Higher

"Higher" is a song by American rock band Creed. It was released on August 31, 1999, as the lead single from their second studio album, Human Clay. The song became the bands breakthrough hit as it was their first song to reach the top ten on the US Billboard Hot 100 where it peaked at number seven in July 2000. It spent a total of 57 weeks upon the survey, the longest stay for any Creed song on the Hot 100. "Higher" also became the band's second chart-topping hit on rock radio as it topped both the Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts, for a then-record of 17 weeks. Writing and recording According to an interview with Loudwire, in an episode of "Wikipedia: Fact Or Fiction", Mark Tremonti revealed that the song was a culmination of improvising live onstage. During their earliest shows, vocalist Scott Stapp would placate the audience by goading his bandmates to come up with a song live on the spot. Scott was the first to begin playing the drum set piece, with Mark later entering the chord progression associated with the song. After reviewing the tapes of the show, as they had always recorded their performances for later review, they decided that the song was worth working out in the studio. Music and lyrics Vocalist Scott Stapp and long-time friend Steven Harang wrote the song about the power of lucid dreaming. In another episode of Loudwire's "Wikipedia: Fact Or Fiction?" Stapp stated that the inspiration for the song came from a recurring dream that he had. In the endlessly present nightmare, Stapp would be hunted down and killed by an unknown assailant brandishing a firearm. Once he took up studying lucid dreaming, he was able to escape the gunman, and subsequently wrote the song as a memento towards the dream. Musically the song has an anthemic and uplifting sound, often drawing comparisons to one of the band's later hit singles, "My Sacrifice". The song is written in the key of D major, with Tremonti playing in drop D tuning and Stapp singing in baritone. "Higher" has been described as post-grunge, hard rock and alternative rock.