WESTLIFE - IF I LET YOU GO

 IF I LET YOU GO

WESTLIFE

SONGWRITERS: DAVID KREUGER; JÖRGEN ELOFSSON & PER MAGNUSSON

COUNTRY: IRELAND

ALBUM: WESTLIFE

LABEL: BMG RECORDS

GENRE: TEEN POP

YEAR: 1999

 

            Westlife are an Irish boy band, formed in 1998 in Sligo, Ireland. They disbanded in 2012 and reunited in 2018. They were originally signed by Simon Cowell in the UK, Clive Davis in the US and managed by Louis Walsh and Sonny Takhar. The group currently consists of Shane Filan, Markus Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne.

       They have a total of thirteen major album releases, twelve of which are studio albums. Five albums are as a five-piece and eight are as a four-piece. The group rose to fame with their debut international self-titled studio album, Westlife(1999). It was followed by Coast to Coast(2000), World of Our Own(2001), Unbreakable – The Greatest Hits Vol. 1(2002), and Turnaround(2003), which continued the group's success worldwide. Before the start of their Turnaround Tour in 2004, one of the original members, Brian McFadden, departed from the band. The four remaining members continued as a group to release their cover albums Allow Us to Be Frank(2004) and The Love Album(2006) and the studio albums Face to Face(2005) and Back Home(2007). After a hiatus of studio recording for almost one year in 2008, they regrouped and released the studio albums Where We Are(2009), and Gravity(2010), and the compilation album Greatest Hits(2011). After eight years, the quartet group released their eleventh studio album, Spectrum, in 2019.

         They generated singles such as "Swear It Again", "If I Let You Go", "Flying Without Wings", "I Have a Dream", "Seasons in the Sun", "Fool Again", "My Love", "What Makes a Man", "I Lay My Love On You", "Uptown Girl", "Unbreakable", "When You're Looking Like That", "Queen of My Heart", "Mandy", "Tonight", "Hey Whatever", "You Raise Me Up", "Bop Bop Baby", "The Rose", and "World of Our Own". 19 out their 29 singles as lead artist and as featured artist received UK certifications from 1999 to 2019, 17 out of 29 singles from 1999 to 2009 reached the top 2 on the UK Singles Chart. They are the top act with most Number 1 debuts on the UK Singles Chart, with all 14 of their chart-toppers landing there in their first week. They have the second most certifications for a boy band in the UK Singles Chart after Take That and the most singles certifications for a pop band on the UK number one singles artists chart since The Beatles.

      "If I Let You Go" is a song by Irish boy band Westlife. It was released in the United Kingdom on 9 August 1999, as the second single from their self-titled debut album. It became the second of the band's fourteen UK number 1 hit singles, spending eleven weeks on charts. The song has received a Gold sales certification in the UK for selling over 400,000 in combined sales of purchased and streaming-equivalent sales. It is the band's eighth most streamed song, tenth best selling single in paid-for sales category and in combined sales category in the United Kingdom as of January 2019. While it is their sixth most streamed song of all time from their home country, the Republic of Ireland as of 2 April 2019.

         It was composed in the traditional verse–chorus form in Bb major, with McFadden, Filan and Feehily's vocal ranging from the chords of D4 to A5.

Day after day

Time passed away

And I just can't get you off my mind

Nobody knows, I hide it inside

I keep on searching but I can't find

The courage to show to letting you know

I've never felt so much love before

 

And once again I'm thinking about

Taking the easy way out

 

CHORUS:

But if I let you go I will never know

What my life would be holding you close to me

Will I ever see you smiling back at me?

How will I know if I let you go?

 

Night after night I hear myself say

Why can't this feeling just fade away?

There's no one like you

You speak to my heart

It's such a shame we're worlds apart

 

I'm too shy to ask, I'm too proud to lose

But sooner or later I gotta choose

 

And once again I'm thinking about

Taking the easy way out

 

CHORUS:

And once again I'm thinking about

Taking the easy way out

 

CHORUS: