"Iris" is a song by American alternative rock band Goo Goo Dolls. Originally written for the soundtrack of the 1998 film City of Angels, the song was later included on the band's sixth album, Dizzy Up the Girl. The song was released as a single on April 1, 1998. "Iris" has contributed greatly to the band's success. The song reached number one in Australia, Canada, and Italy, number three in the United Kingdom, number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100, and has become one of Ireland's best-selling singles of all time. "Iris" is the Goo Goo Dolls' signature song and has received critical acclaim, being described as a "ubiquitous" staple for the band's live sets. Composition After completing the first-edit on the film City of Angels, co-producer Bob Cavallo and his music producer son Rob Cavallo decided to take along musical artists to a viewing to create the soundtrack. Bob took Alanis Morissette whilst Rob took the Goo Goo Dolls. The following morning Morissette called Rob, and asked him to produce the song "Uninvited" which she had written afterwards as a demo. Shortly afterwards that same day, John Rzeznik called Rob with a song he had written called "Iris", a power ballad. In a 2013 interview with Songfacts, lead singer Rzeznik explained how he wrote the song: Rzeznik named the song after country folk singer-songwriter Iris DeMent, after he noticed her name in a concert listing in the LA Weekly newspaper. Commercial performance Upon its release, "Iris" became second of a string of hits from the film's soundtrack, City of Angels: Music from the Motion Picture. (The first was Alanis Morissette's "Uninvited" and the third was Sarah McLachlan's "Angel"). The song debuted at number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart on April 18, 1998, and eventually spent a then-record of 18 weeks at number one in Hot 100 Airplay. However it was not allowed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 because no commercial single had been released. In December 1998, just after the song's airplay had peaked, the rules changed to allow airplay-only songs onto the chart. As a result, the song debuted and peaked at number nine and stayed on the chart for 14 weeks. On the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, "Iris" peaked at number eight. The song was the band's second number one hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, following their 1995 hit