Excuse You

"Excuse You" is a single by jazz singer Riley Brendan. It is the third single released from Riley's debut album "Days Go By" The single was released on March 7th, 2011, becoming Riley's highest charting single and first top five hit, peaking at #4.

Background
"Excuse You" was written by Riley presumably about his first wife; despite speculation Riley has never openly admitted who the song was targetted at. It is heavily rumoured to be about his ex-wife and the end of his first marriage because its lyrics talk about being deeply unhappy in a relationship that is being dominated and controlled by only one half of the pairing. It is deemed Riley's most personal song, and also among one of his best with one of his strongest and most expressive vocal performances. This is also why the song is a fan favourite, and the obvious choice to be released as a follow-up single to "Nothing Hurts Like Love".

Reception
The initial review by MUSE raved about "Excuse You" when a five-song sampler of "Days Go By" was released to media; they called it the highlight of the album and an obvious single. The hype spilled over to the public, with it becoming the most anticipated song from the album. It swiftly became a fan favourite upon the album's release, and was well-received when it was given the official green-light as a single. Radio still hadn't caught on to Riley at this stage, but public support for the single was strong enough that it became Riley's biggest UK hit.

Promo CD

 * 1) Excuse You (Album Version)
 * 2) Excuse You (Pop Radio Mix)
 * 3) Excuse You (AC Radio Mix)

CD1

 * 1) Excuse You (Radio Mix)
 * 2) I'm In Here
 * 3) Catching Up

CD2

 * 1) Excuse You (Radio Mix)
 * 2) 20/20
 * 3) The Last Time
 * 4) Excuse You (Sylvane Club Vocal)
 * 5) Excuse You (The Syndicate Remix)

Digital EP

 * 1) Excuse You
 * 2) Catching Up
 * 3) 20/20
 * 4) Excuse You (Adrian Lux & Nause Club Mix)
 * 5) Excuse You (Smoke 'N' Mirrors Club Mix)
 * 6) Excuse You (Dave Aude Extended Mix)

Music Video
The first thing we see in the video is a woman lying on a bed, staring up at the ceiling. For a few moments she is absolutely still and unblinking, making it look like she is dead; but after a few moments the camera pulls back and we see her reacting to Riley entering the room. He sits down and begins to comb his hair, clearing preparing to leave whatever place they currently are, but the two of them begin to fight with each other. We don’t hear the words or any subtitles so we don’t know what they’re fighting about. As we reach the chorus, Riley is just about ready to leave. The woman gets up to stop him leaving, but he pulls a gun out on her, which causes her to stop and let him go. We next see Riley at some kind of stakeout, with a male accomplice holding a rifle. They are clearly up to something illegal, but what they’re up to isn’t yet clear. Through his binoculars, Riley watches a third man on the ground cause a distraction for police. With the cops distracted, Riley and the other guy make their getaway. Once they’re a fair distance from the cops, they stop and ditch the car.

We see Riley pulling out his phone. He calls the middleman in their scheme, and tells him to throw a briefcase in his position out the window of a train he is escaping on. The guy does so, but is arrested just after tossing away the briefcase. Meanwhile, other cops show up while Riley and his accomplice are retrieving the case. With gunfire being hurled at them, Riley and his accomplice scramble into their getaway car with the briefcase and drive away. With the cops safely behind them, and Riley driving, the accomplice opens up the briefcase – and we find out what was so important about it; inside the case is $4 million dollars. From his spot driving the car, Riley looks down at the money. Riley pulls out a phone and pretends to dial another accomplice, so the one in the car can see. He pretends that his battery is low and he can’t use the phone, stopping the car. Riley gets out and pulls a gun on his accomplice, shooting him and taking the briefcase (and the money) for himself. The accomplice is smiling as he dies, too caught up in the moment to really know what’s going on until it’s too late. The ever-crafty Riley has another getaway vehicle stashed away right nearby the first car and the body. Taking the bloodied briefcase with him, he climbs into the next car and drives away.

We jump to a slightly later point in time. Having made off with the $4 million, we see Riley relaxing on a beach. A woman brings Riley a drink; it is revealed to us that it is the woman we saw in the first part of the video. Riley seems surprised but somewhat pleased to see her. She smile at first, but she secretly has a gun hidden beneath the tray carrying the drink. With a silencer on the gun and in close proximity to Riley, she pulls the trigger. We see his body; the woman places her hat over his head to make it look like he’s merely sleeping, then swipes the briefcase from under his chair, with the $4 million still inside. As it turns out, the fight from the beginning of the video was how the money would be split, and throughout the video we saw the co-conspirators looking to cut each other out of the final pay-off.

Chart Performance
"Excuse You" debuted at #4 and has been certified silver; it is both Riley's highest charting single and his best selling single in the UK. The track was also Blacklight's first ever top five single. It sold moderately on the digital chart, achieving 47,759 digital copies sold. Radio largely ignored the song, and it failed to chart. In America, "Excuse You" was a top 5 hit on Hot AC radio, and hit #1 on AC. The song did not cross over to pop formats, so digital sales were not largely strong. The song charted in the top 60 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Chart Run
TOTAL: 128,541
 * Week 1: #4 - 62,706
 * Week 2: #11 - 32,675
 * Week 3: #20 - 17,152
 * Week 4: #27 - 9,985
 * Week 5: #34 - 6,023