Can't Remember To Forget You

Album

Shakira.

Label

RCA Records

Genre

Pop rock

Media Type

45s

Duration

3:26

Composer(s)

Shakira;John Hill;Tom Hull;Daniel Alexander;Erik Hassle;Robyn Fenty

Entered Chart

Feb 1, 2014

Peak Date

Feb 15, 2014

Released

13 January 2014

Recorded

2013

Catalog #

RCA Digital

The first single from Shakira's fourth English studio album features Rihanna and finds the two stars lamenting on their inability to forget lovers who are bad for them. "Working with Rihanna was utopia. She's the sexiest woman on the planet," the Colombian singer said in Glamour magazine. "And at the end of the day, we're both just basically Caribbean girls. The chemistry was so good and so real. She taught me dance moves. She was a sweet teacher." Rihanna turned down an offer from Pitbull to sing on his "Timber" single, as she was already working with Shakira on this song. Shakira's relationship with the father of her child, Spanish soccer player Gerard Pique, was definitely not an inspiration for the track. She told Ryan Seacrest: "I'm going through a completely different experience right in relation to the song. The song is about that guy that just gets under your skin and you can't leave alone. I think every woman has been through that. This song is not exactly a reflection of my personal life right now." The song is an uptempo New Wave track with ska elements. "You know, we're both from the Caribbean so I always thought we had that common ground, but this song is pretty reggae," Shakira noted to Ryan Seacrest. "I honestly thought it would never happen... She heard the record and she loved it and she said she was onboard and I was the happiest girl alive." The track was co-written by the singers with Swedish singer-songwriter Erik Hassle, whose best known for his 2008 single, "Hurtful," which cracked the Top Ten of the his home country's singles chart and Daniel Ledinsky (Usher's "If Your Man Only Knew," Cee Lo Green's "Anyway"). It was produced by Shakira with John Hill (Santigold, Jay Z) and Kid Harpoon (Florence + The Machine, Calvin Harris). The music video was shot in a Los Angeles mansion and directed by Joseph Kahn (Eminem and Rihanna's "Love The Way You Lie," Mariah Carey and Miguel's "#Beautiful"). A Spanish adaptation of the song was also released, sung solely by Shakira. It was titled "Nunca Me Acuerdo de Olvidarte." The video's scenes of the two stars being intimate with each other provoked controversy with a Colombian politician accusing Shakira of "promoting lesbianism." The Colombian singer told Ryan Seacrest that she consulted her footballer boyfriend Gerard Piqué before she went ahead with the clip. "I asked him if he agreed with everything and he agreed. I wanted to make sure because he's super jealous," Shakira told the KIIS FM DJ. "He's a man. He's territorial. He wants to know everything is under control." This was used on the Pretty Little Liars episode "Bloody Hell" (2015) in a scene with Emily practicing her dance routine.

And I left a note on my bedpost
Said not to repeat
Yesterday's mistakes
What I tend to do

When it comes to you
I see only the good
Selective memory
The way you make me feel, yeah
You gotta hold on me, I never met someone so different

Oh here we go
You're a part of me now
You're a part of me
So where you go I follow, follow, follow

Oh-oh ooh oh
Oh-oh ooh oh
I can't remember to forget you
Oh-oh ooh oh
Oh-oh ooh oh

I keep forgetting I should let you go
But when you look at me
The only memory is us kissing in the moonlight
Oh-oh ooh oh
Oh-oh ooh oh
I can't remember to forget you

I can't remember to forget you

I go back again
Fall off the train
Land in his bed, repeat yesterday's mistakes
What I'm trying to say
Is not to forget
You see only the good
Selective memory

The way he makes me feel like
The way he makes me feel, I never seemed to act so stupid
Oh here we go
He a part of me now
He a part of me
So where he goes I follow, follow, follow

Oh-oh ooh oh
Oh-oh ooh oh
I can't remember to forget you
Oh-oh ooh oh
Oh-oh ooh oh

I keep forgetting I should let you go
But when you look at me
The only memory
Is us kissing in the moonlight (oh)

Oh-oh ooh oh
Oh-oh ooh oh
I can't remember to forget you

I rob and I kill to keep him with me I
Do anything for that boy
I'd give my last dime to hold him tonight I
Do anything for that boy

I rob and I kill to keep him with me I
Do anything for that boy
I'd give my last dime to hold him tonight I
Do anything for that boy

Oh-oh ooh oh
Oh-oh ooh oh
I can't remember to forget you
Oh-oh ooh oh
Oh-oh ooh oh
I keep forgetting I should let you go
But when you look at me
The only memory
Is us kissing in the moonlight (oh)
Oh-oh ooh oh
Oh-oh ooh oh
I can't remember to forget you

But when you look at me
The only memory
Is us kissing in the moonlight (oh)
Oh-oh ooh oh
Oh-oh ooh oh
I can't remember to forget you