"Chasing Cars" is the second single from Snow Patrol's fourth album, Eyes Open. It was recorded in 2005 and released on June 6, 2006 in the US and 24 July 2006 in the UK as the album's second single. "Chasing Cars" gained significant popularity in the United States after being featured in the second season finale of the popular medical drama Grey's Anatomy.
The song was nominated for a 2007 Grammy Award for "Best Rock Song", as well as for a 2007 BRIT Award for "Best Single".
After the popularity of its association with the Grey's Anatomy television show, the song peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, the band's first Top 10 hit in the US. It was the fourth best selling digital single of 2006 in the UK, totaling 190,000 legal downloads and is the fourteenth most downloaded song in the country of all time. "Chasing Cars" also went to number one on the Adult Contemporary chart for two non consecutive weeks. As of March 2011, the single has spent 99 weeks on the official UK Top 75 Singles Chart and 143 on the Top 100 and has sold 505,000 copies in the UK, despite missing the Top 5.
Lead singer Gary Lightbody wrote the song, sober after a binge of white wine, in the garden of producer Jacknife Lee's Kent cottage. He stated it was his "purest love song". The phrase "Chasing Cars" came from Lightbody's father, in reference to a girl Lightbody was infatuated with, "You're like a dog chasing a car. You'll never catch it and you just wouldn't know what to do with it if you did."