Til I Hear It From You

The music industry trade magazine Billboard called this "The closest thing to a perfect pop song to hit radio in recent memory," a sentiment appreciated by the band's guitarist, Jesse Valenzuela. "This song reminds me why I work. I can count on hearing it in grocery stores, and I like playing it," he said in a Songfacts interview. "It's really nice pop perfection, and just saccharin enough. As an artist, you have to start realizing what you do carries some value, even monetarily. And this song is a pretty big one for me to help me realize that this is what I'll do for a living from now on. And how lucky I am - because it's all I really love doing, and I get to do it all the time."

Gin Blossoms lead singer Robin Wilson wrote the lyrics to this song. The music was composed by the band's guitarist Jesse Valenzuela with help from Marshall Crenshaw, most famous for his 1982 hit "Someday, Someway." Crenshaw told Songfacts that he and Valenzuela didn't know each other, but Jesse tracked him down to help finish the song. Crenshaw wrote the verse melody and worked on the ending.

This song has a "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" theme where the guy hears secondhand that his girl is about to leave him. In this case, chooses not to believe it until he hears it from her directly.