Side (song)
2001 single by Travis
"Side" is a song by Scottish rock band Travis, released as the second single from their third studio album, The Invisible Band (2001). Frontman Fran Healy began writing the song by composing a rap, which he would later remove, and penning a riff that would support it. In February 2000, he completed the song's lyrics, which describe how everyone shares life and explains that there is no greater existence for anyone who seeks it, as everyone shares the same "side" of life. The song was released as a radio single in the United States in August 2001 and was issued in the United Kingdom the following month.
Produced by Nigel Godrich, "Side" received mixed reviews from music critics and peaked at number 14 on the UK singles chart, becoming a top-50 hit in Ireland, Italy, and New Zealand as well as on two US Billboard charts. The single releases include live versions of "Driftwood" and Mott the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes", as well as a cover of the Bob Dylan song "You're a Big Girl Now". The song's music video has a UFO theme and features Travis being abducted by aliens after performing the song.
Background and composition
Writing about the song's origin on the band's official website, Fran Healy recalled that the first part of "Side" that he conceived was a rap segment, which he would later discard. After completing the rap, he composed the riff and music over the next few weeks so it would complement the rap verse, toying around with the lyrics until penning the final result in February 2000 during a plane trip. It was during this trip that he also created the name of the parent album, The Invisible Band.
“Side (song)” enters the record as 2001 single by Travis. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Side, song and single can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5478982. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2001 and 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “Side (song)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.