Pink singing to an empty auditorium, pretending to do a real performance.
I’m Not Dead Tour
NYC Flashmob
MTV TRL
Paul O’Grady Show
AVO Sessions
On This Day in Pink History… 16th March 2000, Pink performed at MTV’s Spring Break
On This Day in Pink History... 