“The Story” by Brandi Carlile
In an indirect way, what the main sentiment of Brandi Carlile’s “The Story” is actually centered on is the vocalist celebrating that she has found someone in her life to live for, in a manner of speaking. In this piece, Carlile comes off as someone who has endured her fair share of experiences and struggles as indicative of her age.
However, she also understands that even if you have the most-interesting life story in the world, it’s for naught unless you have that special someone to relay it to. And that’s the kind of relationship she has with the addressee. He or she is the one person(s) who actually knows the vocalist in a way that others in her life don’t, like the real Carlile, if you will.
So that leads to Brandi concluding that she was “made for” this person. Again, the nature of the precise relationship at hand is not specified. Carlile herself imagined this all as a parent/child sort of thing, but she also recognizes that there are a myriad of ways in which “The Story” can be interpreted. But what we do know, in the very least, is that in this generally-applicable piece the addressee would be someone the vocalist loves very much, and vice versa.
Facts about “The Story”
This is the title track from an album that Brandi Carlile, backed by Columbia Records, came out with on 3 April 2007.
The song was written by Phil Hanseroth, a musician who has made a name for himself as a supporter of Carlile.
The sole producer of this track is tenured and decorated T Bone Burnett.
Interesting to note is that the team behind this song recorded it “live to tape”. What that term means is that all of the musicians sang and played at once instead of relying on computer synchronization.
This piece actually fared best in Portugal. Here, it topped the Billboard chart. It also performed well in Norway, reaching position 3 on the official singles charts.
In 2011, this song was covered by Tony Award winner Sara Ramirez. Sara is an actress who played the role of Calliope Torres on Grey’s Anatomy. She also used “The Story” as part of her effort to embark on a formal singing career. Her rendition was also featured on “Song Beneath the Song” (aka Grey’s Anatomy: The Music Event), i.e. an episode of Grey’s Anatomy, that same year.
To note, Brandi’s original can be found on the Grey’s Anatomy Original Soundtrack (Volume 3), which also came out in 2007.
Later on, both LeAnn Rimes (2016) and Dolly Parton (2017) not only covered “The Story” but released their renditions as singles, as did Ramirez.
Popular Usage
“The Story” has been used in several TV shows and films:
- American rom-drama movie “The Lucky One”.
- Season 4 of American medical drama TV series “Grey’s Anatomy” in 2007. It was also part of the “Grey’s Anatomy Soundtrack album 3”.
- Season 7, Episode 18 of “Grey’s Anatomy” in 2011.
- Ramirez’s rendition was included in the season finale of Season 14 of “Grey’s Anatomy”. The episode was aired on 17th May, 2018.
- 2008 American reality TV show “The Hills” Season 4, Episode 11.
- First episode of Season 2 of the American family drama TV show “A Million Little Things”. It aired on 26th September, 2019.
- 2012 American movie “The Lucky One”. The song is played during the end credits.
Brandi’s “The Story” Album
“The Story” was released on April 3rd of 2007 as Brandi’s 2nd studio album. There are 13 tracks on this album. Combined, these tracks have a total runtime of 52 minutes and 52 seconds.
Recording of this album lasted 11 days.
Production of the album was handled by T Bone Burnett.
It peaked at No. 41 on the Billboard 200. Currently, it has sold more than a quarter of a million copies in the United States alone. Furthermore, it has been certified, gold in the United States by the RIAA.
