Songfacts®:

• This mid-tempo joint is a single by Asian American group Far East Movement from their first major debut album, Free Wired. The track features Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic and was co-written by Bruno Mars, who had not yet released his debut album.
• Kev Nish of FEM explained the song to Complex Magazine: "It's about a girl you love, you want to take her away, and letting her know you love her and want to show her the world. We usually do club songs, but we just wanted to reach in and give 'em some emotions. We're big fans of simplifying things lyrically now, but it's definitely more heartfelt for us to expand things."
• The song's music video tells of a guy who builds a makeshift rocket so he can visit his lover after she gets a job in Tokyo. The original Rocketeer was Cliff Secord, a superhero created by writer/illustrator Dave Stevens in 1982, who discovers a mysterious jet pack that allows him to fly. His adventures are set in 1938 Los Angeles.
• When the song leapt 16-9 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated February 12, 2011, following the success of their chart-topper "Like a G6," Far East Movement became the first group to send its first two chart entries to the Top 10 since Daughtry. The North Carolina act's first two singles "It's Not Over" and "Home," peaked at #4 and 5, respectively, in 2007.
• The song gave guest vocalist Ryan Tedder his first Top 10 single as a solo act. Tedder has also charted a number of times as a member of the band OneRepublic and penned a number of hits for other artists, including "Bleeding Love" for Leona Lewis and "Halo" for Beyoncé.
• Kev Nish explained to Digital Spy how the Ryan Tedder collaboration came about: "We were actually listening to 'Apologize' on the way to the studio one day - and decided we wanted that kind of sound on one of our songs! At the time we were working on 'Rocketeer,' which is all about following your dreams, so the head of our label played it to Ryan and fortunately he loved it."