Me, Myself, I

"Me, Myself, I" is a single by alternative-rock duo Dresden & Bareilles. It is the fifth and final single taken from their sophomore album "150 dB". The song is the worst-performing single from their sophomore era, almost missing the top 5 when it debuted at #6, although it climbed and peaked at #4 in its second week. Regardless, its shelf-life was very short, being the only single of the era to miss even gold certification. The single fared better internationally, making the top 30 in America and the top 10 in Australia.

Background
"Me, Myself, I" was written as a pure rock song, and is one of the songs that changed direction when the band worked with DJ Double Garage on the album. Until "Aphrodite Under Fire" was written, the song was intended to be the lead single from "150 dB", and the band returned to the song to give it the single treatment for the final release of the era. The song was written about internal conflict, with Gabriel describing the song as having a heavy psychological element, regarding the id, the ego and the superego. The song's production is more rock-oriented, but with an electronic twist, making it one of the more organic songs on the album. Artwork was completed for the single, which was later scrapped as being "too messy", and a new set of artwork was commissioned. A pop-friendly mix was created for mainstream radio play.

Reception
Off the back of two consecutive #1 hits it was assumed that the single would be a great success again, and it seemed that the single was well-enough received with the public, but it greatly underperformed to expectations by becoming the lowest new entry of their release week and an even more sluggish radio single than "Edward Carnby". It also became the worst digital seller of the era, being the one single not to exceed 100k in digital sales. This suggests that the band had either waited too long between singles or that they had just outstayed their welcome for the era. Internationally, the song was better received by radio stations and by the buying public, as the single was a bigger international hit in Australia and the US.

Promo CD

 * Me, Myself, I (Album Version)
 * Me, Myself, I (Pop Mix)

CD1

 * Me, Myself, I (Album Version)
 * 1) Intravenous (Live @ Wembley Arena)
 * Me, Myself, I (Feed The Monster Remix)

CD2

 * Me, Myself, I (Album Version)
 * 1) Brother
 * Me, Myself, I (Instrumental)
 * Me, Myself, I (Live @ Wembley Arena)

Digital EP

 * Me, Myself, I (Album Version)
 * Me, Myself, I (Pop Mix)
 * 1) Brother
 * 2) Repeat, Repeat, Repeat
 * Me, Myself, I (Triplicate Remix)
 * Me, Myself, I (The Crystal Method Remix)
 * Me, Myself, I (Live @ Wembley Arena)

Music Video
The video opens with a short instrumental intro, as we see a child’s bedroom. Three identical triplets are seen in the room; one is sitting on the floor, one is lying on the bed and the third is sitting at the desk. We close in on the middle triplet as the video title fades in. When the first verse actually begins we see Gabriel standing in the middle of a deserted street decked out in a suit, looking like he’s just been to a funeral. He peels off his jacket and carries it beside him as he walks along the street, singing his verse. During all this, we get a closer look at the three triplets. Jean-Luc appears in the street scene during the pre-chorus for his bits. When the chorus hits, we see the same bedroom from before, but it is night. The window explodes towards the camera. The band is seen standing in the street scene performing the chorus, while in the bedroom scene we see flashes of debris and toys flying around in the blast radius. What happened exactly to cause the explosion, we don’t know. When they reach the ‘me and myself are no match for I’ hook there is a rapid reverse shot of the explosion (at least what we’ve seen of it) jumping back to the bedroom in daylight with the triplets together.

During the second verse, we see the triplets talking to each other; we don’t get to hear the words they’re saying but through subtitles it’s revealed that they’re having a fight about who they are as people. We find out that they’re not actually triplets, but three versions of the same person – one is ‘Me’, the second is ‘Myself’ and the third is ‘I’. ‘Me’ is trying to remain calm at his desk, while ‘Myself’ is being purposefully mean to the other two to urge a reaction from them, while ‘I’ is sat in the middle of the floor, and we discover he is idly playing with a grenade. The band is still performing the song in the street scene. During the next chorus we see one of the triplets lying in bed at night, with the grenade in his hands. He rolls over onto his back, and pulls out the pin. We see him place his hand on the pillow with the pin in his hand, then we cut to a full shot of the room as everything explodes. We see everything flying around as we did before, including the window breaking from the explosion. On the street scene, we’re given shots of the band singing and other shots of them fighting duplicates of themselves.

While we continue to see the band fighting amongst themselves in the street scene, we’re now shown a funeral scene in the aftermath of the explosion. On one side of the church is a coffin bearing a picture with the face of one of the triplets, while the other side shows another coffin. The boy’s coffin is kicked open from the inside. One of the triplets climbs out of it jumping on top to sit on the other coffin as the second triplet climbs out of the same coffin. He sits down in the aisles while the third triplet climbs out of the same coffin and gives a menacing look to the camera as he passes out of frame. The video cuts to black with ‘The End...?’ written onscreen.

Chart Performance
Many expected that "Me, Myself, I" would at the very least be a top 5 hit for the band, but the buying public chose instead to give greater support to its competition, from Syd Wolfe, Darren Clarke and Nicholas X. The single debuted at #6, greatly surprising many, including the band. The single was about to be written off as a total failure, until it climbed in its second week to peak at #4. Despite this, it was still the worst performing single of the album; after reaching its peak the single slid down the chart quickly, giving the band their shortest chart run since the failed soundtrack single "Losing My Religion". The single failed to take off on airplay in the same way that "Edward Carnby" failed, but again it managed to squeeze out a top 20 peak and strong longevity. Digitally, the song was hampered due to the single missing the top 5 upon debut. In Australia, the song hit the top 20 on the airplay chart and peaked at #10 on the ARIA chart, while in Australia airplay and sales were strong enough to earn a #27 peak.

Chart Run
TOTAL: 188,775
 * Week 1: #6 - 62,069
 * Week 2: #4 - 74,020
 * Week 3: #10 - 32,726
 * Week 4: #22 - 10,042
 * Week 5: #25 - 9,918