Be Yourself is the first single from the second album of the rock band Audioslave, Out of Exile. The song was released in February 2, 2005 and topped the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for seven weeks and the Modern Rock Tracks chart for four weeks in 2005. Apart from Like a Stone, Be Yourself is considered the band’s most famous song, and it is still played on radio stations worldwide.
Be Yourself has routinely been heard in multiple media. The song is the theme music of the 2005 Raw Diva Search which was held by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and it was used as the entrance music of the winner of that contest, Ashley Massaro.
WWE once again used the song as one of the official theme songs to Wrestlemania XXVI. Be Yourself was also used in the Scrubs season six premiere episode “My Mirror Image”. Along with Your Time Has Come, the track also appeared in the documentary Warren Miller’s: Higher Ground. New York Mets outfielder Shawn Green also used the song before his at-bats at games in 2006.
Prior to the vinyl release of the song, Contactmusic.com held a contest in which fans of the band could submit their pictures, over two dozen of which were selected and featured on the 7″ vinyl release of the single.
The music video of Be Yourself was filmed in an old hotel in downtown Los Angeles and directed by music video veteran Francis Lawrence, who has directed videos for Gwen Stefani, Aerosmith, and made his feature film directorial debut with Constantine.
It begins with the band playing the song, a close up of Tom Morello playing his guitar for the most part. Close ups of Chris Cornell singing follows, along with more of Morello‘s guitar. The band is then shown, after the chorus, in a dark, isolated room with large windows, much like the room in their video for Like a Stone.
Close ups of Morello during the guitar solo follow, with abstracted views of Cornell, while lights in the background change colors quickly. During the last chorus, lights in the background flash colors of red. Cornell has said that the band modeled the concept after The Beatles‘ film Let It Be. He said:
“If you watch Let It Be, the look of the film makes the band look like it’s an important happening. I just wanted to look important, like things looked when I was a child.”
Tracklist:
- Be Yourself
- Super Stupid (Funkadelic cover)
- Show Me How to Live (remix by T-Ray)
- Be Yourself (video)
Audioslave
Chris Cornell: lead vocals
Tom Morello: guitars
Tim Commerford: bass
Brad Wilk: drums
Chris Cornell (July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017).
