Hey There Delilah
| "Hey There Delilah" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| B-side | "Easy Way Out" |
"Hey There Delilah" is the third single released from pop band Plain White T's 2005 album All That We Needed. In June 2007, over two years after the song's initial release, it became the band's first mainstream hit in the United States, eventually reaching the top spot 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. After a few days, the version of the song found on Every Second Counts became the number one most downloaded but was eventually replaced by "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston.
Since the song advanced from number 16 to number 6 on the chart it continued to climb one position every week (from 6-5-4-3-2-1), making it the first chart-topping to have this pattern on the Hot 100 in 21 years.[2]
Although "Hey There Delilah" is from the Plain White T's 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.[3]
Inspiration and composition
The song, "Hey There Delilah" was inspired by Delilah DiCrescenzo, a Columbia University graduate, and steeplechase runner training for the 2008 Olympic trials.
There was never a relationship between Tom Higgenson and DiCrescenzo, but Tom was inspired to write a song about her soon after they were introduced by a mutual friend:
There was never anything between us. It was kind of funny — kind of sad, actually. The story of my life... 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...
It took over a year for Tom to write the song. However, the real life Delilah, who wasn't interested in Tom because she was already in a relationship, was not sure how to deal with the pressure of having a song written about her:
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.
DiCrescenzo also says of the song,
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.'
Charts
| Chart (2007) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canadian Hot 100[4] | 1 |
| Europe | 8 |
| Euro Airplay Hot 100 | 4 |
| Germany | 14 |
| Germany Airplay | 3 |
| Austria | 15 |
| Belgian | 5 |
| Croatia | 1 |
| Irish Singles Chart[4] | 2 |
| Italian Singles Chart | 36 |
| Australian Radio Song Addition Chart[5] | 3 |
| Australian Singles Chart[6] | 7 |
| Netherlands Singles Chart[4] | 16 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart[4] | 9 |
| UK Singles Chart[4] | 2 |
| UK Airplay Chart | 1 |
| United World Chart[4] | 6 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100[4] | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Pop 100 | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks | 3 |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40 | 1 |
| Ecuador airplay chart | 1 |
| El Salvador airplay chart | 1 |
| South Africa airplay chart | 9 |
| Norway airplay chart | 7 |
| Singapore airplay chart | 1 |
| Slovenia airplay chart | 10 |
| Turkish Singles Chart | 3[4] |
| Switzerland Singles Chart[4] | 35 |
| Bulgarian | 6
|
Parodies
Playing on Tom Higgenson's admission that he was never in a relationship with Delilah and her stated feelings about the song, parody musician Robert Lund created a "response parody", supposedly written by Delilah's attorney, called "Re: Your Song About My Client Delilah."[7] It has been featured on The Dr. Demento Show[8] and Cinema Blend hailed it as one of the best song parodies since "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy."[9]
An additional take has recently been played on Radio 1 in the UK from an up and coming comedian in the states (Kevin Tor's Stalker Edition). Kevin Tor's verson of the song can be found on his website[10] or directly from his site at.[11][12]
In Vancouver's The Beat 94.5, a parody song titled "Hey There Kid Carson" is somewhat of a self-parody by Carson himself singing to other personalities including a British person in the station that gets aroused by Carson's physique.
A parody version called "Hey There Vagina" debuted on radio station KROQ's Kevin & Bean show, created by Psycho Mike. The station has been prohibited from rerunning the song's audio, but the song can be heard with accompanying images on YouTube.[13]
In August 2007 Bob Rivers released a parody entitled "Hey There Chlamydia." His version was written from the point of view of a man infected with the disease by an anonymous woman from New York City that he named "Chlamydia" after a one-night stand.
On 21/09/2007 Peter Van de Veire released a parodie on the Belgian mainstream radio channel Studio Brussel. His version is a running joke on the current election results and troubles resulting in the formation of a new government. Topic of the song is the supposed new prime minister Yves Leterme. The song titled "Hey Yves Leterme". The song is performed in dutch and received a mass of airtime promoting it into a national anthem reflecting the political situation in the country at that time.
References
- ^ noticiasmusicais.radioativohits.com. "Top 50 Downloads from September 18 to September 25". Retrieved September 28 2007.
- ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/chart_beat/bonus_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003614432
- ^ ultimate-guitar.com. "Plain White T's 'Hey There Delilah' Is Number One". Retrieved July 29 2007.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Plain White T's - Hey There Delilah global chart positions and trajectories". aCharts.us. Retrieved June 30 2007. Cite error: The named reference "acharts" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ http://www.themusicnetwork.com.au/index.php?id=20
- ^ Australian ARIA Top 50 Singles Chart
- ^ http://www.spaff.com/poesy/delilah.html
- ^ http://dmdb.org/cgi-bin/plinfo.pl?drd07.0819.html
- ^ Parody offers Delilah's legal response
- ^ Kevin Tor's Official website
- ^ Official parody MP3
- ^ Official parody video
- ^ YouTube Video of "Hey there Vagina"