What I’ve Done is a song by Linkin Park. It was released as the first single from their third studio album, Minutes to Midnight (2007), and is the sixth track. The song was released as a radio single on April 1, 2007, as a digital download on April 2, and as a CD single on April 30. The live version of What I’ve Done from Road to Revolution: Live at Milton Keynes was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 52nd Grammy Awards, but did not win. It serves as the end credits track of the 2007 science fiction blockbuster film Transformers and also appears on Transformers: The Album (2007). Being certified six times platinum by the RIAA, it is the band’s most commercially successful single in terms of pure sales, and reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In January 2011, it was released in a Linkin Park DLC pack for Rock Band 3. The song is also a B-side to the UK single of “Iridescent”. An instrumental version of the song is currently used by Sky UK as background music for their interactive services.
Tracklist:
- What I’ve Done
- Faint (Live)
- From the Inside (Live)
The music video for What I’ve Done was filmed in the California desert and was directed by Linkin Park turntablist Joe Hahn. The video begins with grass sinking down into the dirt, causing it to turn wet. It features footage of the band performing in an area outside of the city, interspersed with footage showing many political movements and humanitarian issues including pollution, racism, Nazism, the Ku Klux Klan, abortion, terrorism, Holocaust, deforestation, poverty, drug addiction, obesity, destruction, rising gasoline prices and crimes committed by humanity. The video ends with the same clip from the beginning but played in reverse, where it has the grass re-growing. Some cutscenes, such as the traffic scene and the napalm exploding, were also featured in the Rise Against music video for “Ready to Fall”. The video premiered on April 2, 2007, on MTV and Fuse. It premiered on MTV Asia, MTV Germany, TMF Netherlands and Canada’s MuchMusic on April 3, 2007.
The video clip was featured and won on MTV‘s Battle of the Videos against videos by Evanescence (“Sweet Sacrifice”) and Lil’ Mama (“Lip Gloss”). The video also marks the first appearance of a Linkin Park video in the #1 spot on MTV‘s TRL, hitting #1 six times so far. AOL currently has a live performance of What I’ve Done on their website.
Linkin Park
Chester Bennington: vocals
Mike Shinoda: rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, piano
Brad Delson: lead guitar
Dave “Phoenix” Farrell: bass guitar
Joe Hahn: turntables, samples
Rob Bourdon: drums
Chester Charles Bennington (March 20, 1976 – July 20, 2017).
