The Story Behind Adele's "Someone Like You"

As a songwriter myself I've always felt that one of the best indicators of how talented artists really are is, What can they do with just one instrument and their voice? No rhythm section, no strings, no synthesizer... nothing. Just you and your instrument. I can think of several superb examples over the years, such as Simon and Garfunkel's "For Emily, wherever I may find her", Elton John's "Talking old soldiers", and Cat Stevens' "Sweet Scarlet". But these and other examples have just been trumped by Adele's smash hit "Someone like you".

How successful was this song? Try this out: it is the only song in the entire history of the Billboard Hot 100 charts that consists of just a piano and a vocal to ever hit the number one spot. Over a thousand songs have hit #1 since Billboard began keeping track in 1958. Adele's is the first of its kind to reach the top.

So what was behind this groundbreaking ballad? We know that Adele ended an eighteen month-long relationship with a 30-year old man whom she was convinced she would marry and that this breakup inspired her two other hits, "Rolling in the Deep" and "Rumour has it". Sadly (or perhaps not, considering how many copies it sold), the same doomed romance inspired "Someone like you" as well.

But now there was a new added twist. Her ex had become engaged to another woman a few months after leaving Adele. As she herself put it in an interview, "... when I found out that he does want that (marriage) with someone else, it was just the horrible-est feeling ever. But after I wrote it, I felt more at peace. It set me free. I'm wiser in my songs. My words are always what I can never say (in real life). But I didn't think it would resonate... with the world! I'm never gonna write a song like that again. I think that's the song I'll be known for." In her imagination she saw herself as middle-aged and still single, looking up her ex years later only to find that he married someone beautiful, had children, and was living 'happily ever after'.

She co-wrote the song with Dan Wilson of Semisonic fame. But her contribution to the song didn't exactly arrive easily: "I wrote that song on the end of my bed. I had a cold. I was waiting for my bath to run. I'd found out he'd got engaged. And it blows my mind how things cross over like that." Perhaps more songwriters should contract viral syndromes.

She and Wilson recorded a "demo" of just her voice and Wilson playing the piano, expecting that co-producer Rick Rubin would add strings and choirs to turn it into a lush, vast ballad. Instead as insiders listened to it and were consistently brought to tears the duo decided to keep their first-draft "demo" instead.

Incidentally, that's not the first time something like that has happened. Bruce Springsteen's haunting 1982 acoustic record "Nebraska" was mastered straight from a cassette full of demos that the Boss kept in his pocket (without a case) while the E Street Band played the stuffing out of all the songs. Only later did everyone, including Springsteen, come to realize that the cassette in his back pocket was the best version.

Regardless of how it was recorded, give credit where credit is due. Heavy instrumentation would probably only have diluted the power of Adele's emotional vocal. Some things, wisely, should be left well enough alone.

If you liked the songs from Adele's "21" then you can click here to download a free rock song.