Heat Waves

Album

Dreamland

Label

Republic Records

Genre

Alt-Pop

Media Type

DD

Duration

3:58

Composer(s)

Dave Bayley

Entered Chart

Jan 16, 2021

Peak Date

Mar 26, 2022

Released

29 June 2020

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Republic Records

"Heat Waves" is about a man who's failing at a romantic relationship. He doesn't feel like he's giving his partner the life that she deserves. It differs from the typical heartache song in that all of the angst is directed inwardly. Frontman Dave Bayley never blames or condemns his partner - only himself. According to Bayley, it's about a real person who was very important to him, but is no longer part of his life. "The whole thing is meant to feel really reflective, and it ends up focusing on one memory, which is about a certain person that I really missed," he told Genius. He wrote the song in May 2019, but this person's birthday is in June, thus the lines: Sometimes, all I think about is you Late nights in the middle of June "Every time it gets to May I start thinking about this person and how they're not in my life anymore, and I start missing that person," he said. The term "heat wave" usually denotes a stretch of uncommonly hot weather, but that's not the way that Bayley uses it here. In this song, the term is used in the sense of a heat haze, which is sometimes also called a highway mirage. Both names refer to the wavy air that rises off asphalt on extremely hot days. Bayley is using it as a metaphor for his own failed promises. He's tried to offer his love all the things she wants and needs but they're just like heat waves rising off hot asphalt, illusory and without substance. The band recorded the music video for the song during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their neighbors filmed it on their own phones. The video shows Bayley carting an amp in a wagon through London. He reaches an empty music hall and performs this song with the rest of the band. Bayley called the video "a love letter to live music and the culture and togetherness surrounding it." The song shares certain lyrical themes with "Your Love (Deja Vu)." "They're both definitely two of the songs that are about relationships and sort of knowing that they're doomed," Dave Bayley told ABC Audio. He added that "Heat Waves" could be considered the "sequel" to "Your Love." "'Your Love' is sort of realizing that person's gonna keep hurting you, and that you can't save this thing... it is doomed," Bayley explained. "And 'Heat Waves' is kinda realizing that that's OK. It's just accepting that you can't always make everyone happy." This topped the 2020 Triple J Hottest 100, Australia's annual listener-voted poll of the most popular songs of the year. Glass Animals were the first British act to top the countdown since Mumford & Sons won the 2009 poll with "Little Lion Man." Report an ad Spearheaded by Scottish postman Nathan Evans's version of the traditional nautical song "Soon May The Wellerman Come," sea shanties went viral on TikTok in early 2021. Glass Animals jumped on the "ShantyTok" trend by transforming "Heat Waves" into a sea shanty. The song originated late at night when Dave Bayley was fumbling with his guitar trying to come up with a long chord pattern. "After 10 minutes of looking into space and plucking the guitar, I hit those eight chords, and I was like, 'Ooh, that's it,'" he recalled to Billboard. "As soon as I had [that], I started singing. Literally the first thing that came out was the hook." Sometimes, all I think about is you Late nights in the middle of June Bayley was in a melancholic mood when he penned the song, as it was coming up to a sad time of the year for him. He explained: "There's a certain time of year where I always start to feel a bit s--t, because I lost someone really important to me, and 'round their birthday, I start to feel a bit weird. Their birthday is in June, by the way. It was coming up to that period and it was late at night." The song climbed to the top of the Australian ARIA Singles Chart dated March 1, 2021 in its 12th week on the survey. When the song reached #1 on Alternative Airplay, it gave Glass Animals their first-ever chart-topping Billboard single. The band's previous best ranking had been the #7 they achieved on Alternative Airplay with "Your Love (Deja Vu)." Glass Animals released an updated version of "Heat Waves" featuring Iann Dior on March 25, 2021. The reworking comes complete with an extra verse from the Puerto Rican-born, Texas-raised rapper. After originally peaking at #19 on the UK singles chart in the first half of 2021, the song slowly slipped down the tally. It rebounded to its highest chart position yet on the chart dated September 3, 2021 thanks to the #allithinkaboutisyou trend on TikTok playing off the song's lyrical hook. The song climbed to #1 on Billboard's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs September 11, 2021-dated chart. It reached the summit in its 60th week on the tally, breaking the record for the longest ascent to the top previously held by Twenty One Pilots' "Ride" (47 weeks in 2015-16). It was Glass Animals' first ever #1 on any Billboard tally. The song set a new US chart record when it entered the Hot 100 top 10 for the first time on the listing dated November 13, 2021. The song, which first entered the US singles chart in 100th place in January 2021, slowly climbed the tally before finding landing at #10, 42 weeks later. Its slow-but-steady rise broke the record for the lengthiest ascent, surpassing Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" (38 weeks). "Heat Waves" finally reached #1 on its 59th week on the Hot 100, breaking the record for the longest run to the top of the chart. Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" previously held the record, spending 35 weeks on the tally before reaching the apex in December 2019. Bayley attributes the song's success to it landing at the right time. "I feel like everyone in the pandemic has been feeling nostalgic," he told NME. "No one was going out and creating new memories, they were all reliving the old ones. This song is about that – it's about memories, it's about missing someone, everyone's been missing people in this age."

(Last night, all I think about is you)
(Don't stop, baby, you can walk through)
(Don't want, baby, think about you)
(You know that I'm never gonna lose)

Road shimmer
Wiggling the vision
Heat heat waves
I'm swimming in a mirror
Road shimmer
Wiggling the vision
Heat heat waves
I'm swimming in a

Sometimes, all I think about is you
Late nights in the middle of June
Heat waves been faking me out
Can't make you happier now
Sometimes, all I think about is you
Late nights in the middle of June
Heat waves been faking me out
Can't make you happier now

Usually I put
Something on TV
So we never think
About you and me
But today I see
Our reflections
Clearly in Hollywood
Laying on the screen

You just need a better life than this
You need something I can never give
Fake water all across the road
It's gone now the night has come but

Sometimes, all I think about is you
Late nights in the middle of June
Heat waves been faking me out
Can't make you happier now

You can't fight it, you can't breathe
You say something so loving but
Now I've got to let you go
You'll be better off in someone new
I don't wanna be alone
You know it hurts me too
You look so broken when you cry
One more and then I'll say goodbye

Sometimes, all I think about is you
Late nights in the middle of June
Heat waves been faking me out
Can't make you happier now
Sometimes, all I think about is you
Late nights in the middle of June
Heat waves been faking me out
Can't make you happier now

I just wonder what you're dreaming of
When you sleep and smile so comfortable
I just wish that I could give you that
That look that's perfectly un-sad

Sometimes, all I think about is you
Late nights in the middle of June
Heat waves been faking me out
Heat waves been faking me out

Sometimes, all I think about is you
Late nights in the middle of June
Heat waves been faking me out
Can't make you happier now
Sometimes, all I think about is you
Late nights in the middle of June
Heat waves been faking me out
Can't make you happier now

Road shimmer
Wiggling the vision
Heat heat waves
I'm swimming in a mirror
Road shimmer
Wiggling the vision
Heat heat waves
I'm swimming in a mirror