Hey There Delilah

"Hey There Delilah"
Single by Plain White T's
from the album All That We Needed and Every Second Counts
B-side	"Easy Way Out"
Released	May 9, 2006
Format	CD single, digital download
Recorded	May 2004
Genre	Acoustic, indie pop
Length	3:52
Label	Hollywood, Fearless
Writer(s)	Tom Higgenson
Producer	Ariel Rechtshaid
Certification	3x Platinum (RIAA) 3x Platinum (CRIA)
Plain White T's singles chronology
"Take Me Away" (2005) "Hey There Delilah" (2006) "Hate (I Really Don't Like You)" (2006)

"Hey There Delilah", written by Tom Higgenson, is the third single released from the band Plain White T's 2005 album All That We Needed. In June 2007, over two years after the song's release, it became the band's first hit in the United States, eventually reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July. From July 3, 2007 through July 28, the song was the number one most played song on the radio, and the number one downloaded song on the U.S. iTunes Music Store. Since its release, "Hey There Delilah" has been covered by many artists worldwide in one form or another. Since release, it has sold over 4,000,000 digital copies in the US alone.

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

Although "Hey There Delilah" is from the Plain White Ts' third album, All That We Needed, since the single's popularity new versions of the intervening fourth album, Every Second Counts, have "Hey There Delilah" added as a bonus track with a string section augmenting the original recording. The music video for the song was directed by Jay Martin.

The song was written after Higgenson met Delilah DiCrescenzo, a nationally ranked American steeplechase and cross country runner.

Critical reaction

Time magazine named "Hey There Delilah" one of The 10 Best Songs of 2007, ranking it at #7. 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."

The song was a double 2008 Grammy Award nominee, for 2007 Song of the Year (won by Amy Winehouse) and 2007 Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (won by Maroon 5). Though the two never dated, the real Delilah attended the Grammy Award show that year as the guest of Tom Higgenson, the song's writer.

On VH1's Top 40 Videos of 2007, "Hey There Delilah" was #8, ahead of "If Everyone Cared" by Nickelback and behind "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado.

Cover versions

• The British girl group Sugababes covered the song during a BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge show. The song was recorded and listed as a B-side on their single "Denial".* The German group The Baseballs covered the song in rockabilly style for their debut album Strike! in 2009.
• The Los Angeles based Vitamin String Quartet covered the song.
• The Synthpop band Go Persicope has covered the song.

Live cover performances

• Concert pianist Marrina Waks also covered this song in a broad array of styles on piano.
• American Idol contestant Ju'not Joyner covered this song on the March 3rd, 2009 episode of the show. Jamar Rogers covered the song during Hollywood week. Jimmy Kennedy covered the song during the New York/New Jersey Auditions 2 years later. In all three cases, this song was the contestant's last performance before being eliminated.
• Louis Tomlinson - who would later become a member of boyband One Direction - covered the song during the audition stage of The X Factor.
• Sesame Street, Covered as "The Letter T" song, using the same music but different lyrics with some derived from the original

Remixes & sampling

• Rapper Tyga did a remix of the song.
• Chuck Inglish from hip hop group The Cool Kids created a remix which includes lots of percussion and instruments, but does not actually have him using lyrics of his own on the song.
• Danse Daimons made the official remix and re-made parts of the video in 2007. The remix is a hip hop remix and he raps from the perspective of the "other man" in Tom and Delilah's relationship and implies he is the reason Delilah left Tom.

Parodies

The song's clichéd lyrics and simple structure have made it the target of numerous parodies.

• One of the more popular examples is Robert Lund and M. Spaff Sumsion's "Re: Your Song About My Client Delilah", which takes the form of a cease-and-desist letter to Tom Higgenson from Delilah's attorney. Cinema Blend called it one of the best song parodies since "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy". Dr. Demento named it one of his top ten songs of 2007.
• Another popular parody surfaced in October 2008; former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin appeared on YouTube. "Hey Sarah Palin", by MC Howie and Julie K, uses the melody of this song.
• In an animated segment for Sesame Street, the song is parodied by three animated white letter T's - a reference to the band's name - singing about themselves. Tom Higgenson provides the voice for the song.
• Another parody with over 2 million YouTube views is a song called "Hey There Vagina" written and performed by Psycho Mike. It was the most requested song on KROQ-FM for a week in June 2007, until it was pulled from the air by station lawyers.
• Eben Brooks' "Hey There Cthulhu" sings in praise of one of the best known of the Deep Ones from H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.

Charts

Chart (2007)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	3
Austrian Singles Chart	2
Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart	2
Canadian Hot 100	1
Dutch Singles Chart	8
Eurochart Hot 100 Singles	1
German Singles Chart	1
Italian Singles Chart	14
Irish Singles Chart	2
New Zealand Singles Chart	9
Norwegian Singles Chart	15
Swedish Singles Chart	6
Swiss Singles Chart	9
UK Singles Chart	2
US Billboard Hot 100	1
US Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks	1
US Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks	3
US Billboard Pop 100	1

Year-end charts

Chart (2007)	Rank
German Singles Chart	23
Chart (2008)	Rank
German Singles Chart	96

Decade-end charts

Chart (2000–2009)	Rank
US Billboard Hot 100	97

Certifications

Country	Certification	Date	Quantity certified
Germany	1× Gold	2007	150,000
USA	3× Platinum	2011	3,000,000

See also

• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 2007 (U.S.)
• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 2007 (Canada)
• List of number-one hits of 2007 (Germany)
• List of European number-one hits of 2007

External links

• "Hey There Delilah" music video on YouTube