What I've Done

"What I've Done" is the lead single from Linkin Park's third album Minutes to Midnight, and is the band's highest debut on the US Hot 100. It had its first radio play on April 1, 2007, and was digitally released on April 2, 2007. The CD Single was released on April 30, 2007. It was also featured in the movie Transformers.

The song starts out with a piano riff reminiscent of the Halloween theme, before going into a raw guitar sound. During live events, Mike Shinoda plays the piano intro and the guitar after that. This song differs from most of Linkin Park's previously released songs (except Breaking the Habit) in that it features almost no lead vocals from vocalist Mike Shinoda, save for a brief "na na na" (or "no no no" to reflect the song's subject) refrain at the end and contributing harmonies throughout. "What I've Done" was the last song written for Minutes to Midnight. The song also has a downbeat exactly once every second, consistent throughout its entirety.

It is featured during the film Transformers, playing on Bumblebee's radio as Sam is dropping Mikaela off at home, as well as leading in to the end credits, and included on the official soundtrack and used heavily in the film's ad campaign. Megan Fox revealed that when the band first heard about the movie, they asked to be on the soundtrack.

A remix is available on the Bleed It Out single and on the Tour Edition of Minutes to Midnight entitled What I've Done (Distorted Remix) which was remixed by Mike Shinoda, one of the vocalists in the band.

The Music Video for "What I've Done" explores the many ironies of humanity and its ill effects on the earth and the environment. It juxtaposes various pieces of footage: a large, well-fed man eating fast food, a woman measuring her waist and a man who is so malnourished that his ribcage is visible through his skin; African Americans being hosed down and the Ku-Klux-Klan; nuclear explosions, the World Trade Center towers collapsing, children waving American flags, a Middle Eastern child holding an AK-47, clips of oil tankers torn in half and birds covered in an oil slick. DJ Joe Hahn of the band directed the video for the single, which was shot in the California desert. 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.

It features footage of the band performing in the desert, interspersed with stock footage reflecting on a variety of social and environmental issues including pollution, global warming, racism, Nazism, abortion, gay rights, famine, terrorism, wars, deforestation, poverty, drug addiction, obesity, destruction, rising gasoline prices and crimes committed by humanity. The video also features short views of important historical figures, such as Mother Teresa, Buddha, Abraham Lincoln, Robert Kennedy, Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Mao Zedong, and Mahatma Gandhi. Some cut scenes like the traffic scene and the napalm exploding were also featured on the Rise Against music video for Ready To Fall.

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. The video is among the all-time top 10 most viewed on YouTube with over 30 million views. AOL currently has a live performance of "What I've Done" on their website.

When the band's logo is shown for the first time in the video (on the front of Rob's bass drum), it features a complete circle with the stylized letters "LP" within it. However, every time the logo is shown after this, the circle is not complete, being "separated" by two blank spaces above the "L" and below the "P". This is explained in "Making of What I've Done", where the band shows the original drums that were wrongly made, and that they had to use black tape to make the breaks in the circle.

So far, this is the only video in which Joe Hahn's face is not focused at although some parts shown his hands on the turntables.

The song made big debuts on the US charts during the chart week of April 21, 2007. The song debuted in the top 10 of the US Hot 100, at #7. It is by far the band's highest debut to date on the chart (this title was previously held by "Somewhere I Belong" which opened at #47), earning "Hot Shot" debut of the week, and subsequently becoming the second highest position for a Linkin Park single to date on the Hot 100. At the time of its debut it was only the eleventh song since 2000 to debut at #7 or higher on the Hot 100, and only the third song to do so by an artist not from American Idol.[11] The song was partly fueled by digital sales, debuting at #4 on the digital chart.

In addition the song became only the third song ever to open at #1 on the Modern Rock chart, also becoming the band's seventh number one on the chart. It held the #1 spot on Modern Rock Tracks for 15 consecutive weeks, at the time tying it with "Sex and Candy" as the second longest running #1 in that charts history (it is now tied as the third longest running). It was the most successful song on the Modern Rock Tracks chart of 2007 until Foo Fighters released "The Pretender" which has so far been at number 1 for 18 weeks, the longest stay in history. The song also reached #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart, where it stayed for more than a month. In the iTunes music store the song had reached number two. It was kept out of the top spot by "Give It To Me" by Timbaland. The music video is the first to reach the number 1 spot on TRL for Linkin Park video history. It has also become a moderate hit on the Adult Top 40, and Pop 100 Airplay charts, so far peaking at number 22 and 24 respectively on those charts.

In the rest of the world the song has been their most successful overall, reaching the top ten in over twenty countries including Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Poland, and New Zealand to name a few. In the UK the song hit #6 once the physical format was released, making it Linkin Park's highest-charting UK single. The song was highly successful in China as well, where it became their first number one there. It is their best charting single on the United World Chart, where it peaked at #4. Statistically speaking, this is Linkin Park's biggest song to date.

Released: Digital
-Flag of the United States April 2, 2007
-Flag of the United Kingdom Flag of Australia April 3, 2007
CD Single
-Flag of the United States April 30, 2007
-Flag of Australia May 5, 2007
-Flag of the United Kingdom May 7, 2007
Format: CD single
Recorded: Los Angeles, California
Genre: Alternative rock
Length: 3:25 (album version) 3:28 (iTunes version) 3:29 (radio edit)
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Writer(s): Mike Shinoda, Chester Bennington, Linkin Park
Producer: Rick Rubin, Mike Shinoda
Certification: Platinium (RIAA)

n this farewell
There’s no blood
There’s no alibi
‘Cause I’ve drawn regret
From the truth
Of a thousand lies

[Pre-Chorus]
So let mercy come
And wash away
What I’ve done

[Chorus]
I’ve faced myself
To cross out what I’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of what I’ve done

Put to rest
What you thought of me
Well I cleaned this slate
With the hands
Of uncertainty

[Pre-Chorus]
So let mercy come
And wash away
What I’ve done

[Chorus]
I’ve faced myself
To cross out what I’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of what I’ve done

For what I’ve done
I’ll start again
And whatever pain may come
Today this ends
I’m forgiving what I’ve done

[Chorus]
I’ve faced myself
To cross out what I’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of what I’ve done

What I’ve done
Forgiving what I’ve done
In this farewell
There’s no blood
There’s no alibi
‘Cause I’ve drawn regret
From the truth
Of a thousand lies

[Pre-Chorus]
So let mercy come
And wash away
What I’ve done

[Chorus]
I’ve faced myself
To cross out what I’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of what I’ve done

Put to rest
What you thought of me
Well I cleaned this slate
With the hands
Of uncertainty

[Pre-Chorus]
So let mercy come
And wash away
What I’ve done

[Chorus]
I’ve faced myself
To cross out what I’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of what I’ve done

For what I’ve done
I’ll start again
And whatever pain may come
Today this ends
I’m forgiving what I’ve done

[Chorus]
I’ve faced myself
To cross out what I’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of what I’ve done

What I’ve done
Forgiving what I’ve done