"My Happy Ending" is a song by Avril Lavigne, written by herself and Butch Walker for her second studio album, Under My Skin. It was released as the album's second internationally released single in 3 May 2004 and became Avril's fourth most successful single. It peaked higher than "Don't Tell Me", the album's first single. In the United Kingdom, it reached the top five; in the United States, it peaked at number nine (staying in No. 9 for 4 weeks). Structurally, the song is written in 4/4 style and has a repeated hook in both the chorus and in the intro and outro.
The RIAA certified "My Happy Ending" platinum in January 2005, making it Lavigne's second platinum single after "I'm with You" (2002). Allmusic highlighted the song as one of the most significant post-grunge songs of all time.
Background[]
The song is about a relationship that doesn’t work out, and deals with having to say goodbye to all of the memories together that both people in the relationship once had. Lavigne questions why the relationship fell apart and laments her current position.[1]
Music video[]
The music video for "My Happy Ending" was written and directed by MTV and Grammy winner Meiert Avis, filmed in April 2004. It was shot on location in Bushwick, Brooklyn and Harlem, New York City. The video begins with Lavigne running down a street and entering a cinema, where she finds the film playing is a montage of her memories concerning a specific relationship she had. At first, the memories (shown in full color) are happy, depicting Lavigne at the park with her boyfriend, as he hands her a flower and they laugh together. They are also shown goofing off inside a laundromat. However, as Avril sings "so much for my happy ending," the memories start losing color. Lavigne and her boyfriend lie in bed together, as she looks at him and he (obviously reeling from a disagreement) stares blankly away. The relationship culminates during the song's bridge inside a grocery store, where her boyfriend antagonizes her, insisting that he talk to her. He grabs her and tries to pull her into his embrace. Fed up, she turns and pushes him away. She proceeds to run out of the grocery store and down the street (from the beginning of the video), and to a guitar shop where she grabs a guitar and walks to the roof of the building, where she is seen performing with her band. There, she walks past her unapologetic boyfriend without looking at him. The theater film tears and the memories end, leaving the final seconds of the video as a close-up on Lavigne in the theater as she tries to decide if the break-up is happy after all. In the end, three other girls witnessing in the restaurant leave with Lavigne who know about the breakup as they befriend each other.
Avril said of the video: "It's about a relationship that doesn't work out, and having to say goodbye to all of the memories and... all that stuff." When asked if the video for "My Happy Ending" actually contains a happy ending, Avril said: "I don't know if the video has a happy ending. It kind of depends on how you look at it? In one way, it is because me and 'the guy' in the video aren't together anymore, and I think that's a better thing."
Lyrics[]
[Intro]
(Oh-oh, oh-oh)
So much for my happy ending
(Oh-oh, oh-oh)
(Oh-oh, oh-oh)
So much for my happy ending
(Oh-oh, oh-oh)
(Oh-oh)
[Verse 1]
Let's talk this over
It's not like we're dead
Was it something I did?
Was it something you said?
Don't leave me hanging
In a city so dead
Held up so high
On such a breakable thread (breakable thread)
[Pre-Chorus]
You were all the things I thought I knew
And I thought we could be
[Chorus 1]
You were everything, everything that I wanted (that I wanted)
We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it (we lost it)
All of the memories so close to me, just fade away
All this time you were pretending
So much for my happy ending
[Hook]
(Oh-oh, oh-oh)
So much for my happy ending
(Oh-oh, oh-oh)
(Oh-oh, oh-oh)
[Verse 2]
You've got your dumb friends
I know what they say (know what they say)
They tell you I'm difficult
But so are they (but so are they)
But they don't know me
Do they even know you? (even know you?)
All the things you hide from me
All the shit that you do (all the shit that you do)
[Pre-Chorus]
You were all the things I thought I knew
And I thought we could be
[Chorus 1]
You were everything, everything that I wanted (that I wanted)
We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it (we lost it)
And all of the memories so close to me, just fade away
All this time you were pretending
So much for my happy ending
[Bridge]
It's nice to know that you were there
Thanks for acting like you cared
And making me feel like I was the only one
It's nice to know we had it all
Thanks for watching as I fall
And letting me know we were done
[Chorus 2]
He was everything, everything that I wanted
We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it
And all of the memories so close to me, just fade away
All this time you were pretending
So much for my happy ending
[Chorus 1]
You were everything, everything that I wanted (that I wanted)
We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it (we lost it)
And all of the memories so close to me, just fade away
All this time you were pretending
So much for my happy ending
[Outro]
(Oh-oh, oh-oh)
So much for my happy ending
(Oh-oh, oh-oh)
(Oh-oh, oh-oh)
(Oh-oh, oh-oh)
So much for my happy ending
(Oh-oh, oh-oh)
(Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh)
Trivia[]
- This is the longest song on Under My Skin.
Gallery[]
References[]
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