Falling to Pieces

"Falling to Pieces" is the third single on Faith No More's first studio album with Mike Patton on vocals, The Real Thing.

For the 2006 song, see Falling to Pieces (Firewind song). For the song by The Script that is also known as "Falling to Pieces", see Breakeven (song).
"Falling to Pieces"
Artwork for US commercial cassette single
Single by Faith No More
from the album The Real Thing
B-side
  • "We Care a Lot" (Live)
  • "Underwater Love" (Live)
  • "From Out of Nowhere" (Live)
ReleasedJuly 2, 1990
RecordedDecember 1988
Studio D in Sausalito, California
Genre
Length5:15
LabelSlash
Songwriter(s)Music:
Billy Gould
Roddy Bottum
"Big" Jim Martin
Lyrics:
Mike Patton
Producer(s)Matt Wallace
Faith No More singles chronology
"Epic"
(1990)		 "Falling to Pieces"
(1990)		 "Midlife Crisis"
(1992)
The Real Thing track listing
  1. "From out of Nowhere"
  2. "Epic"
  3. "Falling to Pieces"
  4. "Surprise! You're Dead!"
  5. "Zombie Eaters"
  6. "The Real Thing"
  7. "Underwater Love"
  8. "The Morning After"
  9. "Woodpecker from Mars"
  10. "War Pigs"
  11. "Edge of the World"

It is one of their best known hits, peaking at # 92 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #40 on the Mainstream Rock charts. Despite its success and unlike other of the band's hits, the song did not go on to be a live staple, appearing very rarely in concerts after their appearance at the 1993 Phoenix Festival,[1] where Billy Gould announced "this is the last time we'll ever play this song again" right before the song.[2] During Second Coming Tour, the band picked up the song again and performed it at least once at a concert in Rio de Janeiro in 2009. The song was performed at the Open'er Festival in 2014 for the first time since 2009. In a 2016 interview, Gould stated, "That song sucks, let’s face it. I don’t know, we don’t groove on that one. Also, when you play it live, it just kind of gets boring".[3]

Track lists
Promo
  1. "Falling to Pieces" (Remix) – 4:19
  2. "Falling to Pieces" (Video Version) – 4:32
  3. "Falling to Pieces" (Album Version) – 5:12
Disc One
  1. "Falling to Pieces" - 3:39
  2. "We Care a Lot" (Live at Brixton) - 3:59
  3. "Underwater Love" (Live at Brixton) - 3:32
  4. "From Out of Nowhere" (Live at Brixton) - 3:47
Disc Two
  1. "Falling to Pieces (Re-Mix)"
  2. "Zombie Eaters"
  3. "The Real Thing" (‡ Live)

‡Live at the Wireless July 30, 1990 also features ad-lib from Public Enemy's "911 Is a Joke"

The Brixton Academy live tracks are different mixes to those found on the LP of the concert, most notably including the line "About the smack and crack and whack that hits the streets" on "We Care a Lot", which is mostly muted on the LP mix.[4]

Music video

The bass-driven song spawned a video directed by Ralph Ziman (who also directed the video for "Epic"), in which lead singer Mike Patton wears a series of different outfits, including one resembling Alex from the Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange. The video is also notable for using a different mix of the song featuring more prominent background vocals, keyboards, and a guitar solo during the fade out.

There is also another lesser known music video which uses clips from the Brixton Academy performance, played with the album version of the song.[5]

A screenshot from the Ralph Ziman-directed 1990 music video.

Trivia
  • The song was prominently used in the 2002 film Black Hawk Down while the Rangers and Delta Force operators are preparing for their assault.
  • The song was performed again for the first time in years at the Rio de Janeiro show, November 2009.
  • Part of the song serves as an epigraph for the 1993 novel Mala Onda, by Chilean writer Alberto Fuguet.
  • The song can be heard in the 2007 film Towelhead, which was set in the year 1991.
  • The song was again performed at the 2014 Open'er Festival in Poland.

Release history
Country Date
Europe July 2, 1990
Japan March 1, 1991

Charts
Chart (1990) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[6] 26
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[7] 16
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[8] 41
US Billboard Hot 100[9] 92
US Mainstream Rock (Billboard)[10] 40
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References
  1. fnm.com Tape Trading Resources
  2. "Falling To Pieces" at Phoenix Festival 1993
  3. "Faith No More Billy Gould Interview 2016". eonmusic - music is our passion!. Retrieved July 2, 2017.
  4. fnm.com discography
  5. http://old.fnm.com/faq/#17
  6. "Australian-charts.com – Faith No More – Falling to Pieces". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
  7. "Charts.nz – Faith No More – Falling to Pieces". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
  8. "Faith No More: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
  9. "Faith No More Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
  10. "Faith No More Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
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