Meant to Live

"Meant to Live" is a single by alternative rock band Switchfoot. "Meant to Live" was released to radio on January 27, 2003. The song peaked at number five on the US Modern Rock chart and U.S. Adult Top 40 chart, number six on U.S. Top 40 radio, and number 18 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's first entry to chart and second-highest charting song. On October 22, 2004, the song was certified gold in the United States by the RIAA.^[2]

"Meant to Live"
Single by Switchfoot
from the album The Beautiful Letdown
Released	January 27, 2003 (2003-01-27)
Genre	Post-grunge[1]
Length	3:27
Label	Columbia RED Ink
Songwriter(s)	Jon Foreman Tim Foreman
Producer(s)	John Fields
Switchfoot singles chronology
"You Already Take Me There" (2000) "Meant to Live" (2003) "More Than Fine" (2003)
Music video
"Meant to Live" on YouTube

"Meant to Live" is the first track on the group's 2003 major-label debut album The Beautiful Letdown. The single is generally regarded as the song that helped the band achieve mainstream success.

The song was also featured in the UK version of the soundtrack for the film Spider-Man 2. In 2023, an orchestral version of the song featuring vocals by singer-songwriter Jon Bellion was released under the title "Meant to Live (Jon Bellion Version)" and included on the reissue The Beautiful Letdown (Our Version).

Background

Lyrically, "Meant to Live" was inspired by T. S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men". Singer/writer Jon Foreman has said, "Maybe the kid in the song is me, hoping that I'm meant for more than arguments and failed attempts to fly. Something deep inside of me yearns for the beautiful, the true. I want more than what I've been sold; I want to live life."^[3] According to Foreman, this song was also inspired by U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".^[4]

This track refers to C.S. Lewis's novel Out of the Silent Planet with the lyric "Maybe we're bent and broken."

It also refers to John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men, in the lyric "Dreaming about Providence and whether mice or men have second tries."

Composition

"Meant to Live" is an alternative rock song that lasts for a duration of three minutes and twenty seconds.^[5] According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Capitol CMG, it is written in the time signature of common time, with a heavy, moderately slow rock tempo of 76 beats per minute.^[5] "Meant to Live" is composed in the key of B minor, while Jon Foreman's vocal range spans one octave and three notes, from a low of D₃ to a high of G♯₄.^[5]

The song has a incensed post-grunge riff driven by heavy guitars.^[6]

Critical reception

Heather Phares of AllMusic wrote that the song "has its cake and eats it too, musically and lyrically speaking ... [its] sympathetic, idealistic (not preachy) viewpoint, combined with its powerful guitars, make[s] the song successful as both an alternative CCM and [a] modern rock single."^[6]

Music videos

There were three music videos made for this song. The first video features live performance footage, the second is a concept video depicting the band playing inside a house while the walls and insides are slowly being torn down, showing a resemblance to Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" music video, which the "Meant to Live" video has been compared to, and a third video is mixed into clips from Spider-Man 2, and was released exclusively in the UK.

The first two videos featured audio mixed a key higher than the album version.

Awards

In 2005, the song was nominated for a Dove Award for Song of the Year at the 36th GMA Dove Awards.^[7]

Track listing

UK CD single

1. "Meant to Live" (album version)
2. "On Fire" (live)
3. "The Beautiful Letdown" (live)
4. "Meant to Live" (video)

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2003–2004) Peak position Australia (ARIA)[8] 52 Canada (Nielsen BDS)[9] 15 Canada CHR/Pop Top 30 (Radio & Records)[10] 20 Canada Rock Top 30 (Radio & Records)[11] 1 Netherlands (Single Top 100)[12] 92 Scotland (OCC)[13] 29 UK Singles (OCC)[14] 29 US Billboard Hot 100[15] 18 US Adult Pop Airplay (Billboard)[16] 5 US Alternative Airplay (Billboard)[17] 5 US Mainstream Rock (Billboard)[18] 37 US Pop Airplay (Billboard)[19] 6

Year-end charts Chart (2003) Position US Modern Rock Tracks (Billboard)[20] 53 Chart (2004) Position US Billboard Hot 100[21] 51 US Adult Top 40 (Billboard)[22] 21 US Mainstream Top 40 (Billboard)[23] 18 US Modern Rock Tracks (Billboard)[24] 29

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[2]	Gold	500,000^
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Region	Date	Format(s)	Label(s)	Ref(s).
United States	January 27, 2003	Alternative radio	Columbia RED Ink	[25]
	June 16, 2003	Mainstream rock active rock radio		[26][27]
	February 2, 2004	Hot adult contemporary radio		[28]
Denmark	July 12, 2004	CD	Columbia	[29]
Australia	July 26, 2004			[30]
United Kingdom	August 2, 2004			[31]