Perfect Mistake

"Perfect Mistake"

Single by Eoin O'Neill
from the album Eoin

Released

July 1st, 2013

Format

CD, Digital Download

Recorded

2013

Genre

Pop/Rock

Length

4:07

Label

Blacklight

Writer

A. Callea
K. Derendorf
T. Nichols

Producer

Kleo & James Moss

Chart position

#1

Certification

Platinum

Additional artwork

^CD2

Eoin O'Neill chronology

"Hide The Body"
(2013)

"Perfect Mistake"
(2013)

"4AM"
(2013)

"Perfect Mistake" is the second single from Eoin O'Neill's debut self-titled album "Eoin". It is one of two covers recorded by Eoin for the album, and is also one of his personal favourites despite not having been written by himself. Again, it was given simultaneous release in the UK and Ireland, and so far is his signature hit. The single is still charting in the UK after 15 weeks with over 462k in sales, his biggest hit so far. It reached #1 on the sales and airplay charts in both of his main territories.

Background[edit | edit source]

Due to time constraints, Eoin recorded a number of cover versions for possible inclusion on his album, due to Blacklight not finding the amount of original material on hand to be sufficient to fit their plans for the album release. Two of these, "Don't Say A Word" and "Perfect Mistake" were chosen for the final tracklisting by Eoin, and "Perfect Mistake" was handpicked to be the second single due to Eoin identifying closely with the song despite his having no hand in its writing. Eoin's studio version is closely faithful to the original symphonic pop-rock original, but again his cover is distinctive due to Eoin's thick Irish brogue.

Reception[edit | edit source]

After realising Eoin's potential with his debut single Blacklight pushed more money into promotion of the single, especially since Eoin was on tour supporting Savana at the time and had limited time to promote the release for himself. The announcement of an endorsement deal with Coca-Cola drew further attention to Eoin and the song. Eoin took full advantage of his limited time to promote the single, and travelling the country on tour also provided ample opportunity to perform the song live. Eoin had a high-profile appearance on the season final of The Uraps Factor, where he performed a much more symphonic arrangement of the single, right on the verge of the single's release, which helped the song blow up on the sales charts. Eoin topped the newly re-established pre-release chart just prior to the single's release. Momentum from his previous single carried along to "Perfect Mistake" on the digital and airplay charts as well.

Tracklisting[edit | edit source]

CD1

"Perfect Mistake"
"Find Me Waiting"
"Perfect Mistake" (Acoustic)

CD2

"Perfect Mistake"
"Guinness & A Good Time"
"Perfect Mistake" (Sterling Remix)
"Perfect Mistake" (Instrumental)

Digital EP

"Perfect Mistake"
"Find Me Waiting"
"Guinness & A Good Time"
"Perfect Mistake" (The Alias Club Mix)
"Perfect Mistake" (Steve Redant Vocal Mix)

Music Video[edit | edit source]

The video opens to a street scene; we hear sirens, and emergency vehicles rush past. A fire engine and an ambulance are rushing to the site of a crash where a car has run a red light. Emergency personnel are frantically trying to pull a man out of a destroyed car that’s been flipped over. The scene pans away as the music begins, and we see Eoin standing alone, quietly looking on while everyone ignores him, too focused on the accident. In one shot, the camera slowly zooms in for a close-up of his face. Eoin looks sad about the accident. When the camera pulls back, Eoin is suddenly wearing different clothes, and he’s somewhere else entirely. He’s walking along a barred fence, and he sings to the camera as he goes. He stops to watch a young couple at an outdoor café across the street; the man has just tried to propose to his girlfriend who freaks out and makes a hasty retreat. The guy chases after her but not without running into a waitress holding a stack of plates. He drops the engagement ring he was carrying. The camera pans back to Eoin who silently gives a depressed sigh and walks out of frame.

The scene changes once again, and Eoin is seen in his third outfit. He’s leaning against a wall singing to the camera while watching a robbery-in-progress. A masked man with a gun is robbing a liquor store at gunpoint; an oblivious passer-by enters the store and finds a gun in his face suddenly. He is shocked and scared at the scene he’s walked into, and the robber forces him to hand over his phone and wallet. Eoin closes his eyes and hangs his head, not wanting to watch any longer. Over the final choruses we revisit the previous scenes that Eoin was watching, but now we see what happened next in each case. For the car crash victim, he’d run the red light because of a text from an overdemanding boss. While being pulled from the wreckage of his car, the man realizes he doesn’t want to be stuck in a stressful job he doesn’t like, and texts ‘I QUIT’ to his boss before being loaded into the ambulance.

The guy with the botched engagement stops to help clean up the mess he made running into the waitress. She finds the ring and hands it back to him, and the two have a moment as they clean up, smiling at each other. The guy who walked into the robbery turns out to be the perfect distraction for a police officer to sneak in through the rear of the store to arrest the robber. With the aftermath of these ‘mistakes’ not being so bad, Eoin grins and the video ends as the camera pans away from his smiling face.

Chart Performance[edit | edit source]

Blacklight gave "Perfect Mistake" a major push with a lot of money spent on promotion. This increased promotional budget, coupled with the momentum gained from the success of "Hide The Body" drove the single to perform exceedingly well. Eoin was not without competition however, as he was in a fierce competition with Cassie Diamond and her single "Lies". The result was close, but Eoin debuted at #1 with sales of 123,079 copies. "Perfect Mistake" has turned into a massive seller for Eoin, spending an additional two weeks in the top 5 and yet another three weeks in the top 10. After fifteen weeks on chart, the song is currently still charting, with sales exceeding 462k, a massive improvement over his debut single.

"Perfect Mistake" debuted and peaked at #2 on the digital chart with the single's release, and digital sales of 21,311 digital copies. It did not reach the same heights as "Hide The Body" due to a change in the compilation of the chart to include album tracks and b-sides, providing much more competition for sales. On the airplay chart it had a steady climb similar to "Hide The Body", and peaked at #1 the same week it topped the sales chart. Like his previous single, "Perfect Mistake" spent two weeks atop the airplay chart.

In Ireland, it was Eoin's second consecutive #1 hit, a birthday hit for Eoin, since it had charted in time for his 23rd birthday. Once again, its Irish airplay performance mirrored its UK counterpart.