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"Learn to Fly"
Single by Foo Fighters
from the album There Is Nothing Left to Lose
B-side	"Iron and Stone" "Have a Cigar" "Make a Bet"
Released	October 1999
Recorded	Spring 1999
Studio	Studio 606 (Virginia) Conway Studios (Los Angeles)
Genre	Alternative rock power pop
Length	3:56
Label	Roswell RCA
Songwriter(s)	Dave Grohl Nate Mendel Taylor Hawkins
Producer(s)	Adam Kasper Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters singles chronology
"Walking After You" (1998) "Learn to Fly" (1999) "Stacked Actors" (2000)
Music video
"Learn to Fly" on YouTube

"Learn to Fly" is a song by American rock band Foo Fighters. It was released as the lead single from their third studio album There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999) in October 1999. It was the band's first song to enter the Billboard Hot 100, as well as their second-highest-charting song on the Hot 100, peaking at number 19. It also peaked within the top 40 in Australia, Canada, Hungary, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland and the United Kingdom. The song's music video won Best Short Form Video award at the 43rd Grammy Awards in 2001.

Release and reception

"Learn to Fly" was originally released as a promo-only single. It was officially 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 number one 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 song set the record for most weeks (13) at number one on the Canadian rock radio charts.

Music video

The music video for the song was directed by Jesse Peretz and won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 2001.

It takes place on a commercial airliner, parodying the movie Airplane!, and by extension, the films Airport 1975 and its sequel Airport '77, interspersed with a mock concert footage of the band shown as an in-flight movie. The background elevator music is The Moog Cookbook's version of "Everlong".

Two airline cabin cleaners (played by Jack Black and Kyle Gass from Tenacious D) smuggle and hide their narcotics, labelled "World Domination brand 'Erotic' Sleeping Powder", in the coffee-maker. The flight attendants do not notice the narcotics when they use the coffee-maker, and everyone who drinks the resulting coffee becomes incapacitated. 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 Hawkins as an attractive flight attendant and Grohl as an FBI agent who arrests the two cabin cleaners when they attempt to smuggle more of their narcotics.

2015 tribute video

On July 30, 2015, a video was published on YouTube of 1,000 Italian musicians in Cesena, all playing and singing the song in unison, followed by a plea for the Foo Fighters to come play a concert in Cesena. By August 16, it had gained more than 33 million views.

On July 31, Dave Grohl responded, in Italian, thanking the makers for "the beautiful video" and adding "Thank you so much. We're coming, I swear. We'll see each other soon." On November 3, 2015, in response, Foo Fighters performed a twenty-seven-song concert in Cesena for approximately 3,000 people, starting their set with "Learn to Fly".

The group assembled for the stunt have performed subsequently under the name Rockin' 1000, and have been described as the "biggest band in the world."

In August 2015, nearly 16 years after its initial release, the single entered the Austrian Singles Chart at number 69 and the Swiss Singles Chart at number 41.

Other versions

A live version recorded in Sydney, Australia, on January 24, 2000, was released on the Australian "Generator" single and CD 1 of "Breakout".

Critical reception

Greg Kot of Rolling Stone referred to the song as a "guilt-free power ballad". He noted that "on 'Learn to Fly', the big guitars and arching melody crush all quibbles. Some grunge romantics may even hear it as a touching little hymn to ".

In 2020, Kerrang ranked the song number 11 on their list of the 20 greatest Foo Fighters songs, and in 2021, American Songwriter ranked the song number three on their list of the 10 greatest Foo Fighters songs.

Track listings and formats

• AUS / UK CD Single

1. "Learn to Fly"  – 3:58
2. "Iron and Stone" (The Obsessed cover)  – 2:52
3. "Have a Cigar" (Pink Floyd cover)  – 3:58

• EU 7" Vinyl / EU CD 1 / UK Cassette

1. "Learn to Fly"  – 3:58
2. "Have a Cigar" (Pink Floyd cover)  – 3:58

• EU CD 2

1. "Learn to Fly"  – 3:58
2. "Make a Bet"  – 3:28
3. "Have a Cigar" (Pink Floyd cover)  – 3:58

Credits and personnel

• Dave Grohl – lead vocals, guitar, drums on "Learn to Fly"
• Nate Mendel – bass
• Taylor Hawkins – drums (except "Learn to Fly"), lead vocals on "Have a Cigar"
• Brian May – guitar on "Have a Cigar"
• Foo Fighters – composition, lyrics, producer, performer
• Adam Kasper – producer, recording
• Andy Wallace – mixing
• Ted Reiger – second engineer
• Bob Ludwig – mastering

Credits and personnel adapted from "Learn to Fly" CD single liner notes.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

In popular culture

"Learn to Fly" appears in the political drama television series The West Wing episode Mr. Willis of Ohio, in the 1999 sports documentary Fift, in the 2002 animated comedy-drama television film Is It College Yet?, in the 2002 romantic comedy-drama Life or Something Like It and the 2016 animated film Rock Dog.

References

1. Rolling Stone Staff (December 1, 2023). "The 100 Best Songs of 2023". Rolling Stone. ...the sunny power-pop-adjacent feel of earlier Foo Fighters tracks like "Learn to Fly"...
2. "Billboard". October 16, 1999.
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6. Cantin, Paul (January 13, 2000). "Foo Fighters set Cdn. record". Archived from the original on August 19, 2000. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
7. "43rd Annual Grammy Awards". CNN. February 21, 2001. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
8. "Foo Fighters' Learn To Fly Video Analysed In Really Minute Detail". Kerrang!. January 26, 2019.
9. Foo Fighters FAQ. Accessed December 27, 2006
10. "Foo Fighters' Learn to Fly Video Analysed in Really Minute Detail". January 26, 2019.
11. Rudgard, Olivia. "Video: 1,000 musicians play Foo Fighters song". Telegraph. Archived from the original on August 1, 2015. Retrieved July 31, 2015.
12. Nme.Com (July 31, 2015). "NME News Foo Fighters to play Italy gig after video of 1,000 fans covering 'Learn To Fly' goes viral". Nme.Com. Retrieved July 31, 2015.
13. "1,000 musicians play Foo Fighters song to persuade concert - Videos". CBS News. Retrieved July 31, 2015.
14. Video on YouTube
15. Video on YouTube
16. Dave Grohl (July 31, 2015). "We've translated Dave Grohl's Italian message to fans in Cesena - BBC Newsbeat". BBC News. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
17. "Foo Fighters, Recruited by Viral Video, Play Unplanned Concert in Italy". NY Times. November 4, 2015.
18. "The Biggest Band In The World – Italy's Rockin'1000 Founder Fabio Zaffagnini On Foo Fighters, Viral Success And Their Mad Live Show". NME.COM. August 3, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
19. "Ö3 Austria Top40: Single-Charts - Ö3 Charts".
20. Kot, Greg (November 11, 1999). "There Is Nothing Left to Lose". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 22, 2014. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
21. Law, Sam (July 3, 2020). "The 20 greatest Foo Fighters songs – ranked". Kerrang. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
22. Uitti, Jacob (November 24, 2021). "The Top 10 Foo Fighters Songs". American Songwriter. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
23. Learn to Fly (UK CD Single liner notes). Foo Fighters. Roswell Records. 1999. 64173-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
24. ^ Learn to Fly (AUS CD Single liner notes). Foo Fighters. Roswell Records. 1999. 74321706622.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
25. Learn to Fly (EU 7" Vinyl liner notes). Foo Fighters. RCA Records. 1999. FOO1.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
26. Learn to Fly (EU CD Single liner notes). Foo Fighters. BMG. 1999. 74321706512.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
27. Learn to Fly (UK Cassette liner notes). Foo Fighters. RCA Records. 1999. 74321713084.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
28. Learn to Fly (EU CD Single liner notes). Foo Fighters. Roswell Records. 1999. 74321713102.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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58. "Certificaciones" (in Spanish). Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas. Retrieved July 21, 2020. Type Foo Fighters in the box under the ARTISTA column heading and Learn to Fly in the box under the TÍTULO column heading.
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External links

• "Learn to Fly" Official music video on YouTube

• 1999 songs
• 1999 singles
• Foo Fighters songs
• Song recordings produced by Adam Kasper
• Songs written by Dave Grohl
• Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video
• RCA Records singles
• Songs written by Nate Mendel
• Songs written by Taylor Hawkins
• American alternative rock songs
• American progressive rock songs