Songfacts®:

• Bleachers started out as a side-project for Fun guitarist Jack Antonoff, but by the time this song was released in 2017, Fun was pretty much defunct (they announced a hiatus in 2015) and Bleachers was going strong. The song was issued as the first single from their sophomore album, Gone Now.
  
  Antonoff said: "'Don't take the money' is a phrase I say in my head all the time. It has nothing to do with actual money. It means to follow the light. Don't ignore a gut feeling. Not following a deep gut feeling destroys your art and the people around you. so I say it in my head constantly; sometimes about something very specific relating to music, sometimes about a bigger question about marriage or depression. Point is, it's become my phrase to stay on track."
• Antonoff is specifically singing about how hard it is to be in a relationship. He explained: "Verses go through the past, pre is an explosive fight and the chorus is that moment when you hit rock bottom and everything is clear. You know that feeling, when you've tried your past to destroy yourself and someone else but it's too strong to be destroyed? When you've tried to fling your partner out of an emotional window but you keep landing in heaven? That's when it's all clear. As much as I say don't take the money in my head, I also can beg it of the people I love. That's what I'm doing in that chorus."
• "Take the Money" features guest vocals from Lorde, who also co-wrote the track. Antonoff worked with the New Zealand songstress on her second album Melodrama and her contribution here is presumably a return favor.
• The song's music video was directed by Girls creator Lena Dunham, who was Jack Antonoff's partner at the time (they split in 2018; he married a different actress, Margaret Qualley, in 2021). The video follows the singer's wedding ceremony, in which everything goes as planned until his ex turns up and ruins the day. Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat plays the part of the wedding officiant who presides over the ceremony.