Learn to Fly
| "Learn to Fly" | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||||||
| Single by Foo Fighters | ||||||||
| from the album There Is Nothing Left to Lose |
||||||||
| Released | September 18, 1999 | |||||||
| Format | CD | |||||||
| Recorded | 1999 | |||||||
| Genre | Alternative rock, post-grunge | |||||||
| Length | 3:55 | |||||||
| Label | Roswell/RCA | |||||||
| Writer(s) | Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel and Taylor Hawkins | |||||||
| Foo Fighters singles chronology | ||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
"Learn to Fly" is the first single from the Foo Fighters' third album There Is Nothing Left to Lose, released in 1999.
The "Learn to Fly" single was released as a two disc CD set in the UK and Australia, as well as in Europe, and promotional singles were also released in other countries such as the US for radio play. In the US it was the band's first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 charting at number 19, and was the band's first #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. It is also their highest charting on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart along with the 1996 hit "Big Me", reaching number 13.
The music video for the song was directed by Jesse Peretz and won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video.
The music video for the song takes place on an commercial airliner, parodying the movie Airplane!, and by extension, the films Airport 1975 and its sequel Airport '77. Two airline mechanics (played by Jack Black and Kyle Gass from Tenacious D) smuggle and hide their narcotic known as "World Domination brand 'Erotic' Sleeping Powder" in the coffee-maker. This ends up incapacitating everyone who drinks the coffee. The take-off sequence, in addition to the crew members hiding ulterior criminal motives, are a near shot-by-shot homage to the film Airport '77. The band, having avoided the coffee (choosing liquor instead), mirroring Karen Black's role in Airport 1975, find themselves forced to land the plane. For the video, each band member (Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, and Taylor Hawkins) portrays himself as well as several other roles, including an FBI agent who arrests the two mechanics.
...
Wikipedia