Hey There Delilah

Delilah is Delilah DiCrescenzo, a steeplechase runner Plain White T's lead singer Tom Higgenson met through a friend. He thought she was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. "I was like, 'Well, all right, I've got to write a song for this girl,'" he told Songfacts. "I literally started playing it. The first verse just poured out exactly as it is, all the way through to the chorus. I didn't really know the girl, you know? So, it was like, 'What's it like in New York City? Tonight, you look so pretty'" Higgenson didn't get the girl - Delilah was dating somebody and wasn't interested - but he did get a hit song out of the encounter.

The song tells the story of a girl and a boy in a long distance relationship who talk about their future plans - she'll finish and he'll be a rock star. Higgenson hashed out the song over a six-month period after meeting Delilah. "I just had to make up the rest of it," he said. "If I was in this long-distance relationship with somebody, what would I want to say? What would those emotions be?"

This ballad was a huge hit for Plain White T's, but it is not indicative of their sound, which leans into the louder pop-punk realm. They didn't start playing it live until it was featured on Myspace, which was huge at the time; after seeing the band on the 2005 Warped Tour, Myspace owner Tom Anderson featured them on the site. Droves of Myspacers made "Hey There Delilah" their profile song, which is when the band started performing it in concert. They were surprised when crowds loved it and sang the words back to them.