"Wake Me Up When September Ends" is a song by American rock band Green Day, released on June 13, 2005, as the fourth single from the group's seventh studio album, American Idiot (2004). The acoustic ballad was written by frontman Billie Joe Armstrong about the death of his father when he was 10 years old. The song became a hit single, peaking at number six on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was also a top-10 single in the United Kingdom, Belgium, and New Zealand and was a number-one single in the Czech Republic. In the United States, the song became symbolic after Hurricane Katrina, where it was dedicated to victims of the disaster, and also regarded as a dedication to the victims of the September 11 attacks that occurred in 2001. The song was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The song's music video depicts a couple broken apart by the Iraq War, which was intended to convey the song's central theme of loss. Background "Wake Me Up When September Ends" was written by frontman Billie Joe Armstrong about his father, who died from esophageal cancer when Armstrong was 10 years old. Armstrong at one point dubbed the song the most autobiographical he had written to that point, considering it "therapeutic" but also difficult to perform. The song is notable in that it is largely unrelated to the storyline that runs throughout the rest of the album. Commercial performance The single peaked at number six in the United States, becoming Green Day's second top-10 single. It also peaked at number eight in Canada and the UK, while reaching number 13 in Australia. The song was certified Gold in the United Kingdom for sales of 400,000. The song ended the streak of Green Day's three consecutive number-one hits on the Modern Rock Tracks chart ("American Idiot", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", and "Holiday"), but it peaked at number two on the chart, kept from number one by Gorillaz' "Feel Good Inc." The song also made it to number two on the Adult Top 40 chart and the Mainstream Top 40 chart. This was the band's most successful song in the adult contemporary market, hitting number three on the Adult Contemporary Chart and their only song to appear on that specific chart other than "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". "Wake Me Up When September Ends" had sold 1,652,000 copies as