When You Were Young
by The Killers
- 129
- BPM
- B major
- Key
- 1B
- Camelot
- 47
- Danceability
- 0
- Acousticness
The Killers wrote and produced "When You Were Young" themselves, with Flood and Alan Moulder as co-producers. It came from an album that was supposedly heavily influenced by Bruce Springsteen, and the song itself was reportedly shaped by his "Born to Run" and "Thunder Road". It moved the band toward a more "heartland rock" style.
Released on September 18, 2006, as the lead single from Sam's Town, it reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became their first number one on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. It is their highest-charting single in the UK and Australia, at number two and number 10. It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song, and the video was nominated for Best Short Form Music Video.
Anthony Mandler directed that video in Tlayacapan, Mexico. It follows a young woman who mourns at a wooden cross, with flashbacks to her marriage and the husband's betrayal, and it ends with an alternate version in which she jumps off a cliff. Brandon Flowers said his own version of what the song is about differs from what Mandler portrayed.
When You Were Young runs at 129 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.86 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 465 ms. It is in B major, Camelot 1B, which shares its notes with Ab minor and mixes cleanly with E major and F# major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.