"Maps" is a single by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O, guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. They are complemented in live performances by second guitarist David Pajo, who joined as a touring...

 from their debut full-length album, Fever to Tell

Fever to Tell

Fever to Tell is the debut album by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released on April 29, 2003, through Interscope. It was produced by David Andrew Sitek and mixed by Alan Moulder....

 (2003). The song is about the relationship between Liars

Liars (band)

Liars is a three-piece band formed in 2000 consisting of Angus Andrew , Aaron Hemphill , and Julian Gross...

 frontman Angus Andrew and Yeah Yeah Yeahs lead singer Karen O

Karen O

Karen Lee Orzolek , better known by her stage name Karen O, is the vocalist for New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.-Early life:...

; the title is actually an acronym of the words "My Angus Please Stay". It was released on February 10, 2004, and the band performed the song at that year's MTV Movie Awards

MTV Movie Awards

The MTV Movie Awards is a film awards show presented annually on MTV . It also contains movie parodies that used official movie footage with hosts and other celebrities and music performances. The nominees are decided by producers and executives at MTV. Winners are decided online by the general...

. It reached #9 on Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

s hot modern rock chart and was included in the popular video game Rock Band.

Track listing

1. "Maps"
2. "Countdown"
3. "Miles Away" (John Peel Session)

"Miles Away" is a newly recorded version of the song from the band's self-titled EP

Yeah Yeah Yeahs (EP)

The track "Our Time" interpolates the Tommy James and the Shondells song "Crimson and Clover"; when Karen O sings "It's the year to be hated / So glad that we made it," the melody is taken from the hit song, which reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1969....

.

Video

The video shows the band playing in an audition in a high school gymnasium, with different light filters changing the color of the room. The tears cried by Karen O in the video are real. She explains: "They were real tears. My boyfriend at the time [Angus Andrew] was supposed to come to the shoot – he was three hours late and I was just about to leave for tour. I didn't think he was even going to come and this was the song that was written for him. He eventually showed up and I got myself in a real emotional state." It was nominated for four MTV Video Music Awards

MTV Video Music Awards

An MTV Video Music Award , is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in music videos...

: Best Art Direction, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, and the MTV2 Award. The video was directed by Patrick Daughters

Patrick Daughters

Patrick Daughters is an American music video and commercial director currently signed to The Directors Bureau, after departing Black Dog Films in late 2006....

.

Cover versions

"Maps" has been covered

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 by The White Stripes

The White Stripes

The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White . Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced...

, in Reading Festival

Reading and Leeds Festivals

The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend, sharing the same bill. The Reading Festival is held at Little John's Farm...

 2004, Arcade Fire, on The Jo Whiley Show

The Jo Whiley Show

The Jo Whiley Show was a British weekday radio show on BBC Radio 1 hosted by Jo Whiley. The programme was on air from February 2001 to September 2009 and was broadcast each morning between 10:00am and 12:45pm. And Bank Holidays And Good Fridays At 10.00-13.00-Show Format:The show began at 10:00am...

s Live Lounge

Live Lounge

The Live Lounge is a segment on the British radio station BBC Radio 1. Originally hosted by Jo Whiley on her mid-morning radio show and now hosted by Fearne Cotton, it exhibits well-known artists usually performing one song of their own and one by another artist, in an acoustic format...

, Duke Special

Duke Special

Duke Special, real name Peter Wilson, is a songwriter and performer based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A piano-based songwriter with a romantic style and a warm, distinctly accented voice, he has a distinctive look, with his long dreadlocks, eyeliner and outfits he describes as "hobo chic"...

, Ada, and by Ted Leo

Ted Leo

Theodore F. Leo , called "Ted," as a short form of "Theodore," is an American punk rock/indie rock songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, though he is most known for his singing and guitar playing...

 as part of a medley with Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Brianne Clarkson is an American pop rock singer-songwriter and actress. Clarkson came into prominence after becoming the winner of the inaugural season of the television series American Idol in 2002 and would later become the runner-up in the television special World Idol in 2003.In 2003,...

's "Since U Been Gone

Since U Been Gone

"Since U Been Gone" is a song written and produced by Max Martin and Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald for American singer Kelly Clarkson. The song was released as the second single from her second album, Breakaway in the US and Australia and was released as the first single in Europe...

". Jazz trio The New Standards

The New Standards

The New Standards is a minimalist jazz trio formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2005 and composed of Chan Poling , John Munson and Steve Roehm...

 provide a cover on their album Rock and Roll. At the 2009 Reading and Leeds festival, Radiohead

Radiohead

Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...

 performed a segment of "Maps" as the introduction to the set-closer, "Everything In Its Right Place". Rogue Wave

Rogue Wave (band)

Rogue Wave is an indie rock band from Oakland, California, , and headed by Zach Schwartz who created the band after losing his job in the dot-com bust. Their first album was Out of the Shadow which was released privately in 2003 and re-released in 2004...

 recorded a rendition of the song for Sweetheart, a Valentine's Day-themed compilation of covers produced in 2009 by Starbucks. In "Meet Me Halfway

Meet Me Halfway

"Meet Me Halfway" is a song by American hip hop group The Black Eyed Peas. It was released as the third promotional single from their fifth studio album The E.N.D. It was later released as the album's third single...

" by The Black Eyed Peas

The Black Eyed Peas

The Black Eyed Peas are an American pop group , formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995. The group includes rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo, and singer Fergie. Since the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide...

, the guitar and drum part is used during the solos in the background. The band Garbage

Garbage (band)

Garbage are an alternative rock band formed in Madison, Wisconsin in 1994. The group consists of Scottish singer Shirley Manson and American musicians Duke Erikson , Steve Marker and Butch Vig . All four members are involved in songwriting and production...

 performed the chorus in the end of their live version of Vow, in Rockpalast, Germany in 2005. In March 2011, Biffy Clyro

Biffy Clyro

Biffy Clyro are a Scottish rock band from Kilmarnock, comprising Simon Neil , James Johnston and Ben Johnston...

 covered "Maps" for Jo Whiley

Jo Whiley

Johanne "Jo" Whiley is a British radio disc jockey and television presenter. She was the host of the long running weekday Jo Whiley Show on Radio 1.-Early life and education:...

's last Radio 1

BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 show.

Reception

"Maps" is widely regarded as one of the greatest songs of the 2000s:

• In 2009, it was voted the best alternative love song of all time by NME
  NME
  The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
  
  .
• The song was also listed at #6 on Pitchfork Media
  Pitchfork Media
  Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
  
  's top 500 songs of the 2000s.
• Rolling Stone ranked "Maps" as the 7th best song of the 2000s.
• In 2010, Rolling Stone ranked "Maps" as 386th in their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
• In October 2011, NME placed it at number 55 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".

Charts

Chart (2003)	Peak position
UK Official Charts	26
Chart (2004)	Peak position
Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks	9
The Billboard Hot 100	87

External links

• Allmusic: [ Maps Entry]