Fake It (Seether song)

This article is about Seether song. For other songs, see Fake It (disambiguation) § Music.

"Fake It" is a song by South African rock band Seether. It is the first single from the band's album Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces. The single quickly rose to number one on both the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks and Hot Modern Rock Tracks charts. It also reached number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100, the second highest of their singles after "Broken", which reached number 20. The single was certified 3x platinum by the RIAA, silver by the BPI, and 2x platinum by the RMNZ.^[4][5][6]

"Fake It"
Single by Seether
from the album Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces
Released	28 August 2007
Recorded	2006–2007
Genre	Hard rock[1] post-grunge[2] alternative rock[3]
Length	3:16
Label	Wind-up
Songwriters	Shaun Morgan Dale Stewart John Humphrey
Producer	Howard Benson
Seether singles chronology
"The Gift" (2006) "Fake It" (2007) "Rise Above This" (2008)

The original version of the song was first recorded in singer Shaun Morgan's bedroom and was an iTunes exclusive bonus track named "Quirk," included with pre-orders of Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces.

In May 2021, for the 40th anniversary of Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks, Billboard ranked "Fake It" at number 10 on its list of the 100 most successful songs in the chart's history;^[7][8] in September 2023, the magazine ranked the song at number 93 on a similar retrospective list for the 35th anniversary of Hot Modern Rock Tracks (which by then had been renamed to Alternative Airplay).^[9][10]

Music video

The music video, which was directed by Tony Petrossian, debuted on Seether's website as part of a "worldwide fan premiere" on October 23, 2007, the same day the album was released. It shows Shaun Morgan filming a music video on a plane set, with women dancing seductively around him. It then goes on to show the band playing in a snowy clearing and an industrial looking arena surrounded by fans. Each setting is then inundated with various parts of the others, such as having the scantily clad models from the plane dance through the snowy clearing, revealing all the various music video tropes to be faked in some way, through the use of props, bluescreen, or computer manipulation, reflecting the theme of the lyrics.

Usage in media

"Fake It" was announced to be the official theme song of the 2008 WWE No Way Out pay-per-view event that took place on February 17, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada.^[11] It also appears on the soundtrack in the video game Burnout Paradise. On June 8, 2010, it was released in the Rock Band Network for Rock Band 2, but was later released as official Rock Band 4 DLC on July 19, 2018. It was also featured as Rocksmith 2014 DLC on February 10, 2015 in the Seether song pack.^[12]

Personnel

• Shaun Morgan – lead vocals, guitar
• Dale Stewart – bass, backing vocals
• John Humphrey – drums, percussion

Charts

Chart (2007–2008)	Peak position
Australia (ARIA)[13]	49
Canada (Canadian Hot 100)[14]	38
Canada Rock (Billboard)[15]	1
Czech Republic Rock (IFPI)[16]	6
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[17]	14
US Billboard Hot 100[18]	56
US Mainstream Rock (Billboard)[19]	1
US Alternative Airplay (Billboard)[20]	1

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
New Zealand (RMNZ)[6]	2× Platinum	60,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[5]	Silver	200,000‡
United States (RIAA)[4]	3× Platinum	3,000,000‡
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Achievements

"Fake It" was featured in the Burnout Paradise game as one of the in-game soundtracks where it was ranked tenth on ProGamist's list of "Top 10 songs featured in racing games".^[21]