"It Was Always You" is a song by American band

Maroon 5 Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. It currently consists of lead vocalist Adam Levine, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine (musician), James Valentine, drummer Matt ...

. It was released through

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and

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...

on July 29, 2014, as the first and only promotional single from their fifth studio album '' V'' (2014).

Composition and recording

"It Was Always You" was written by Maroon 5's lead singer Adam Levine,

Sam Martin Samuel or Sam Martin may refer to: * Samuel Martin (planter) (1694–1776), planter and politician in Antigua * Samuel Martin (Secretary to the Treasury) (1714–1788), British politician and administrator * Sir Samuel Martin (politician) (1801� ...

Jason Evigan Jason Gregory Evigan (born June 10, 1983) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. His songwriting credits include co-writing and production of Maroon 5's "Girls Like You" and "What Lovers Do", Madonna's " Ghosttown", ...

Marcus Lomax The Monsters & Strangerz are an American production and songwriting team from Miami, Florida. The team features The Monsters: Alexander " Eskeerdo" Izquierdo, Stefan Johnson, Jordan K. Johnson and Oliver "German" Peterhof and The Strangerz: Marcu ...

Jordan Johnson Jordan Johnson may refer to: * Jordan Johnson (fighter) Jordan David Johnson (born November 18, 1988) is a retired American professional mixed martial artist who formerly competed in the middleweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championshi ...

and

Stefan Johnson The Monsters & Strangerz are an American production and songwriting team from Miami, Florida. The team features The Monsters: Alexander " Eskeerdo" Izquierdo, Stefan Johnson, Jordan K. Johnson and Oliver "German" Peterhof and The Strangerz: Marcu ...

. It was produced by

and

The Monsters and the Strangerz The Monsters & Strangerz are an American production and songwriting team from Miami, Florida. The team features The Monsters: Alexander "Eskeerdo" Izquierdo, Stefan Johnson, Jordan K. Johnson and Oliver "German" Peterhof and The Strangerz: Marcus ...

. The upbeat ballad, lyrically about friends becoming lovers, features Levine singing such lyrics as: "Woke up sweating from a dream / With a different kind of feeling", "Hazel eyes, I was so color blind", "It was always you / Can't believe I could not see it all this time, all this time", "Now I know why my heart wasn't satisfied, satisfied" and "All my hidden desires finally came alive" in his signature

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...

, belted over synthesizers.

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Chima Simone Chima Simone (born July 28, 1982) is a TV personality and freelance journalist, best known as a former reality show contestant from '' Big Brother 11''.

noted that these lyrics might refer to Levine's wife Behati Prinsloo. "Sometimes what you’re looking for is right in front of you,"

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' Christina Garibaldi noted as the song's central message. Levine is joined on the song by fellow Maroon 5 members: keyboardist and rhythm guitarist

Jesse Carmichael Jesse Royal Carmichael (born April 2, 1979) is an American musician, best known as the keyboardist and rhythm guitarist for the pop rock band, Maroon 5. He also has a solo project called 1863 and a side project titled Circuit Jerks. Life and c ...

(who did not perform on the band's 2012 album '' Overexposed''), drummer

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, bassist

Mickey Madden Michael Allen Madden (born May 13, 1979) is an American musician and a former bassist for the pop rock band Maroon 5. Life and music career Madden was born in Austin, Texas. He began playing in junior high school at the Brentwood School in L ...

, keyboardist

PJ Morton P.J. Morton (born Paul Morton Jr.; March 29, 1981) is an American Grammy winning musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Since 2012, he has been one of the keyboardists, alongside Jesse Carmichael, for the pop rock band Maroon 5. Mort ...

and lead guitarist James Valentine. In a departure from the band's usual

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, earl ...

songs and their previous pop-leaning single "

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", "It Was Always You" incorporates electronic synthesizers (opening with "jittery synths", according to ''

Idolator An idolator is a practitioner of idolatry. Idolater or Idolator may also refer to: Books *''Os Idólatras'', 1968 Portuguese novel by Maria Judite de Carvalho Music * Idolator (website), an American music blog * ''Idolator'' (album), third album ...

s Mike Wass) and is 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 ...

song. Its sound has been compared to

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. While noted as a different musical style for the band, Wass described it as "unmistakably Maroon 5". Carolyn Menyes from ''Music Times'' explained: "This song takes the band's new poppy direction and makes it dark, with yearning vocals and deep twists".

Live performances

On August 26, 2014, Maroon 5 performed "It Was Always You" for the first time at the

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Theater in

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. On August 30, 2014, the song was performed on '' ESPN Saturday Night Football'', with the accompanying performance video being released the same day. The band also performing with the track live on ''

The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was ...

'' at

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, on September 1 and the 2014 iTunes Festival at the Roundhouse in

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on September 11, respectively. The track has been performed 48 known times by the band.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{authority control 2014 singles 2014 songs 2010s ballads Maroon 5 songs Songs written by Adam Levine Songs written by Jason Evigan Songs written by Sam Martin (singer) Songs written by Marcus Lomax Songs written by Stefan Johnson Songs written by Jordan Johnson (songwriter) Song recordings produced by the Monsters & Strangerz 222 Records singles Interscope Records singles Electropop ballads Torch songs