3AM (Matchbox Twenty song)

"3AM" was written by Rob Thomas, Jay Stanley, John Leslie Goff and Brian Yale while performing together in the early 1990s band Tabitha's Secret. The song was first recorded by that band on its debut EP, Tabitha's Secret?. The lyrics are inspired by Thomas as an adolescent having to live with a mother fighting to survive cancer.[1] In 1997, after the other members of Tabitha's Secret left to form Matchbox 20, Goff and Stanley released other early recordings of the band (including 3 A.M.) on Don't Play with Matches.

The video (directed by Gavin Bowden) was shot at the 99 Cents Only Store at Lankershim Blvd & Whipple St. in North Hollywood, California in September 1997.[2] It features the band sitting on sides of a street next to some telephone booths. A supermarket is also shown. The video switches between color video clips and black-and-white still images. During the introduction and the third verse of the song, Thomas walks in the middle of the street with some construction signs and lights. During the third verse, a Pontiac Trans Am with a bare-chested man and a woman inside stops in front of Thomas. The man gets out, revealing a catheter in his chest, receives three cigarettes from Thomas and then gets back in the Trans Am. Finally, during the last two choruses, the band is shown playing their instruments (presumably in the lobby of a hotel or office building) as rain can be seen falling from a large window behind them. The video ends with an image of Thomas standing next to the telephone booths.

• 3-track version

1. "3 AM" – 3:46
2. "Push" (acoustic) – 4:19
3. "Shame" – 3:35

• List of RPM Rock/Alternative number-one singles (Canada)

• Facts about Matchbox Twenty songs.