Peak
1
Weeks
32
Score
7,527
Chart Year
2006
The music video was directed by Marc Webb and premiered on Yahoo!'s website in early 2005.[b] As of August 2005, it had been streamed over a million times.[8] It was released on VH1.com on April 28, 2005,[105] and at the iTunes Store for digital download on December 13, 2005.[106] It debuted on television channel VH1 on January 23 of the following year,[107] reaching the Top 20 Countdown for two weeks in March.[108][109] It was subsequently put on heavy rotation in April 2006, when it was played more than 50 times a week,[110] reduced to 30 weekly airings in May.[111] The video was the eighth most-watched music video on the Internet, with over 9.8 million views in 2006.[87] Warner Bros. Records released the video on YouTube on October 26, 2009.[112] As of February 2023, the video has over 231 million views.[112] The music video accompanying "Bad Day" features a man (Jason Adelman) and a woman (Samaire Armstrong) going about their daily routines over a three-day period. Parts of the video are shown in split screen as they do exactly the same thing at different times, sometimes in the same location. The central point of the video occurs when they paint separately on the same billboard. Armstrong's character shows her negativeness by adding rain and a car running through a puddle of water while Adelman adds an umbrella and a man with a coat to protect the woman in the billboard. At some point, he draws a question mark and she completes it with a heart. At the end of the video, they finally meet when the man offers the woman an umbrella during a rain shower as a taxi cab stops for them. Throughout the video, Powter is shown playing piano on Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles while wearing a tuque—a type of knitted hat. Chuck Taylor said the video is "strikingly good" and "brings emotion and clarity to an artist that we are meeting for the first time".[41] The Daily Edge disagreed calling the video "drippy".[44] VH1 ranked it 17th on its Top 40 Videos of the Year in 2006.[113] It was nominated for the MuchMoreMusic Award at the 2006 MuchMusic Video Awards, but lost to Michael Bublé's "Save the Last Dance for Me".[114] It was nominated for Best Male Video at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards Japan,[115] but "Age Age Every Knight" by DJ Ozma was the winner.[116] A lyrics video version of the song was released on Powter's YouTube channel on August 1, 2022.[117] It features a hand-drawn appearance. Throughout the video, a man wearing a hooded jacket is walking along a sidewalk with a rain cloud above his head. At one point, he gets an umbrella, but later on, he gets splashed by a passing taxi. By the end, the weather clears up and the man meets up with a woman, finally smiling after a bad day.
This song is a reminder that even if you have a bad day once in a while, things will get better. In Europe, it was released in 2005 and became a hit when Coca-Cola used it as the theme song for an advertising campaign on the continent. It topped the Italian and German charts and was #2 in England for three weeks. In America, Powter's album was released in 2006, and "Bad Day" became a hit when the singing competition show American Idol started using it as a theme for the "goodbye video" for the departing contestants who were voted off the show on the fifth season. Daniel Powter is a singer-songwriter from British Columbia who later moved to Los Angeles. "Bad Day" was his first single released on a major label (Warner Bros.), and his only hit. He later described it as "a blessing and a curse." Said Powter: "I was touring the world and performing for thousands of people, but I felt like the song was starting to define me. I actually found myself getting almost angry about it." His second album, Under The Radar, was released by Warner Bros. in 2008 but got little attention. His third album, Turn On The Lights, was released independently in 2012. The video features actress Samaire Armstrong, who plays Anna on the popular American teen TV show The O.C. Powter refused to star in the video with Armstrong because of their difference in age: he was 35 and she was 25. While a younger actor stars opposite Armstrong, Powter appears playing the piano while wearing his distinctive beanie. Director Marc Webb, who went on to direct The Amazing Spider-Man, shot the clip in Los Angeles (made to look like New York) in one day. When this hit #1 in the US, Powter became the first Canadian to top the US chart since Nickelback did it with "How You Remind Me" in 2002. Mitchell Froom, who previously worked with Elvis Costello, produced the album. This was the top-selling digital download of 2006, proving that American Idol fans prefer downloading songs to buying CDs. It was part of a shift toward digital distribution of individual songs: in America, the album sold 500,000, but the single was digitally downloaded over 3 million times - you might have a copy of it on one of your old iPods. A cover version by Alvin and the Chipmunks returned this song to the Billboard Hot 100 in January 2008 when it reached #67. The Chipmunks version was used in their 2007 film Alvin And The Chipmunks and appeared on the soundtrack. A survey announced in July 2008 by the British Performing Rights Society revealed "Bad Day" as the most-played song in the UK over the previous five years. The runner-up was Kelly Clarkson's "Because Of You," and in third place came James Blunt's "You're Beautiful." This song often shows up in TV shows when things are not going well for a character. An early use was in the 2007 Veronica Mars episode "The Bitch Is Back," where Kristen Bell sings it to a guy she's shaking down for information. In The Office episode "Moving On" (2013), Andy sings it as he's firing Pete. It also appears in episodes of Workaholics ("Flashback In The Day" - 2012), Grey's Anatomy ("Wish You Were Here" - 2009), and Elementary ("The One Percent Solution" - 2014). Billboard named Daniel Powter the top one-hit wonder of the 2000s, defining a one-hit wonder as an act whose second hit did not reach the Top 25.
Where is the moment we needed the most? You kick up the leaves, and the magic is lost You tell me your blue sky's faded to gray You tell me your passion's gone away And I don't need no carrying on You stand in the line just to hit a new low You're faking a smile with the coffee to go You tell me your life's been way off line You fall into pieces every time And I don't need no carrying on Because you had a bad day You're taking one down You sing a sad song just to turn it around You say you don't know You tell me, "Don't lie" You work at a smile, and you go for a ride You had a bad day The camera don't lie You're coming back down, and you really don't mind You had a bad day You had a bad day Will you need a blue sky holiday? The point is they laugh at what you say And I don't need no carrying on You had a bad day You're taking one down You sing a sad song just to turn it around You say you don't know You tell me, "Don't lie" You work at a smile, and you go for a ride You had a bad day The camera don't lie You're coming back down and you really don't mind You had a bad day (Ooh, on a holiday) Sometimes the system goes on the blink And the whole thing, it turns out wrong You might not make it back and you know That you could be well, oh, that strong And I'm not wrong (yeah, yeah) So where was the passion when you need it the most? Oh, you and I You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost 'Cause you had a bad day You're taking one down You sing a sad song just to turn it around You say you don't know You tell me don't lie You work at a smile and you go for a ride You had a bad day You see what you like And how does it feel one more time? You had a bad day You had a bad day Ah, yeah Had a bad day Ah, ah, baby Had a bad day Ah, la-la-la Had a bad day Ah
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Feb 25, 2006 | 55 | 71 |
| 2 | Mar 4, 2006 | 41 | 85 |
| 3 | Mar 11, 2006 | 29 | 97 |
| 4 | Mar 18, 2006 | 14 | 112 |
| 5 | Mar 25, 2006 | 5 | 121 |
| 6 | Apr 1, 2006 | 2 | 124 |
| 7 | Apr 8, 2006 | 1 | 125 |
| 8 | Apr 15, 2006 | 1 | 125 |
| 9 | Apr 22, 2006 | 1 | 125 |
| 10 | Apr 29, 2006 | 1 | 125 |
| 11 | May 6, 2006 | 1 | 125 |
| 12 | May 13, 2006 | 2 | 124 |
| 13 | May 20, 2006 | 2 | 124 |
| 14 | May 27, 2006 | 2 | 124 |
| 15 | Jun 3, 2006 | 2 | 124 |
| 16 | Jun 10, 2006 | 2 | 124 |
| 17 | Jun 17, 2006 | 5 | 121 |
| 18 | Jun 24, 2006 | 5 | 121 |
| 19 | Jul 1, 2006 | 11 | 115 |
| 20 | Jul 8, 2006 | 16 | 110 |