Heartstrings

The title track of Leighton Meester's debut album, she explained during a Q&A and performance in New York what makes this personal cut so important. "The song 'Heartstrings' is really special to me. It's really more of a very visual: It represents the feeling of the rest of the record," she said. "It's about hiding your feelings and smiling and pretending that you're happy when you're not." "Actually, I'd say that it represents most of the record, because that's what it's about," Meester added. "It's about just sort of tying your heartstrings off - not allowing yourself to be vulnerable."

Jeff Trott, known for his longtime collaboration with Sheryl Crow, came on board as producer for the Heartstrings album. In his Songfacts interview, he explained how he helped Leighton shape her original songs: "She came to me with a bunch of songs that basically just had verses and choruses, but no middle section or a bridge. I would just suggest things like a bridge would be great here, or some kind of instrumental section. Or hey, you could say a lot more in this section. So then she was just like, well why don't you write one, and then I would just write a bridge. So that's kind of how I collaborated with Leighton on her record. Not at the beginning of writing the song initially, but after the fact."