"Get Him Back" is a song written by American singer

Fiona Apple Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart (born September 13, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter. She released five albums from 1996 to 2020, all of which reached the top 20 on the U.S. Billboard 200, ''Billboard'' 200 chart. As of 2021, she has sold over ...

and produced by

Mike Elizondo Michael A. Elizondo Jr. (born October 22, 1972) is an American producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. A protégé of Dr. Dre, Elizondo has worked with 50 Cent, Eminem, Linkin Park, Carrie Underwood, Fiona Apple, Mastodon, Ry Cooder ...

and

Brian Kehew Brian Kehew (born September 22, 1964) is an American musician and record producer. He is a member of The Moog Cookbook and co-author of the ''Recording The Beatles'' book, an in-depth look at the Beatles' studio approach. Live performances and ...

for her third album ''

Extraordinary Machine ''Extraordinary Machine'' is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple, released by Epic Records in the United States on October 4, 2005 and in Europe on October 3, 2005. Produced by Jon Brion, it was expected to be released ...

'' (2005). It was released as a promotional CD single only to triple-A radio as the album's fourth

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

on February 6, 2006 (see

2006 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2006. Specific locations *2006 in British music *2006 in Irish music *2006 in Norwegian music *2006 in South Korean music *2006 in Swiss music Specific genres *2006 in cl ...

). In 2003, ''Extraordinary Machine'', which was originally produced by

Jon Brion Jon Brion (born December 11, 1963) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and composer. He performed with the Excerpts, the Bats, 'Til Tuesday and The Grays (band), the Grays before becoming an established pro ...

, was submitted to

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

executives, who were reportedly unenthusiastic about the finished product and shelved it. On February 26, 2005, radio DJ Andrew Harms at 107.7 The End in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

began playing previously unheard tracks from a bootleg copy of ''Extraordinary Machine'', and before long, poor quality copies of " Not about Love", "Get Him Back" and "Used to Love Him" were circulating on the internet. Soon after, CD-quality versions of all the tracks were released through the

BitTorrent BitTorrent is a Protocol (computing), communication protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P), which enables users to distribute data and electronic files over the Internet in a Decentralised system, decentralized manner. The protocol is d ...

website TorrentBox. An extensively reworked version of ''Extraordinary Machine'', co-produced by Mike Elizondo and Brian Kehew, was released in October 2005. The ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' published a track-by-track comparison of the leaked and official versions of the album, and wrote of "Get Him Back": "Brion's drum fills are more pronounced and strings underscore the vocals, while

the Roots The Roots are an American Hip-hop, hip hop band formed in 1987 by singer Black Thought, Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and drummer Questlove, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''T ...

Ahmir Thompson Ahmir K. Thompson (born January 20, 1971), known professionally as Questlove (stylized as ), is an American drummer, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Thought) ...

gives the Elizondo-Kehew version a more linear groove." ''

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer (from Latin ''mixus, the PPP of miscere eng. to Mix)'' or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary ...

'' magazine ranked the official version of the song at number thirty-five on its list of "The 100 Greatest Songs of 2005"."The 100 Greatest Songs of 2005"
. ''

''. January/February 2006. Retrieved June 1, 2006.

Formats & track listing

Acetate promo CD single:
1. Get Him Back (Radio Edit)
2. Get Him Back (Album Version)

Personnel

Piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

by Fiona Apple *

Drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson * Moog bass by Mike Elizondo *

Keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Mus ...

s by

Keefus Ciancia Keefus Ciancia is an American film and television composer, music producer, and musician. He has won an Ivor Novello Award, BAFTA, and a BMI Film & TV Award. He has composed and produced music for ''True Detective'', ''Killing Eve'', '' London S ...

Notes

External links

Lyrics
{{authority control 2006 singles Fiona Apple songs 2005 songs Songs written by Fiona Apple Song recordings produced by Mike Elizondo Epic Records singles