Why Do You Love Me

"Why Do You Love Me" is a 2005 song by Garbage and was the lead single from their fourth album Bleed Like Me.

"Why Do You Love Me" marked the start of a brief reversal of fortunes for Garbage, as the song charted in both the Billboard Hot 100 and Modern Rock chart and in the UK Top Ten, their first single to do so in either chart since the previous decade. The success of "Why Do You Love Me" enabled Garbage to post some of the highest album debuts of their career, with Bleed Like Me reaching the top 10 in many countries worldwide. The momentum that the single had created was however halted by the failure of any of its three international follow-up singles to gain similar chart returns. In 2007, "Why Do You Love Me" was remastered and included on Garbage's greatest hits album Absolute Garbage.

Song profile
"Why Do You Love Me" was written and recorded at Smart Studios during the 2004 sessions for Bleed Like Me. The song was incorrectly titled on an 'album news update' as "Why Don't You Love Me" on the band's website in May 2004. Drums on "Why Do You Love Me" were performed by Matt Walker and bass was performed by Justin Meldal-Johnsen.

Single release
"We chose "Why Do You Love Me" as the first single because it has a lot of mood shifts and embodies the whole record. I feel that at the base of everyone there's a belief that we're truly lovable. But we often question it, which is why we seek out exclusive relationships." - Shirley Manson

"Why Do You Love Me" was decided as the first single by Garbage's new record companies. The band, which had previously selected singles themselves, were nonetheless happy with the choice and the song was released to radio in February 2005 as the first cut from Bleed Like Me.

Geffen scheduled "Why Do You Love Me" to impact Alternative, Modern Rock and Triple-A radio stations across the United States from February 15, and for that week to February 22 was #1 Most Added track at Modern Rock radio. "Why Do You Love Me" charts on the Modern Rock Tracks listing at #39 on March 5; three days later, "Why Do You Love Me" was made available as a digital download in US and Canada. The following week, "Why Do You Love Me" reaches #8 on the Modern Rock chart and debuts at #97 and #81 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Pop 100 charts respectively, becoming the band's most successful U.S. single since 1999's "Special".

WMG began their single release campaign by licensing a short clip of "Why Do You Love Me" for use on the Brit Awards broadcast as an intro theme for Shirley Manson who was there to announce the nominees and winner of that year's Best Live Act award (the winner that year was Garbage's label-mates Muse). A few days later, on February 18th, "Why Do You Love Me" received its UK premiere on the BBC Radio One Jo Whiley Show. Radio One later C-listed the single, while XFM playlisted it as their "Single of the Week", reaching #1 on their airplay chart for several weeks. Beyond this, "Why Do You Love Me" struggled for support from mainstream radio.

On March 27, the single was released on CD maxi in Australia, where debuted at #19 in the ARIA Singles chart, and in a similar format across Europe the following day.

Garbage support the Bleed Like Me album, and the "Why Do You Love Me" single from March 29 with a European promotional campaign that includes three live dates in Paris, London and Cologne; a performance of the song and the band's debut single, "Vow", on an XFM radio session; and a notably large number of televised performances of "Why Do You Love Me" on CD:UK, Popworld, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Top of the Pops, Napster Live in the United Kingdom and on Album de la semaine, 20h10 petantes and Traffic music in France. Warner re-issue "Why Do You Love Me" to radio stations in a brand new configuration, omitting the opening guitar riff from throughout the song in an attempt to gain more radio exposure.

"Why Do You Love Me" is physically released in the UK on April 4 on CD, DVD and limited edition 7", as well as digital download. Warner encourages Garbage fans to purchase each format by issuing a wallet to house the singles through the band website. After reaching #4 in the mid-week chart flashes, it debuts on the UK Singles chart at #7 after selling 10,089 copies and is their highest charting single since 1996's "Stupid Girl". "Why Do You Love Me" also breaks a run of six consecutive Garbage singles to fall short of the UK Top 10. The airplay of "Why Do You Love Me" also benefits from the chart position; and the track moves up to #98 on the UK Airplay chart during the week of release.

Returning to North America in mid-April, Garbage tape an in-studio show for music show Fuse Comp'd on April 20. The set includes "Why Do You Love Me", and is the last TV recording of the song of the initial campaign as follow up single "Bleed Like Me" is released in May. The band perform "Why Do You Love Me" acoustically for a number of radio sessions, including for DC 101 and 92.3 Xtreme Radio. Later in September of that year, Garbage wrap up touring and promotion for the entire Bleed Like Me album with a short Australian tour that includes a performance of "Why Do You Love Me" on Rove Live.

On the week of February 19, 2008, "Why Do You Love Me" was released as a downloadable master track for use in the video game Rock Band.

Radio versions

 * Clean version 3:52
 * French radio edit 3:26
 * Radio remix 3:55
 * Radio remix edit 3:08

"Why Do You Love Me" was edited numerous times for radio airplay after its initial radio impact dates. The first versions sent to radio worldwide had varied between the album version and a clean version, removing the word "shit". In France, the middle 8 section of the song was removed for airplay.

In the United Kingdom, Warner Music sent out a revised version of "Why Do You Love Me" to help increase the song's audience as the singles commercial release date approached. This revision replaced the intro guitar riff with a few bars of the verse on rhythm guitar. A shortened version of this revision was also released, which completely removed the opening guitar riff from throughout the song, as well as removing the first bridge and middle 8 sections. This version was edited so that instead of ending abruptly, the last four bars are repeated over and over while fading out.

Music video
The music video for "Why Do You Love Me" was shot over two days at the end of January 2005 on a Los Angeles, CA, soundstage and was helmed by director Sophie Muller, who had previously shot videos for the "When I Grow Up" and "The Trick Is to Keep Breathing" singles. Muller shot the first two and a half minutes of the video in black and white, evoking a "neo-noir" element; Shirley's bath scene and the outro crowd scenes were shot in colour. Scenes shot on January 31st included actual Garbage fans who applied via the band's website, in lieu of agency-hired models, at the band's request. Shirley Manson thanked all those who took part in a post on the website a few days later.

The first two and a half minutes of the video was shot in black and white, evoking a "neo-noir" element; Shirley's bath scene and the outro crowd scenes were shot in colour. and the storyline centred around cryptic references to the band's difficulty in maintaining proper relations over the previous years, as well as veiled references to Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry and their album Parallel Lines.