Hey There Delilah

Background and writing

The song was written by frontman Tom Higgenson after meeting Delilah DiCrescenzo, a nationally ranked American steeplechase and cross country runner, through a mutual friend around 2002.

Higgenson stated: "I thought she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, I told her, 'I have a song about you already.' Obviously, there was no song. But I thought it was smooth." DiCrescenzo turned him down. Although she was dating somebody else at the time, she kept in touch with Higgenson. A year later, he had finished the song. About the actual writing, Higgenson said: "Because I wasn't with Delilah, I had to imagine, 'If I was with this girl, what would I want to tell her?'" In late 2004, Higgenson brought DiCrescenzo a disc with the finished song.

DiCrescenzo stated she found it difficult to deal with the popularity of a song written about her. "When I'm at the gym, it's playing; when I'm at the pool, it's playing. Part of me wants to scream at the top of my lungs that it's about me. Another part of me wants to cower and say it's not. [...] It was so beautifully written. There was pressure to live up to this ideal. I didn't know how to be polite but, you know, ditch him."

"Hey There Delilah" is written in the key of D major, with a tempo of 104 beats per minute in common time.

The song was recorded and produced by Ariel Rechtshaid in North Hollywood, Los Angeles. The band's fourth album, Every Second Counts, has "Hey There Delilah" as a bonus track with a string section written and performed by Eric Remschneider augmenting the original recording, also present in the song's official music video.

Release

Plain White T's released the song in May 2006 as the third single from their third studio album All That We Needed. In 2007, over one year after the song's release, it became the band's first hit in the United States, eventually reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in July, marking the first Hot 100 No. 1 entry for Hollywood Records and Disney Music Group in the chart. From July 3 through July 28, 2007, it was the most played song on radio and the most downloaded song on the US iTunes Music Store.

It was Plain White T's first major hit. It also reached number two in the UK. The song ended 2007 as the year's 14th biggest-selling single in the UK.

Since its release, it has sold over 4,000,000 digital copies in the US alone.

Music video

The video, directed by Jay Martin, features the band's lead singer, Tom Higgenson, singing the song while the band members are in another room behind him. The other band members are not playing in the song. The only other instruments are the strings provided by Eric Remschneider, who does not appear in the video. In a split-screen, it shows Delilah, played by model Melissa McNelis, who attends college in New York City.

Critical reception

Time magazine named "Hey There Delilah" one of The 10 Best Songs of 2007, ranking it number seven. Music critic Josh Tyrangiel called it "an intimate love song that's damn near universal". Tyrangiel praised the Plain White T's for managing to make another "aching guy reaching out to distant girl song feel fresh", singling out singer Tom Higgenson's otherwise imperfect voice and "nasal delivery [for making] the nearly-comic sincerity of the lyrics seem completely genuine". AllMusic positively compared the song to "Thirteen" by Big Star.

The song was a double 2008 Grammy Award nominee, for Song of the Year (won by Amy Winehouse) and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (won by Maroon 5). DiCrescenzo attended the gala that year as the guest of Higgenson.

On VH1's Top 40 Videos of 2007, "Hey There Delilah" was number eight, ahead of "If Everyone Cared" by Nickelback and behind "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado. VH1 had the song at number 78 on its list of the 100 Greatest Songs of the '00s.

The band was featured on Sesame Street in 2008 with the song "I'm the Letter T" (to the tune of "Hey There Delilah"). Higgenson provided the vocals for the animated letter T who sings the spoof. When asked if he was excited, Higgenson responded, "Yeah, hello! It's a dream. But it's just my voice. There's going to be some Muppet singing it on the screen."

In 2017, Jamie Milton of NME said the track was one of the worst songs of the 2000s. She wrote: "It's earnest, self-indulgent pap of the highest order. This song is so wet that it's given me swimmers' ear, which makes the narrator's self-regarding message – stand by myself while I take over the world with my forgettable, dreary acoustic guitar song – even more egregious."

Personnel

Album version

• Tom Higgenson − vocals, acoustic guitar

Single version

• Tom Higgenson − vocals, backing vocals, acoustic guitar
• Eric Remschneider − strings

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Other versions

In March 2008, the Sugababes released a cover of the song as a B-side to "Denial".

In 2020, Kallista Rowan first published a version called "Hey it's Delilah" from Delilah's perspective in her enduring long-distance relationship with the singer of "Hey There Delilah". In the same year Jessica Ricca made a version also called "Hey it's Delilah" from Delilah's perspective after the long-distance relationship fell apart, the singer of "Hey There Delilah" had a new girlfriend and Delilah felt heartbroken. As of June 2023, this version has more than 10 million views on YouTube. Two years later Jessica made a second version of her "Hey it's Delilah" to finish Delilah's story with a goodbye song a week before Delilah's wedding to another man.

Also in 2020, American YouTuber Melody Martin made a parody named "Hey Jason Botterill', in which she takes shots at former Buffalo Sabres General Manager Jason Botterill. American rapper Rod Wave interpolated the song on his 2021 single "By Your Side".

In 2023, an AI cover of the song using a vocal model based on Kanye West was brought to mainstream attention.

In 2024, Canadian comedian Snowd4y and fellow Canadian rapper Drake released a rewritten version of the song infused with Toronto slang titled "Wah Gwan Delilah." It was one of Drake's first releases after his feud with Kendrick Lamar and was widely derided on social media. The excessive audio manipulation and poor overall quality of the song led many to falsely believe it was AI-generated, including the Plain White T's who captioned the rendition as leaving them "too stunned to speak;" Plain White T's frontman Tom Higgenson reacted to the cover with confusion, nonetheless remarking that it was "cool, whatever". It sparked wide internet confusion and mockery, and has divided people regarding its authenticity. Drake performed the song live for the first time at labelmate PartyNextDoor's Toronto concert on August 2 later in the year.

Television series

In August 2018, it was announced by the band's frontman and songwriter, Tom Higgenson, that Lively McCabe Entertainment and Primary Wave, along with writer Jeremy Desmon, would be teaming up to develop a potential series based on the band's hit song. Expanding on the story within the song, the series is described as being a romantic dramedy telling the contemporary fairy tale of a long-distance flirtation between a struggling singer-songwriter and a New York City university student. The songwriter pledges to write a song for the young woman on the night they meet, and that promise changes their lives in unexpected ways. The series will be pitched to potential networks and streaming services.

References

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