Cable Car (partially found demo of pop-rock single by The Fray; 2004)
Cover art for the single.
Status: Partially Found
"Over My Head (Cable Car)" (originally performed simply as "Cable Car") is a song by the American rock band, The Fray. It was released on October 2005 as the lead single from their debut album How to Save a Life (2005) and hit the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The single helped propel their album from the Top Heatseekers chart to the top 20 of the Billboard 200 chart.
According to several sources, including the band's drummer Ben Wysocki, the 2004 original version of the song was heavily played on the Colorado-based alternative radio station KTCL and was in the Top 30 most played song of 2004 in just four months. It allegedly played on the "Locals Only" radio station section. On December 17, 2004, the band signed with Epic Records where the song was re-polished, re-recorded, slightly rewritten and became the version we know today. There is no available version of the full 2004 demo in contemporary circulation.
As for the original demo version, it is unable to be traced as most audio sharing websites on it was posted (such as Myspace) are inaccessible as of 2023. Wysocki also left a comment on the band's official website message board on Oct 20th, 2004, saying:
"unfortunately Cable Car is not on any release of ours. Its a very new song that we've birthed after the 2003 release 'Reason'. So, in short, you have three options
1. continue to listen to ktcl relentlesly (as many do)
2. come to a Fray show, bring a digital recorder and microphone, and take home your own bootleg.
3. Practice patients [sic] while waiting for us to get our act together.
heres a light at the end of the tunnle for you waiting period...maybe cable car will be on our next release, maybe we'll put it on the website, or maybe we'll give you a burned copy.
none the less, your comments are flattering. thanks"[1]
All other participants of this text board give links to websites such as PureVolume which are no longer available for viewership, even through the Internet Web Archive. Other sources such as The Rock Riff noted that the band had 7 other songs that were submitted to the radio station that were all rejected, it is unknown if these songs were ever re-used for later albums.[2]
As of 2023, the only piece of the "demo" of the song in circulation is a YouTube video that contains 30 seconds from the official Epic Records release.[3]