"Not Like the Movies" is a song written by Katy Perry and Greg Wells for Perry's sophomore mainstream album, Teenage Dream. Although the song was the first to be written for the album, Perry had the piano riff since she was 19 [1]. Perry said the song was written about her relationship with British comedian, Russell Brand, and wrote the song a month after Brand and her started dating[2]. The song was the first promotional single to be released for the "Countdown to Katy Perry's Teenage Dream".
In an interview with YouTube about the album in August 2010, Perry revealed that the song was written after she finished her Hello Katy Tour. Production and additional writing to song were done by Greg Wells, who previously worked with the Perry on her second studio album, One of the Boys. Perry considers it to be like that of a two-part song because she had started working on "Not Like the Movies" before she met Russell Brand, and completed it after they began dating. She stated it is a "really special" song to her because, at the first part of the track, it is a story that she needed to let out, which was claiming to know something that you do not actually know. Perry later expressed relief at being able to put all of her feelings into the song. The song is also a message to girls to wait for their true love, "We [girls] talk ourselves into situations because either we don't have the patience, or we don't feel like we could deserve something better, or we can't even fathom or imagine it would be perfect, or like a fairy tale kinda like the movies."[3]
He put it on me, I put it on
Like there was nothing wrong
It didn't fit
It wasn't right
Wasn't just the size
They say you know
When you know
I don't know
I didn't feel
The fairytale feeling, no
Am I a stupid girl
For even dreaming that I could
If it's not like the movies,
That's how it should be, yeah
When he's the one
I'll come undone
And my world will stop spinning
And that's just the beginning, yeah
Snow white said when I was young,
"One day my prince will come"
So I wait for that date
They say its hard to meet your match
Find my better half
So we make perfect shapes
If stars don't align
If it doesn't stop time
If you can't see the sign
Wait for it
One hundred percent
With every penny spent
He'll be the one that
Finishes your sentences
If it's not like the movies
That's how it should be
When he's the one
He'll come undone
And my world will stop spinning
And that's just the beginning
'Cause I know you're out there
And your, your love came for me
It's a crazy idea that you were made
Perfectly for me you'll see
Just like the movies
That's how it will be
Cinematic and dramatic with the perfect ending
Oh it's not like the movies
Oh but that's how it will be
When he's the one
You'll come undone
And your world will stop spinning
And it's just the beginning
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