Hey There Plain White Tees

Cast your mind back, if you will, to 2007, when a sweet little ditty became the anthem of the summer. Hey There Delilah by Plain White Tees still to this day is a firm favourite of many; in honour of this, Craft Recordings is releasing an expanded edition of the album it lovingly belongs to. All That We Needed is coming up to its 15th anniversary, so in celebration, it is being reissued with the cute bonus addition of five unreleased acoustic songs.

This third LP from the quintet of singer Tom Higgenson, lead guitarist Tim Lopez, rhythm guitarist Dave Tirio, bassist Mike Retondo, and drummer De’Mar Hamilton, took the Pop Punksters out of the Chicago basements and pinned onto the worldwide musical map. Now, reaching the total of an impressive eight albums, including a double-platinum single “1,2,3,4”, there are no signs of slowing down, with the band selling out shows across the globe.

Originally, the humble lyric video was used as a little teaser to keep fans satisfied whilst the big-budget stuff was in production, but now they are seen as a piece of standalone art. As a pleasing prelude to the release of the new record, there is a brand new lyric video for GRAMMY® Award-nominated Hey There Delilah, where the hope is that it brings the same level of love and comfort to a new army of listeners. The track was originally the third single to be released from All That We Needed, selling over four million copies in the US alone and voted one of the 100 Greatest Songs of the ’00s by VH1.

Here we have a video that is an animated monochrome piece, which visually tells the story of the track. That story being a struggling songwriter longing to be with a university student in New York City pens her a song expressing his feelings. The simplicity of the simple, melodic guitar and strength of the pitch-perfect voice is captured as the brushed font words firstly weave through New York City hitting Times Square. In a particularly lovely moment, they fly up to the sky in the clouds leading to the chorus where it's hard not to sing along, especially with the words right in front. When the lyrics “We’ll have the life we knew we would’ arise, the background is a tropical, peaceful island. We’re back to the Big Apple to end. Then we are graced with the single telling image of spinning vinyl.

It’s all very sweet, well-made, and fitting. Hopefully, it will rekindle a love for old fans, whilst gaining some new ones, who will enjoy catching them live soon. For now, their spring tour of the UK and Europe, and other gigs around the world, have been postponed. However, you can own All That We needed on April 10th where the Plain White Tees will be there through their song, just like they intended.

Watch it here...

Article by Beverley Knight