With Arms Wide Open
"With Arms Wide Open" is a song by American rock band Creed. It was released on April 18, 2000, as the third single from their second studio album, Human Clay. The song reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 in November 2000, becoming the band's first and only song to top the chart. The song also received honors at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2001, being nominated for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group, as well as Scott Stapp and Mark Tremonti winning the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song.
This article is about the song by Creed. For the compilation album, see With Arms Wide Open: A Retrospective."With Arms Wide Open"
- "Wash Away Those Years"
- "One"
Early 1998
April 18, 2000
- 4:36 (album version)
- 3:53 (radio version)
- Ron Saint Germain
- John Kurzweg
Writing and recording[edit]
Scott Stapp began writing the lyrics to the song in early 1998 during the My Own Prison tour, when he found out that his then wife Hillaree Burns was pregnant with his first child, Jagger. According to Stapp the song was written in 15 minutes at soundcheck. Stapp overheard guitarist Mark Tremonti playing and loved what he heard so much that he ran in and told Tremonti to just keep playing as Stapp began singing his lyrics.[1]
Release and reception[edit]
"With Arms Wide Open" reached number one on the US Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for four weeks in July 2000 and is Creed's only track to appear on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, where it peaked at number 29 in March 2001. In October, the song entered the top 10 of Billboard's Adult Top 40 chart and later topped the listing for eight weeks. It also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on the issue dated November 11, 2000, for one week, becoming their first and only number one on the chart. The music video topped VH1's top ten countdown in 2000. On May 10, 2019, nearly 20 years after the release of Human Clay, the single was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 500,000 digital units. On November 30, 2020, the certification was upgraded to double platinum for sales and streams of over two million units.[6]
The title became the name of a foundation set up by Stapp to help children and families. To launch the With Arms Wide Open Foundation, the band released a limited edition "enhanced-package single" in September 2000, with proceeds going to the charity to "promote healthy, loving relationships between children and their families". The single contained an orchestrated version, a rock version, an acoustic reading, and the music video. In February 2001, Scott Stapp and Mark Tremonti were nominated for and won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song as the writers of "With Arms Wide Open".[7] The song was also nominated for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal but lost to U2 for "Beautiful Day".[8] The music video for "With Arms Wide Open" was voted the 92nd best music video of all-time by VH1, who also ranked it number four on its "25 Greatest Power Ballads" list.[9]
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl described "With Arms Wide Open" as "one of the most amazing songs of all time".[10]
Appearances in media[edit]
Creed performed the song live on the June 16, 2000, episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and on November 30, 2000, at the first annual My VH1 Music Awards.[11][12] The song was made available as downloadable content for the video games Rocksmith 2014 on September 16, 2014,[13] and Rock Band 4 on May 21, 2020.[14] A cinematic cover version of the song, performed by Nicole Serrano and Tommee Profitt, was used in a February 2022 ad campaign to promote the 94th Academy Awards.[15]