"Linger" is a song composed by Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 musicians Dolores O'Riordan

Dolores O'Riordan

Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan is an Irish musician, singer and songwriter. She led The Cranberries to worldwide success and fame for 13 years before the band took a hiatus in 2003. Her first solo album Are You Listening? was released in May 2007...

 and Noel Hogan

Noel Hogan

Noel Anthony Hogan is the guitarist and co-songwriter of The Cranberries.With The Cranberries on hiatus from 2003–2009, Noel turned to focus on his own music. He began working with programmer Matt Vaughan, who had already done work on unreleased Cranberries songs and Dolores O'Riordan's solo...

 of the rock

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 band The Cranberries

The Cranberries

The Cranberries are an Irish rock band formed in Limerick in 1989 under the name The Cranberry Saw Us, later changed by vocalist Dolores O'Riordan. The band currently consists of O'Riordan, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler...

. The song, which has an acoustic arrangement featuring a string section, became the band's first major hit, peaking at #3 in the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

, #8 in the US and #14 in the UK.

In the documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 '99 Love Life & Rock 'n' Roll, O'Riordan says that the song is about her first serious kiss

Kiss

A kiss is the act of pressing one's lips against the lips or other body parts of another person or of an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, affection, respect, greeting, friendship, and good...

.

"Linger" was listed as #86 on VH1

VH1

VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...

's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s.

Track listing

UK 7" single (1993)

1. "Linger"
2. "Reason"

UK 12" single / CD-single (1993)

1. "Linger" (single version) - 4:33
2. "Reason" - 2:02
3. "How" (Radical Mix) - 2:56

USA 7" single (1993)

1. "Linger"
2. "Them"

USA CD single (1993)

1. "Linger" - 4:34
2. "Liar" - 2:21
3. "Them" - 3:44
4. "Reason" - 2:01

UK 7" single (1994 re-release)

1. "Linger"
2. "Pretty"

UK CD-single (1994 re-release)

1. "Linger" (LP version) - 4:33
2. "Pretty" - 2:16
3. "Waltzing Back" (Live at The Record Plant, Hollywood) - 4:01
4. "Pretty" (Live at The Record Plant, Hollywood) - 2:11

USA 7" (1994 re-release)

1. "Linger"
2. "Dreams
   Dreams (The Cranberries song)
   "Dreams" is the first single released by rock band The Cranberries. The song is taken from their 1993 debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?...
   
   "

Charts

Chart (1993-1994)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary	18
U.S. Billboard Alternative Songs	4
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	8
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 End of year chart (1994)	49

Certifications

Country	Certification	Date	Sales certified
United States	Gold	26 January 1994	500,000

Covers

• Brazilian TV host Angélica
  Angélica
  Angélica is a Brazilian Presenter, actress and singer.Angélica's career began at 4, when she won a contest to choose Brazil's most beautiful child at a popular variety show presented by Chacrinha. At 13, she became famous for replacing Xuxa as the presenter of the kids show "Club of the Child"...
  
   (famous for hit "Vou de Táxi") sang a cover version called "Se A Gente Se Entender" ("If We Understand Ourselves"). The song has a music video
  Music video
  A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
  
   too.
• Chicago punk band Screeching Weasel
  Screeching Weasel
  Screeching Weasel is an American punk rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1986 by Ben Weasel and John Jughead.Since their formation, Screeching Weasel have broken up and reformed numerous times with numerous line-up changes. Ben Weasel has been the only constant...
  
   covered the song on their album Emo
  Emo (album)
  Emo is the ninth studio album by the American punk rock band Screeching Weasel. It was released on May 18, 1999 through Ben Weasel's and John Jughead's label Panic Button Records. It was their first album released through Panic Button Records. The album was recorded in Chicago during the blizzard...
  
  .
• Kelly Clarkson
  Kelly Clarkson
  Kelly Brianne Clarkson is an American pop rock singer-songwriter and actress. Clarkson came into prominence after becoming the winner of the inaugural season of the television series American Idol in 2002 and would later become the runner-up in the television special World Idol in 2003.In 2003,...
  
   has covered this song.

Appearances in other media

• The song is available as a playable song for the Rock Band
  Rock Band
  Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
  
  series of music video game
  Music video game
  A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs...
  
  s as downloadable content.
• The song is featured on the Xbox 360
  Xbox 360
  The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
  
   game, Lips
  Lips (video game)
  Lips is a video game for the Xbox 360. Lips was developed by iNiS and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game features the use of motion sensitive wireless microphones and supports the use of songs already owned through a Zune or iPod. The game was released on November 18, 2008 in North...
  
  as downloadable content.
• The song is featured in the 2006 movie Click, starring Adam Sandler
  Adam Sandler
  Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, and film producer.After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office...
  
  .
• The song is featured in an episode of the NBC
  NBC
  The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
  
   sitcom Community (TV Series)
  Community (TV series)
  Community is an American television comedy series created by Dan Harmon that airs on NBC. The series is about a group of students at a community college in the fictional locale of Greendale, Colorado. The series heavily uses meta-humor and pop culture references, often parodying film and television...
  
  , with altered lyrics.