"If You're Gone" is a song by American rock band Matchbox Twenty. The song, written by the band's frontman Rob Thomas, was released on September 18, 2000, as the second single from their second album, Mad Season (2000). It reached number five on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the band's second best-ranking song on the chart, and also became a hit on adult contemporary radio, spending two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart.

Background and writing

Rob Thomas told Billboard magazine that he wrote the song right after he met his future wife. "We were separated for a few weeks and were on the phone all the time, and I was thinking, 'I met this wonderful person', and I wondered if everything I was going through [with Matchbox Twenty's success] was going to make it too crazy to build a relationship."

Chart performance

In the United States, "If You're Gone" debuted at number 52 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the issue dated October 21, 2000. It began to rise up the chart, eventually reaching a peak of number five on January 27, 2001. To date, it is tied with "Unwell" as the band's second-highest-charting single on the Hot 100, and it is also their second-longest-staying single (behind "Unwell"), remaining on the listing for 42 weeks. It was the sixth-most-successful single of 2001 in the US. On the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart, it stayed at number one for two nonconsecutive weeks in 2001, and on the Adult Top 40 listing, it held the top spot for 13 issues, from December 13, 2000, to March 17, 2001. In Canada, the single peaked at number 27 on the RPM Top Singles chart before the magazine ceased publication; because it was not released on a physical format in Canada, it did not appear on the Canadian Singles Chart. Worldwide, the song found the most success in New Zealand. Despite peaking at number 12 on the RIANZ Singles Chart, it remained in the top 50 for 34 weeks between November 2000 and July 2001. At the end of 2001, it was ranked as New Zealand's 11th-best-performing song. On the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, the song first appeared at number 48 on October 29, 2000, and took 13 more weeks to reach its peak position of number 18. In Europe, "If You're Gone" was a top-40 hit in Ireland, where it reached number 36, but charted weakly elsewhere, peaking at number 50 in the United Kingdom, number 84 in Germany, and number 95 in the Netherlands. In 2019, the song experienced a resurgence of popularity in Japan, reaching number 84 on the Japan Hot 100.

Music video

The music video for the song, directed by Pedro Romhanyi, is filmed completely in black and white and features only the band (along with two trumpet players and a trombone player), performing at night on the rooftop of a building in the central business district of downtown Los Angeles. Halfway through the video, Rob Thomas steps onto the edge of the roof and spreads his arms like he's going to jump. He doesn't; he turns around and goes back to where the band is playing. Near the end of the video, the sun dawns and illuminates the rooftop and surrounding buildings of the city.

Track listings

UK CD single European CD single Australian maxi-CD single

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history