Snow Patrol — Chasing Cars

The 20th-anniversary campaign for Snow Patrol's slow-burning ballad has pulled it back across 104 country and platform charts, days after the band confirmed to the BBC that they'll mark the milestone with two Royal Albert Hall shows performing Eyes Open in full. Anniversary coverage this month has revisited the song's improbable arc: a number-six UK single that became the most-played song of the 21st century on British radio, per Tunefind, and cleared 2 billion streams, according to Nieuws.nl. Its ascent owed everything to a Grey's Anatomy placement that carried the track from UK afterthought to American staple, as Yahoo recounts. Gary Lightbody built the whole thing on three notes and a single held vocal — a durability the anniversary run is now cashing in.