Good

Album

Deluxe

Label

Elektra Records

Genre

Post-Grunge

Duration

5:00

Composer(s)

K.Griffin

Entered Chart

Jul 1, 1995

Peak Date

Jul 8, 1995

Released

February 1995

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Elektra 64428

B-Side

Circle Of Friends (Live)

In this song, the signer comes home to find a "Dear John" letter that says "It was good living with you." He finds himself in an empty house, wondering what to do next as he watches the sun trace shadows on the floor. Better Than Ezra frontman Kevin Griffin wrote the song. In a Songfacts interview with Griffin, he said: "Lyrically, that was a song where I wasn't drawing from personal experience. I've told people for years that I was, but I was happily living with my first girlfriend - well, we were dating, anyways. I wanted to talk about the positive things that come from the end of a relationship. There's always the hurt feelings and everyone's guarded and it can be traumatic, but when the dust settles, it was about looking at the good things - no pun intended - that you got from that relationship. How did you grow? What did you learn emotionally? And to experience some stuff. And in this case it was just kind of reflecting on how this person changed. I think I may have been projecting, because I ended up breaking up with this girl shortly after. But this girl I was dating at the time kind of pushed me out of my southern mindset and my tendency to take a known path as opposed to setting out on an unknown path, but something that would be ultimately more satisfying and rewarding." There are shades of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in this track, but Better Than Ezra frontman Kevin Griffin says he wrote the song in 1990 before Nirvana released that song. He does cop to being influenced by the Pixies, which helps explain the similarity, as Nirvana also drew from the Pixies sound. This was Better Than Ezra's first single. The band had been playing it for years when they got their record deal with Elektra Records, which issued it as a single in 1995 along with a new version of their album Deluxe, which the group first released on their own label in 1993. The song made a splash on rock, pop, and alternative radio stations, mostly east of the Mississippi. The song had just a modest placing on the Hot 100 (#30), but topped the Alternative Songs chart, which was then known as the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. The band followed with several minor hits, including "Desperately Wanting" and "Rosealia." They never filled arenas, but they built a loyal fan base and enjoyed decades of success, playing smaller venues and releasing a steady stream of material. Griffin became a top songwriter for other acts, co-writing hits for Howie Day ("Collide"), Sugarland ("Stuck Like Glue") and James Blunt ("I'll Be Your Man"). In the "wa-ha, it was good" section, "wa-ha" was originally a placeholder that Kevin Griffin intended to fill with actual lyrics. The band soon realized it was the song's hook because everyone they played it for remembered the "wa-ha" more than anything else, so they kept it that way.

Looking around the house
Hidden behind the window and the door
Searching for signs of life
But there's nobody home

Well, maybe I'm just too sure
Or maybe I'm just too frightened by the sound of it
Pieces of note fall down, but the letter said

Aha, it was good
Living with you, aha, it was good
Ah-ah-ah-ah-aha it was good
Living with you, aha, it was good
Ah-ah-ah, good good good good good

Sitting around the house
Watching the sun trac shadows on the floor
Searching for signs of life
But there's nobody home

Well, maybe I'll call or I'll write you a letter
Now maybe we'll see on the fourth of July
But I'm not too sure, and I'm not too proud
Well I'm not sure, and I'm not too proud to say

Aha, it was good
Living with you, aha, it was good
Ah-ah-ah-ah-aha it was good
Living with you, aha, it was good
Ah-ah-ah, so good

Aha, it was good
Living with you, aha, it was good
Ah-ah-ah-ah-aha it was good
Living with you, aha, it was good
Ah-ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah

Yeah, you were so good
Yeah, you were so good
(Yeah, that's right)