"Best Friend's Brother" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter

Victoria Justice Victoria Dawn Justice (born February 19, 1993) is an American actress and singer. She has received several accolades, including two Young Artist Awards and nominations for three Imagen Awards, an NAACP Image Award, and three Kids' Choice Awar ...

, billed as Cast of ''

Victorious ''Victorious'' (stylized as ''VICTORiOUS'') is an American sitcom created by Dan Schneider (TV producer), Dan Schneider that originally aired on Nickelodeon, debuting on March 27, 2010, and concluding on February 2, 2013 after four seasons. Th ...

'' featuring Victoria Justice. It was produced by

Kool Kojak Allan P. Grigg, better known by his stage name Kool Kojak and stylized as "KoOoLkOjAk", is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, composer, and artist notable for music in '' Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse'', co-writing and co-prod ...

, who also co-wrote the song with

Savan Kotecha Savan Harish Kotecha is an American songwriter and record producer from Austin, Texas. Kotecha is of Indian (Gujarati) descent. He was also the executive music producer of the 2020 film '' Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga'', for ...

and

, for '' Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show'' (2011), the soundtrack to the Nickelodeon television series, ''

''. It was released as the album's third single on May 20, 2011 through

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

in association with

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

. Musically, the song runs through an

electropop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...

oriented

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

beat with teen pop lyrics, and the lyrics speak of a girl's crush on her best friend's brother. The song was met with generally positive reviews from critics, with the majority of them praising its message and aggressive sound. "Best Friend's Brother" charted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number eighty six, remaining as the third highest peaking song from the soundtrack. The accompanying music video portrays Justice dreaming of attracting her best friend's brother while her best friend remains oblivious to the attraction.

Background

"Best Friend's Brother" is the third single released from the soundtrack '' Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show'' (2011), for the television series of the same name on Nickelodeon. It was first heard on the series's second season episode, "Prom Wrecker", which premiered on May 21, 2011 in North America, a day after the single's release. At the Avalon Theater concert night (where she also performed the song), Justice stated that the song was one of her favorites. The song was performed by Justice with backup vocals from

Ariana Grande Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her four-octave vocal range has received critical acclaim, and her personal life has been the subject of widespread media attention. She has received ...

and additional instruments by Leon Thomas III in the episode. The scene where the song was performed features Justice, Grande and Thomas performing at the prom. While on the stage at the end of the episode, rain starts pouring down on them and they continue performing. The song was written by Allan Grigg,

, and

. Grigg also produced the track along with providing all the instruments and programming for it. The mixing for the song was provided by Greg Wells took place at Rocket Carousel in Los Angeles, California with the engineering provided by Mighty Mike Garity at Westlake Studios and Mound Studios, both of which are also in Los Angeles.

Composition

"Best Friend's Brother" is an

song that contains influences of teen pop and

dance-pop Dance-pop is a popular music subgenre that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a ...

. The song runs through a dance-oriented beat and features a rougher sound than the previous single, "

Beggin' on Your Knees "Beggin' on Your Knees" is a song performed by the ''Victorious'' cast featuring American singer Victoria Justice. It was produced by Kristian Lundin and Shellback, who also co-wrote the song with Savan Kotecha, for '' Victorious: Music from th ...

". The theme of this song is center around exploring emotions and managing friendships. The lyrics are about a girl who has a crush on her best friend's older brother, and even though the girl wants to pursue a relationship with him, she doesn't want to jeopardize her friendship with her best friend. While being interviewed by Neha Gandhi for ''

Seventeen Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18 * one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017 Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine * ''Seventeen'' (Japanese m ...

'', Justice discussed the background story for the song:

When I was around 14 years old, in 8th grade, I had this crush on my best friend’s brother. He was two years older than me. It was one of those things where I would go over her house and we would all play '' Halo 2'' together and go swimming in the pool and stuff. I think we both had little crushes on each other, but it never went anywhere. If it had, it would have been really weird. I wouldn’t have been willing to risk my friendship for dating her brother. Friendship is always more important.

Critical reception

Jessica Dawson of ''Commonsensemedia'', the website that rates music for parents approval for children's listening, rated the song three out of five stars, praising its positive message, stating "Although she has a crush on her BF's brother, she doesn't act on it, for the sake of her friend. It's harmless flirting." ''Idolator'' praised the song, stating "Victoria might be perplexed about the awkward sitch with her bestie, but we're banging our heads to this fist-pumping tune. It's a little rougher and tougher than Victoria's last jam, 'Beggin' on Your Knees'. In fact, it reminds us of something Pink might record if she was a lovelorn teen."

Chart performance

"Best Friend's Brother" debuted at number 93 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on the June 18, 2011 chart. The next week it climbed to number 86.

Music video

The music video for the song was released on May 28, 2011 and shows the story of a girl who is passionate about her best friend's brother, and who dreams of having a chance to be alone with him. As the song describes him, the boy is six-foot and three inches tall, and is the drummer of a punk rock band. He is muscular, tan skinned, raven haired, and wears black leather vests over white t shirts. In the first part of the video, we see Victoria and her best friend apparently studying in her friend's bedroom. Victoria leaves to fetch a glass of water in the kitchen, passing her best friend's brother, played by actor/model

Daniel Romer Daniel Romer a.k.a. Danny Romer (born April 1990, Las Vegas, Nevada) is an American actor and model. He has several international modeling campaigns to his name. He is known for his role in ''The Young and the Restless'' as Kieran Donnally, the ...

who is sitting in the living room. Once in the kitchen, she begins to "daydream" and imagines herself sliding into the living room with her socks on the hardwood floor. Victoria is now wearing an oversized oxford shirt and hot pants in an homage to the

Tom Cruise Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Gol ...

film ''

Risky Business ''Risky Business'' is a 1983 American teen comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Brickman (in his directorial debut) and starring Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. Best known as Cruise's breakout film, ''Risky Business'' was a critical ...

'' as she swings her hair, dances, and sings to the enthusiastic boy. In the second sequence we see Victoria parked outside of the house, text messaging her friend to tell her she has arrived. She then catches a glimpse of the boy's bandmates leaving his garage. The next moment, she has another dream in which she sings on top of the car on the street and he plays drums. The climax of the video takes place in a pizzeria, where Victoria dances to the chorus of the song, when her crush walks up to her and holds her hands, confessing his feelings for her.

Performances

Justice, alongside her co-stars,

and Leon Thomas III, performed the song on a ''Victorious'' episode, " Prom Wrecker". She also performed the song at the Avalon concert night.

Credits and personnel

Credits are taken from ''Victorious''

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

. *

– vocals, songwriting *

- backup vocals * Leon Thomas III - backup vocals, guitar * Allan Grigg – songwriting, production, programming, instrumentation *

– songwriting *

Greg Wells Greg Wells is a Canadian musician, record producer, songwriter and audio engineer. Wells has songs on over 130 million albums sold. He has worked with John Legend, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ariana Grande, Jazmine Sullivan, Kid Cudi, Adele, Rufus Wai ...

– mixing *Mighty Mike Garity – engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{authority control 2011 songs 2011 singles Columbia Records singles Song recordings produced by Kool Kojak Songs from television series Songs written by Kool Kojak Songs written by Savan Kotecha Songs written by Victoria Justice Victoria Justice songs Victorious