Song · Creed
“What's This Life For” by Creed
From the album My Own Prison (1997)
“What's This Life For” by Creed appears on 12 radio countdowns from 10 stations between 1998 and 2020. It was first released in 1997 on the album My Own Prison. Its best result is #4 on the DC101 Top 101 Songs of 1998. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #60 alternative song of 1998, #4,763 alternative song of all time and #353 of the '90s.
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"What's This Life For" was the third single from My Own Prison, the 1997 debut that introduced Creed on Wind-up Records, and it's grief set to the sludgy, heavy-lidded churn of post-grunge. Scott Stapp and Mark Tremonti wrote it about a friend lost to suicide: Tremonti supplied the music and most of the words, and Stapp wrote the lyrics for the bridge. The pair called every shot on that record, and this was one of the songs they knew was a keeper from the start.
It asks its big, bleak question right there in the title and lets the guitars do the brooding. Rock radio answered: it went to number one on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart and stayed there six weeks, the band's first chart-topper there.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Hard Rock & Metal
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 69 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1998 | 107 |
| 1998 | 48 | Live 105 San Francisco, CA | Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1998 | 106 |
| 1998 | 15 | Q101 Chicago, IL | Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1998 | 101 |
| 1998 | 4 | DC101 Washington, D.C. | DC101 Top 101 Songs of 1998 | 101 |
| 1998 | 23 | Radio & Records United States (national airplay chart) | Radio & Records Top 103 Songs of 1998 | 102 |
| 1999 | 26 | K-Rock New York, NY | K-Rock Top 92 Songs of 1999 | 92 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 948 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1998) | 1000 |
| 1999 | 328 | WHFS | WHFS Top 500 Songs of the '90s (December 1999) | 500 |
| 1999 | 842 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1999) | 998 |
| 2001 | 168 | WBRU | WBRU Modern Rock Top 500 (2001) | 500 |
| 2002 | 377 | KISW | KISW Top 999 of All Time (2002) | 999 |
| 2020 | 413 | 105.9 The X | 105.9 The X July 420 (2020) | 420 |
Also listed as: What's this Life For; What's This Life For?.
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