In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing each single #1 single within the historical past of the Billboard Hot 100, beginning with the chart’s starting, in 1958, and dealing my manner up into the current.
The delicate white man with the acoustic guitar won’t ever, ever die. Sensitive white guys have been selecting up acoustic guitars for many years and many years. The archetype has been round, on the very least, for the reason that ’50s people revival, although god is aware of it would’ve already been a cliché by then. In the ’60s and ’70s, delicate white guys with acoustic guitars turned pop titans: Donovan, Paul Simon, James Taylor. (Bob Dylan was the prototype for all these guys, however Dylan was by no means particularly delicate.)
This century, delicate white guys with acoustic guitars are not on the cultural vanguard. But one thing humorous occurred to that archetype within the ’00s. During the George W. Bush administration, just a few delicate white guys with acoustic guitars made chart-topping hits. But these delicate white guys tended to be one-hit wonders, and their hits have been goofy little cultural blips that would simply be dismissed as novelties. That’s what occurred with James Blunt, with Daniel Powter, and with Plain White T’s.
Some caveats right here: James Blunt wasn’t a one-hit marvel in his native UK, although he definitely was one right here. Blunt served within the navy, so he may not be that delicate — although he did inform tales about taking part in his acoustic guitar whereas using round on high of a tank, a very unbearable picture which may additionally characterize a terrifying new mutation of the delicate white man with acoustic guitar sort. Daniel Powter performs piano, not guitar, although he’s nonetheless a delicate white man with an acoustic guitar at coronary heart. And Plain White T’s are a super-polished pop-punk band, not an acoustic-guitar state of affairs. But “Hey There Delilah,” the band’s one hit, is a whole delicate acoustic-guitar white-guy tune. It could be that decade’s purest instance of the shape.
Think of it. It’s all there — the fundamental fingerpicking with the tender string association, the wounded cracking of the voice, the deeply goofy lovelorn lyrics that go for romanticism however come off a bit of deluded and jerky while you actually take into consideration them. “Hey There Delilah” was a random-ass stealth hit that took years to climb the Hot 100. Once upon a time, that was Paul Simon’s story. In a earlier period, a tune like that would’ve turned Plain White T’s chief Tom Higgenson into an precise star. But “Hey There Delilah” got here out in 2005 and topped the Hot 100 in 2007, and it’s additionally not an excellent tune. Higgenson by no means stood an opportunity.
There actually is a Delilah. Delilah DiCrescenzo is knowledgeable distance runner who was by no means, ever romantically concerned with Tom Higgenson or, for that matter, with some other Plain White T’s. Higgenson met DiCrescenzo on the Chicago House Of Blues in 2002. She was a pupil at Columbia in New York, and a mutual good friend launched her to Higgenson when she was again house on break. Higgenson was immediately smitten, and he informed DiCrescenzo that he’d write her a tune. She had a boyfriend, and he or she wasn’t . Some time later, Higgenson dropped a CD off at DiCrescenzo’s home and informed her to hearken to it after he left. She did, and he or she heard “Hey There Delilah” for the primary time. She was flattered, however she nonetheless wasn’t .
Tom Higgenson grew up within the Chicago suburb of Lombard, and he shaped Plain White T’s with some highschool associates in 1997. (Rod Stewart’s “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” was the #1 tune in America when Higgenson was born.) I don’t know why Higgenson picked Plain White T’s as his band identify, however that call may’ve value him a fortune in merch cash. Why would anybody purchase a T-shirt with “Plain White T’s” written on it after they may simply purchase an precise plain white tee?
This was again earlier than Fall Out Boy was a factor, however late-’90s Chicago was already filled with pop-punk bands who went for large, melodic emotion. If you hearken to Plain White T’s’ self-released 2000 debut Come On Over, you possibly can hear these children taking pictures for a softer, extra wistful model of the energetic tunefulness that scene elders like Alkaline Trio and the Lawrence Arms had already nailed.
Plain White T’s went via a bunch of lineup modifications over time, and so they have been largely a neighborhood Chicago band till 2002. That’s after they signed with Fearless Records, a California indie that specialised in pop-punk and launched early data from bands like At The Drive-In and Portugal. The Man. Fearless launched Plain White T’s’ sophomore LP Stop. I don’t know when Tom Higgenson acquired the shaggy, floppy haircut that may all the time be related to ’00s emo, however he undoubtedly had it when Plain White T’s began making movies.
In 2005, Plain White T’s launched All That We Needed, their second album on Fearless. Sean O’Keefe, one of many producers of that document, was a Chicago man who’d grow to be an enormous deal in the entire emo world. O’Keefe had already produced profitable albums for Fall Out Boy, Motion City Soundtrack, and Hawthorne Heights. Those bands represented a complete new wave of wordy, pop-friendly guitar music that turned a grassroots teenage phenomenon within the mid-’00s. Suddenly, a sure sort of band was turning into massively common, seemingly in a single day. The denims have been tight, the haircuts have been feathery, the T-shirts have been extra-medium, and the lyrics have been often about treacherous ex-girlfriends.
The complete MyArea emo wave was in all probability the final time that aggressive, guitar-driven rock-band music achieved any form of centrality in youth tradition. Emo acts like Jimmy Eat World and Dashboard Confessional had lots of success within the early ’00s, however 2005 was the yr that the wave actually crested. That’s when Fall Out Boy, a Chicago band that later took Plain White T’s on tour, launched their breakout album From Under The Cork Tree. That yr, Fall Out Boy’s anthemic single “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” made it to #8. (It’s a ten.) Sean O’Keefe didn’t produce From Under The Cork Tree, however his involvement nonetheless put Plain White T’s in good firm.
The different producer who labored on Plain White T’s’ All That We Needed was Ariel Rechtshaid, the previous chief of a Los Angeles ska-punk band known as the Hippos. By 2005, Rechtshaid was taking part in bass within the indie rock band Foreign Born. He was fairly new to manufacturing on the time, although he’d labored on New Jersey emo band Armor For Sleep’s 2003 debut. O’Keefe and Rechtshaid each knew what they have been doing, and most of All That We Needed is a cleaner, extra radio-friendly model of the pop-punk that Plain White T’s has already been making. The single “Take Me Away,” which appears like junior-varsity Jimmy Eat World, is fairly typical of the entire document.
On its last monitor, although, All That We Needed takes a flip. That’s once we get “Hey There Delilah,” the one acoustic ballad on the LP. Tom Higgenson wrote that tune about Delilah DiCrescenzo, however the tune depicts a complete fictional and fantastical situation the place they’re truly collectively. On “Hey There Delilah,” Higgenson imagines himself in a long-distance relationship with Delilah. He’s in Chicago, and he or she’s in New York, however they’re nonetheless collectively in spirit: “Hey there Delilah, don’t you worry about the distance/ I’m right there if you get lonely, give this song another listen.”
Tom Higgenson guarantees that he’ll ultimately “pay the bills with this guitar,” and he appears to be like ahead to the day when Delilah leaves New York for good: “Hey there Delilah, you be good, and don’t you miss me/ Two more years and you’ll be done with school/ And I’ll be making history like I do.” What the fuck is that line? He’ll be making historical past? Relax, buddy. Knowing what I do know in regards to the tune’s genesis, I think about “Hey There Delilah” as Higgenson’s last-ditch try and impress this lady and win her away from her boyfriend; the lyrics even have Higgenson describing the impact that he desires his music to have on her: “If every simple song I wrote to you would take your breath away, I’d write it all/ Even more in love with me, you’d fall.”
If Tom Higgenson’s purpose was to woo Delilah DiCrescenzo, “Hey There Delilah” didn’t work. In a 2013 ESPN interview, Delilah talks about how she felt when she heard “Hey There Delilah”: “My first thought: ‘Oh no! Did I lead Tom on?’ I became anxious.” Delilah actually anxious that she’d given Tom Higgenson the mistaken impression. If she’d been pissed off about his flights of lyrical fancy about her, she would’ve been justified. The refrain of “Hey There Delilah” is simply Higgenson repeating the phrase “oh, it’s what you do to me” time and again. In that ESPN interview, Delilah says that her father heard the tune and requested, “Delilah, exactly what did you do to this guy?”
I can form of see why folks could be drawn to “Hey There Delilah.” The tune is plainspoken and particular — the unusual first identify and the New York references give the impression that Tom Higgenson is speaking to an actual particular person. One line offers him away, although: “Times Square can’t shine as bright as you.” Within their first month on the town, New York school college students study to react with abject disgust every time an out-of-towner a lot as mentions Times Square. If “Hey There Delilah” got here out right now, possibly Higgenson would sub in “Dimes Square.”
“Hey There Delilah” has a easy, memorable melody, and it stands out — from the remainder of the Plain White T’s album, from the remainder of the 2005 emo class, and from the remainder of the stuff that was on the radio on the time. But I consider the tune as being profoundly wimpy, largely for the best way that Higgenson’s voice theatrically creaks all through the tune, as if he’s too emotionally overcome to sing correctly. The tune is pretty inoffensive. I by no means hated it, however I did discover it boring and simply barely off-putting.
At first, “Hey There Delilah” was simply an album nearer. When Ariel Rechtshaid recorded the monitor, he didn’t suppose an excessive amount of about it. Rechtshaid later informed Sound On Sound, “I remember recording the vocals and the guitar separately, trying to make it sound like it was happening live — a very simple Beatles-y/Simon & Garfunkel kind of thing. I left it at that.” But “Hey There Delilah” picked up steam. It turned an enormous singalong at Plain White T’s reveals. In 2006, Fearless launched Hey There Delilah EP with just a few unreleased tracks and a dwell model of the tune. On the dwell model, the group nearly drowns Tom Higgenson out.
In 2006, Plain White T’s signed with the Disney-owned main label Hollywood Records, and so they launched their album Every Second Counts a yr later. At that time, Plain White T’s have been certainly one of about one million emo bands who have been surging in recognition. Every Second Counts largely sounds even cleaner than All That We Needed, and Hollywood gave the band sufficient juice to cross over. Their lead single, the nasty post-breakup rage-out “Hate (I Really Don’t Like You)” turned Plain White T’s’ first Hot 100 hit, peaking at #68.
But “Hey There Delilah” was the key weapon. A few All That We Needed tracks reappear on the finish of Every Second Counts, and certainly one of them is “Hey There Delilah.” Plain White T’s made a “Hey There Delilah” video, with Tom Higgenson taking part in his acoustic guitar in an empty room and a mannequin, taking part in Delilah, swanning round New York. The tune began to catch on, and Ariel Rechtshaid remembers when it blew up: “All of a sudden, I started hearing it on the radio and thinking, ‘Is that even the same recording that I did?’ It was such a distant memory at that point. I kind of assumed that they’d re-recorded it. But it turned out that it was the same recording, and it came back to life and became a #1.”
Imagine how Delilah DiCrescenzo felt. At the time, she informed USA Today, “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.” For some time, she didn’t inform anybody that she was the Delilah of the tune. Later, she informed ESPN, “I was nervous that I’d let Tom’s fans down. They’d be disappointed to hear I have a boyfriend. Every girl would want a song written about her, and they’d think I was ungrateful and rude to deny Tom. I felt pressure to live up to those expectations.” Yikes.
Eventually, certainly one of Delilah DiCrescenzo’s associates volunteered her for a radio interview. She didn’t wish to admit that she was the Delilah, however she went together with it. Soon, Delilah was doing interviews all over; she later mentioned that the entire course of in all probability distracted her from her working. (Delilah made the 2008 Olympic trials, however she didn’t make the reduce for the precise Olympic group.) Delilah wished to carry publicity to her sport, and he or she additionally wished to reassure her boyfriend that he didn’t have to really feel jealous. Those interviews may’ve helped Delilah to get a Puma sponsorship, and so they may’ve additionally helped push the tune to #1.
Ultimately, “Hey There Delilah” was the one tune from the entire mid-’00s emo wave that went all the best way to #1. Other bands acquired larger and scored extra hits; just a few of them — Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Paramore — can nonetheless fill arenas now. But “Hey There Delilah” had the benefit of not sounding like an emo tune — of not having any audible punk affect in any respect. It gave the impression of Starbucks music, like Grey’s Anatomy music. The world accepted “Hey There Delilah” the identical manner that it had accepted James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” and Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day.”
Plain White T’s toured arenas within the fall of 2007, however they did it as certainly one of Fall Out Boy’s opening acts. (I went to that tour when it got here to Madison Square Garden, however I missed Plain White T’s, and I used to be OK with that.) Every Second Counts went gold, and the “Hey There Delilah” single ultimately went quadruple platinum. The band’s follow-up single “Our Time Now” peaked at #90. Maybe that tune title was a bit of untimely.
“Hey There Delilah” acquired nominated for a few Grammys, together with Song Of The Year, which it misplaced to Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab.” (“Rehab” peaked at #9. It’s a 9.) Delilah DiCrescenzo acquired her boyfriend’s blessing, and he or she went to the Grammys with Plain White T’s. Later, she informed ESPN, “It was so much fun, despite being so out of my element. I swapped my sports bra and running shoes for a glamorous dress and expensive jewelry that, unfortunately, I had to return.”
Plain White T’s have been by no means going to get wherever close to the extent of “Hey There Delilah” once more, however they stored making music, and so they notched up a pair extra minor hits. In 2008, they acquired to #34 with “1, 2, 3, 4,” the folksy single from their follow-up album Big Bad World. In 2010, “Rhythm Of Love,” one other cutesy acoustic tune, made it to #38. Both “1, 2, 3, 4” and “Rhythm Of Love” gave the impression of makes an attempt to recapture what they’d already completed with “Hey There Delilah.” Both of them failed, however each not less than made the pop charts. Plain White T’s haven’t been again on the Hot 100 since.
After co-producing “Hey There Delilah,” Sean O’Keefe stored working, and he teamed again up with Fall Out Boy for his or her 2018 EP Lake Effect Kid. Ariel Rechtshaid went on to work with a bunch of thrilling indie varieties: Cass McCombs, Glasser, Blood Orange. In 2012, Rechtshaid co-produced “Climax,” a masterpiece of a single from Usher, a man who’s been on this column a bunch of instances. (“Climax” peaked at #17.)
In 2013, Ariel Rechtshaid labored on a bunch of the yr’s finest albums: Sky Ferreira’s Night Time, My Time, Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires Of The City, Haim’s Days Are Gone, Solange’s True. At the tip of that yr, I interviewed Rechtshaid for Stereogum, and I assumed he was cool as hell. Rechtshaid even humored me once I requested him if he was nonetheless spending that “Hey There Delilah” cash. His reply: “No, that well has run dry. Maybe if I’d written it.” Rechtshaid has continued to do nice work since then; simply final month, he had a credit score on the Caroline Polachek album.
I don’t know if Tom Higgenson continues to be spending that “Hey There Delilah” cash. Plain White T’s are nonetheless going, although Higgenson is the one remaining unique member. The band ultimately parted methods with Hollywood Records, and so they returned to their previous label Fearless for his or her most up-to-date LP, 2018’s Parallel Universe. In 2018, Higgenson was additionally speaking about growing a “Hey There Delilah” TV present, adapting the tune right into a scripted romantic dramedy. I haven’t heard something in regards to the TV present since then; I’m wondering how Delilah DiCrescenzo will really feel in regards to the present if it ever comes out. Later this yr, Plain White T’s will play the second version of When We Were Young, the Las Vegas emo nostalgia-fest. That looks as if the suitable place for them.
After “Hey There Delilah,” extra delicate white guys with acoustic guitars would come alongside, and a few of them would even grow to be main stars. This column will ultimately need to take care of the entire Ed Sheeran state of affairs.
GRADE: 4/10