Rise Against’s ‘Savior’ Joins The Spotify Billions Club
The punk band’s 2008 track has surpassed a billion streams on Spotify.
Rise Against has risen into the Spotify Billions Club. “Savior,” from the veteran punk band’s 2008 album Appeal To Reason, has surpassed a billion streams on Spotify. It’s the first Rise Against song to reach that benchmark.
In 2009, several months into the Appeal To Reason rollout, “Savior” became the third and final single released off the album. The song was an immediate chart success. It came close to pop hit status by climbing to No. 2 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, and it settled in for lengthy, historic runs on various rock charts. At one point “Savior” held the record for most weeks spent on Hot Rock Songs (63) and most weeks on Alternative Songs (65), meaning it was one of the biggest rock songs in America for more than a year. The track was certified Platinum in the U.S. and ended 2010 as the biggest song of the year on the Hot Rock Songs chart, per Billboard.
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Descendents/Black Flag drummer Bill Stevenson and veteran punk producer Jason Livermore co-produced Appeal To Reason at Livermore’s Blasting Room studio in Fort Collins, Colorado. It was Rise Against’s fifth album, and it presented an accessible iteration of their incendiary punk rock sound, helping to maintain a surge of popularity at rock and alternative radio.
That approach comes through loud and clear on “Savior,” one of the most poignant and anthemic songs in Rise Against’s catalog. Cheekily, they matched the earnest lyrics about the aftermath of a breakup with a humorous music video in which actors in animal costumes moshed to the music. The song became the band’s biggest hit, so it’s funny that singer and lyricist Tim McIlrath told Alternative Press he originally voted to leave “Savior” off the album. Fortunately for Rise Against, he was overruled by his bandmates, who recognized the track as the signature song it would soon become.
