Song · Sarah McLachlan
“Sweet Surrender” by Sarah McLachlan
From the album Surfacing (1997)
“Sweet Surrender” by Sarah McLachlan appears on 23 radio countdowns from 14 stations between 1997 and 2021. It was first released in 1997 on the album Surfacing. Its best result is #19 on the 91X Top 91 Songs of 1997. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #87 alternative song of 1997 and #2,659 alternative song of all time.
Watch
Video from YouTube (sarahmclachlanVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Sweet Surrender" was the second single from Sarah McLachlan's 1997 album Surfacing, a song she wrote alone and sang over her own electric guitar and piano. Pierre Marchand produced it and handled bass and drum machine, Ashwin Sood added drums and percussion, and Brian Minato and Michel Pepin filled in the electric guitars.
The result is McLachlan at her most propulsive, a glowing, mid-tempo pulse under that crystalline voice, and it paid off: number two in Canada and 28 on the Billboard Hot 100. Floria Sigismondi directed the video under the name Allen Smithee. In 2001 the song got a second life on the dance floor, when a maxi-single of DJ Tiësto remixes climbed to number six on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 81 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1997 | 107 |
| 1997 | 19 | 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana | 91X Top 91 Songs of 1997 | 91 |
| 1997 | 83 | Live 105 San Francisco, CA | Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1997 | 105 |
| 1997 | 82 | Q101 Chicago, IL | Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1997 | 101 |
| 1997 | 61 | WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD | WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1997 | 100 |
| 1997 | 85 | 107.7 The End Seattle, WA | The End Top 107 Songs of 1997 | 107 |
| 1997 | 83 | KNRK Portland, OR | KNRK Top 94 Songs of 1997 | 94 |
| 1998 | 87 | 102.7 WEQX Southern Vermont and the Capital District of New York (Albany) | WEQX Top 102.7 of 1998 | 103 |
| 1998 | 87 | Radio & Records United States (national airplay chart) | Radio & Records Top 103 Songs of 1998 | 102 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 425 | WHFS | WHFS Top 500 Songs of the '90s (December 1999) | 500 |
| 1999 | 520 | Q101 | Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1017 |
| 1999 | 58 | WLIR / WDRE | WLIR Top 300 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 300 |
| 1999 | 824 | 107.7 The End | The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1077 |
| 1999 | 1781 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 2000 |
| 1999 | 449 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999) | 1002 |
| 2000 | 1782 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) | 2001 |
| 2001 | 1783 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 2002 |
| 2002 | 1772 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) | 2003 |
| 2003 | 1754 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003) | 2004 |
| 2004 | 1754 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) | 2005 |
| 2005 | 1755 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) | 1994 |
| 2007 | 863 | WTMD | WTMD Top 897 Songs of All Time | 897 |
| 2021 | 809 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '90s | 908 |
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