Valentine's Day

Template:Song "Valentine's Day" is the ninth track off of Linkin Park's third studio album, Minutes To Midnight.

Background

"Valentine's Day" remained largely unchanged throughout the recording process, as revealed by the limited edition booklet for Minutes To Midnight, which read "Searching for a collective space to write and do pre-production, the band set up shop in a Hollywood rehearsal space known as the Korn Studio. There, the band hired engineer Ethan Mates to help them record rough song ideas. Although it was finished at the Laurel Studio, “Valentine's Day” retains most of the original music and vocals that were created at the Korn Studio. In fact, although the band experimented with re-recording most of their early demos, the earliest recordings were often chosen to make the album."

In an interview with Kerrang!, Chester Bennington called it "one of the poppier songs on the album", and went on to say "We have to be very careful sometimes that we don’t lose the integrity of what we’re doing – we’re a very dark band and we like it like that. We talk about uncomfortable things and try to make you comfortable with that. We tried to do that here in a more poppy song and I really like that aspect of the album." The April 2007 issue of a French magazine published a track by track of Minutes To Midnight on which Chester said, "People who have lost someone in their lives recognize themselves in the lyrics. A song about the importance of minor events between you."

Versions

Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.

Studio

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Valentine's Day	Minutes To Midnight	3:16	2006-2007	May 14, 2007
Valentine's Day	Minutes To Midnight Instrumentals	3:25	2006-2007		The CD dates from May 24, 2007. Official instrumental version.

Live

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Valentine's Day (Live From Frankfurt Germany, Jan 20 '08)	Given Up	3:24	January 20, 2008	March 2, 2008
Valentine's Day (Live From Amnéville, 2008)	Minutes To Midnight - Live Around The World	3:21	January 17, 2008	June 12, 2012

Live

"Valentine's Day" saw it's debut in 2008, on the Minutes To Midnight European Tour, and was featured in both Set R and Set T. Not much happened with the song live on the first tour, though at the show in Basel, Switzerland, Brad started the song in the wrong key, prompting Chester to sing it higher to match the key (the issue was fixed by the end of the song). The song gained an extended guitar intro on the Minutes To Midnight North American Tour, first appearing at the show in Manchester, New Hampshire but then not returning until later in the tour, at the show in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (though the extension wasn't noted on physical setlists until Los Angeles, California). Chester had some difficulty with the song near the end of the tour due to being sick, namely at the show in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lost his breath mid-way through a verse of the song. When the band introduced three more new setlists on the summer Minutes To Midnight European Tour, "Valentine's Day" was only featured in one setlist: Set Y. The song was dropped from the Projekt Revolution version of Set Y, and has not appeared since.

Variations

Last Updated: December 25, 2015

Type	Description	First Played	Last Played
Intro	Guitar Intro	February 18, 2008	June 27, 2008

Personnel

• Chester Bennington
• Mike Shinoda
• Brad Delson
• Dave "Phoenix" Farrell
• Joseph Hahn
• Rob Bourdon

Production

• Produced by Rick Rubin and Mike Shinoda
• Engineers: Dana Neilsen, Andrew Schelps, and Ethan Mates
• Engineer Assisting: Phillip Broussard, Jr.
• Mixing: Neal Avron
• Mixing Assisting: Nicolas Fournier and George Gumbs
• Mastering: Dave Collins

Lyrics

Album Version

My insides all turn to ash / So slow
And blew away as I collapsed / So cold
A black wind took them away / From sight
And held the darkness over day / That night

And the clouds above move closer
Looking so dissatisfied
But the heartless wind kept blowing, blowing

I used to be my own protection / But not now
Cause my path has lost direction / Somehow
A black wind took you away / From sight
And held the darkness over day / That night

And the clouds above move closer
Looking so dissatisfied
And the ground below grew colder
As they put you down inside
But the heartless wind kept blowing, blowing

So now you're gone
And I was wrong
I never knew what it was like
To be alone

On a valentine's day
On a valentine's day
On a valentine's day
On a valentine's day
 
On a valentine's day
I used to be my own protection
On a valentine's day
But not now
On a valentine's day
Because my mind has lost direction
On a valentine's day
Somehow
 
On a valentine's day
I used to be my own protection
On a valentine's day
But not now
On a valentine's day
Because my mind has lost direction
On a valentine's day
Somehow

Gallery

• 

  DVD artwork