It's Been Awhile
"It's Been Awhile" is a song by American rock band Staind. It was released on March 27, 2001, as the lead single from their third studio album, "Break the Cycle" (2001). The song is Staind's most successful and is their best-known song, becoming a number five hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in October 2001—their only song to reach the top 10. It spent a second-best 20 weeks at number one on the "Billboard" Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart (behind "Loser" by 3 Doors Down) and a then-record 16 weeks  at number one on the "Billboard" Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. Worldwide, the single became a top-20 hit in Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The song was featured as a playable track on the Nintendo GameCube video game "Donkey Konga 2". Background. Aaron Lewis originally wrote this song around 1996 along with "Outside" slightly prior to the release of "Dysfunction" and performed it with a short-lived acoustic side project called J-CAT, before abruptly shelving it until 2000 during the recording sessions of "Break the Cycle". Reception. Eric Aiese of "Billboard" reviewed the song favorably , saying that the group handles the ballad well and packs "a lot of punch into the cut." Aiese said that the song "may be the group's greatest splash yet." Music video. The music video begins with Aaron Lewis going through some old photographs, one of which is a picture of his wife. The video switches between him writing a letter to his wife and the band performing in a room full of candles. There are brief shots of Aaron alone in the streets and looking at himself in the mirror while having second thoughts. Throughout the video, Aaron is  seen smoking cigarettes. At the end of the video, one of those cigarettes falls onto the floor and burns down his apartment. The video was directed by Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst. Track listings. UK CD1 UK CD2 European CD single Australian maxi-CD single