"Thinking of You" is a song sung and written by Katy Perry from her second album, One of the Boys. It was released on January 12, 2009 as the third single from the album and charted in countries like the United Kingdom, Netherlands, United States, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and even on France's end of year charts. Perry described the track as her "favorite song" off the record. Perry has said that the song was the first song she wrote. This dates the song to 2002.
Writing and inspiration[]
The song is written by the same ex-boyfriend who is also sung about in the song "I'm Still Breathing". Perry says the song is about a break-up where she has to move on, but she doesn't want to, but she has no choice. She also said in a live show in The Hotel Café that she is over it and said "When I'm with him I am no longer Thinking of You".
Live performances[]
According to Katy Perry, "Thinking of You" was a song she would play often live in The Hotel Café when she was starting out. She added by saying it meant a lot to her because the song is very personal. Perry told Inthenews.co.uk that the song would receive the best response at live shows and bring tears into fans. She explained:
| “ | People do get emotional when they hear that song, because I think a lot of people go through that stuff so it hits them where they remember it happening to them. And it's just me with my guitar, rather than all the pyro and the dancers and the glitter, and I enjoy taking advantage of that, but sometimes it's nice to be able to take all that away and just do what I was put here to do. | ” |
—Katy Perry | ||
Reference in popular culture[]
- In the television series, The Vampire Diaries, the song was used in the background while the characters were at a bar.
- The song was included in the soundtrack to, India, a Love Story, which helped propel the song up the charts in both Brazil and Portugal where the telenovela is shown
- Katy Perry made a brief appearance in the Freeform series Wildfire where she can be seen performing this song in a night club.
Lyrics[]
Comparisons are easily done
Once you've had the taste of perfection
Like an apple hanging from a tree
I pick the ripest one
I still got the seed
You said move on
Where do I go
I guess second best
Is all I will know
'Cause when I'm with him
I am thinking of you
Thinking of you
What you would do if
You were the one
Who was spending the night
Oh I wish that I
Was looking into your eyes
You're like an Indian summer
In the middle of winter
Like a hard candy
With a surprise center
How do I get better
Once I've had the best
You said there's
Tons of fish in the water
So the waters I will test
He kissed my lips
I taste your mouth
He pulled me in
I was disgusted with myself
'Cause when I'm with him
I am thinking of you
Thinking of you
What you would do if
You were the one
Who was spending the night
Oh I wish that I
Was looking into your eyes
You're the best
And yes I do regret
How I could let myself
Let you go
Now the lesson's learned
I touched it I was burned
Oh I think you should know
'Cause when I'm with him
I am thinking of you
Thinking of you
What you would do if
You were the one
Who was spending the night
Oh I wish that I
Was looking into your eyes
Your eyes
Looking into your eyes
Looking into your eyes
Oh won't you walk through
And bust in the door and
Take me away
Oh no more mistakes
'Cause in your eyes I'd like to stay
Stay
Music video[]
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Katy Perry - Thinking Of You
The official video.
Katy Perry - Thinking Of You (Extended Video)
The extended version.
The music video for "Thinking of You" first premiered exclusively on iTunes on December 23, 2008. The video is directed by Melina Matosoukas.
Background[]
Katy Perry first revealed that she was making a second, more official, version of the music video on her blog. The video took two days to film and in the music video Perry swing dances and she says that "she hasn't done it for many, many years". She also cheated saying that she originally always had a vision for this song, and for other songs she doesn't always see it in motion, but this one in particular, she did. She added saying:
| “ | There is a chemistry, and there is a pain and regret and a love, and hopefully you all that you will be able to see and not be like "Oh, this is the 1940's and you know he goes to war and she loses him, and he dies" music video. It's not exactly like that...but I could be a terrible actress... | ” |
—Katy Perry | ||
Sypnosis[]
The music video is set in the 1940's and is about a woman, whose lover dies in France during World War II. The first scene is a woman (played by Katy Perry) walking to an old vanity table in a bedroom. The song starts and Perry opens her drawer, taking out a photograph of her old, soldier lover (played by actor Matt Dallas). She looks behind her to see her second lover (played by model Anderson Davis) still sleeping in her bed. She puts the photograph on the edge of the mirror and starts getting ready to go out by applying perfume. Meanwhile, she has flashbacks of her old lover and a few with her second lover getting dressed while sitting on her bed, looking back to see that her mind is somewhere else. The flashbacks with her old lover are happy ones, one where they are riding on his bike together, with Perry at the front where the basket usually is.
Perry then gets up and walks down the stairs to look out the front window of the house. When she looks out, she sees herself and her old lover riding their bike down the road. As she looks out the window, her second lover comes kissing her from behind and Perry's face is saddened. She has a flashback of a time when she and the old lover went on a picnic together (without food) and just set the blanket up, laying on each other lovingly. She also has another flashback of her new lover and her kissing on the bed together, while she has one about her and her old lover kissing at a bridge before going swimming. An old memory of Perry and her old lover is shown where they are doing the jitterbug at an old-fashioned club, then dancing closely together while everyone else is heading out. During this Katy Perry looks out the window again. She sees a flashback of her boyfriend outside her house, facing the road, looking at her and throws his bag over his shoulder and starts heading down the road, while Perry presses forward the window as if trying to go after him.
Next, we are brought back to the scene of the old fashioned club, where Katy Perry's old lover starts to leave her. She stands there as he heads out, and he stops and makes a half turn to look at her. They just look at each other and he continues to the door and when he does, you see him disappear into thin air.
During the chorus of the song, the video becomes more intense as there are two scenes being shown. One with Perry and her new lover having an "intimate scene" and the other of a black & white, battle scene of Perry's old lover in battle in the war. Katy Perry pushes her lover away, showing that no one could compete with what she had before, and on the other scene her old lover is shot and killed in the war. After Perry is shown sitting at the vanity mirror again, this time with black, funeral clothes on and a hat, applying lipstick. A tear streams down her face. She opens a letter that she received before from the Western Union that says that her old lover has been killed in action in France. She heads out her house and she has one last memory of her old lover, the same one from the club, he is smiling at her and walks out. Perry is shown again and after the last lines of the song are sung, she starts to walk down the road to her old lover's funeral.
Versions[]
Director's cut[]
A extended version of the music video was released onto Katy Perry's MySpace shortly after the mainstream version of the video released. This one shows more scenes of Perry and her first romance. Parts of the song are replaced by the instrumental with a jazz interlude played during the sock hop. This version was released on YouTube on April 16, 2012.
Original version[]
The first music video was released in 2007 and surfaced on YouTube in April 2008. Directed by Walter May, the video features Perry in two rooms: a white room in which Perry is happily in a relationship and a dark room with an unhappy Perry showing signs of regret. In the dark room, Perry smokes a cigarette as a man dressed in a suit sits beside her. Soon after, another woman enters and pushes Perry off to the side. Back in the white room, Perry sips red wine as her lover undresses beside her, while Perry's hands are wet with blood and there is blood on the bedsheets. The video ends with the revelation that Perry stabbed her lover in the white room in the back, as she sings tearfully while covered in blood before the shot spans to the side, showing the knife on the floor. The video uses a cross-cutting technique that compares the two relationships. Perry stated that the aim of the video was never to get a commercial release, but that it is just a simple video "made by a friend".
Credits[]
Music video[]
- Katy Perry — herself
- Perry's true love — Matt Dallas
- Perry's second love — Anderson Davis
References[]
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