Over (Lindsay Lohan song)

"Over" was written by Kara DioGuardi, John Shanks and Lindsay Lohan, and produced by the former two, with Shanks playing the bass, guitar, keyboards and doing the mixing, while DioGuardi provided backing vocals. Jeff Rothschild was responsible for Lohan's vocal recording, which occurred at the Henson Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. He also handled the song's mixing, programming and engineering. Other engineers involved were Dave Audé and Mark Valentine.[1]

"Over" is a pop rock song with a length of three minutes and thirty-six seconds. It is written in the time signature of common time with a moderate tempo of 90 beats per minute. The song is composed in the key of C minor, with Lohan's voice spanning from C⁴ to C⁵.[2] According to IGN's Spence D., "Over" begins like a song by The Cure, complete with a "mournful acoustic guitar" and a "haunting piano-tuned synth". He wrote that since the song was not penned by Robert Smith, "it quickly turns into a slow rocker in which Lohan returns to her 'can't live without you' love torn subject matter".[3] In an 2014 interview on The Ellen Show, Lohan told host Ellen DeGeneres the song was about her break-up with Wilmer Valderrama.[4]

"Over" received generally positive reviews from music critics. While responding negatively to a majority of Speak, MusicOMH's John Murphy cited "Over" as being "actually rather good," and noted similarities between the song and the works of Michelle Branch.[5] Nicholas Fonseca from Entertainment Weekly considered it a "tween-slumber-party-friendly" which "is perfect for singing into your curling iron in front of the mirror".[6]

"Over" achieved moderate chart success around the globe. In the United States, the single topped Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart for three weeks and reached number 39 on the Mainstream Top 40 component chart.[7][8] In the United Kingdom, it reached a peak position of number 27 on the UK Singles Chart.[9] In Australia, the single debuted at its peak of number 27 on the ARIA Charts, falling out of the chart seven weeks later.[10] "Over" also attained the Top 30 in Ireland, peaking at number 19.[11] On the Eurochart Hot 100, it managed to reach number 79.[12]

The accompanying music video for "Over", filmed in Los Angeles in December 2004, was directed by Jake Nava, who also directed the music video for Lohan's debut single "Rumors". The music video was inspired by the 1999 film American Beauty.[13][14]

In order to promote "Over", Lohan appeared on Sessions@AOL on December 2, 2004, where she performed the song.[16] Her first televised appearance was on Good Morning America, four days later, as a part of the Women Rule Concert Series, where she sang "Over" accompanied by a performance of "Rumors". While she sang "Over" with no problems, her mouth was not moving for a second during the performance of "Rumors", leading the media to accuse her of lip synching. Lohan denied that she was lip synching, claiming that there was a backing track because she had fallen ill recently. Kim Jakwerth, of Casablanca Records, supported this statement by saying, "Yes, on the first song there were background tracks, which were not on the second song."[17] In addition to these performances, she sang the song on The Ellen Show on December 16.[4] In January 2005, Lohan performed "Over" and "Speak" at Yahoo!'s Live@Launch, where she also gave an interview.[18]

Credits are taken from the Speak liner notes.[1]

Recording

• Recorded and mixed at Henson Recording Studios in Hollywood

Personnel

• Lindsay Lohan – songwriting, vocals
• Kara DioGuardi – songwriting, production, backing vocals
• John Shanks – songwriting, production, bass, guitar, keyboards, mixing
• Dave Audé – engineering
• Jeff Rothschild – drums, engineering, mixing, programming
• Mark Valentine – engineering