This romantic ballad is the second single by the American Country music singer Hunter Hayes, from his self-titled debut studio album. Hayes penned the song with Louisiana native Troy Verges, whose other credits include Carrie Underwood's single "
Wasted" and the Oscar nominated song performed by Gwyneth Paltrow in
Country Strong, "
Coming Home."
Hayes wrote or co-wrote every track on the album and he played every instrument. Speaking about his complete hands-on approach to the record to The Boot, the young singer-songwriter said: "It allows me to take a little more control over it and reinterpret the songs, tweak it, fix it ... We had this great idea of, let's go into the studio and try it. We did. I was nervous, because working with [producer] Dann Huff, he's one of my heroes. I've done the process but not quite to that extent, and going into the studio with him, he made it easy."
Just how many instruments does Hayes play on his debut album? "On the record," he told Billboard magazine, "we counted 30. I learned a lot of stuff on the spot. I don't consider myself to be a professional on all of them, but it's that process that I took when I was young, and doing all the demos by myself. It all took on a new meaning when we started this record, and I just kept with it. I'm really glad we did. It allowed a lot of myself to come out on the record."
The song became Hayes' first Country #1 the week after he celebrated his 21st birthday. In doing so the singer made history as the youngest solo male act to reach the summit, surpassing a record set in 1973 by Johnny Rodriguez when he topped the tally with "You Always Come Back to Hurting Me" aged 21 years, three months and three weeks.
Several females have been younger when they first achieved the feat, including Taylor Swift, whose "
Our Song" became her first chart-topper at the age of 18 years and two weeks.
Hayes told The Boot: "The song has given me a false sense of confidence. I'm so awkward and weird and shy and quiet. I don't say these things very well - that's why I put them in a song. I'm learning that I should write more songs for girls, because apparently that's way better than me talking!"
Hayes explained to Radio.com the story of the song. "'Wanted' is very much a love letter. It was written basically just to tell a girl how I felt about her," he explained. "It didn't actually work but I'm okay with that. I got my single, I got my song and I'm okay with that."
"I went in to write this song and I was definitely just desperately trying to get the point across to this girl," he added. "Those are the songs that really write themselves very quickly. I didn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about this one or over-thinking it."
Hunter admitted to Radio.com that he isn't exactly sure how "the song happened, as he just spoke the words "into outer space and we just typed everything we could think of." Later, as he sat at the piano as the rest of the lyrics fell into place. "It was something I really wanted to say and I was trying to figure out the best way to say it," he said.
Troy Verges recalled to Roughstock how this was the fourth or fifth time that the pair had written together. "We had met when he first got signed to Universal Publishing," he explained. "I am from Louisiana and Hunter is from Louisiana. Cindy Foreman up there was like, 'You guys need to meet and see if you gel!' So we started writing a few songs. I have a giant grand piano in my studio. I am a mediocre piano player, so I love it when people come over who can play it. Hunter jumped up on the piano and just started playing the lick that is the intro of 'Wanted.'"
The song proved very easy to write and came really fast, but there was one hiccup. "There's one line in the song," he said, 'like everything that's green girl, I need you.' That was Hunter's line. I was like, 'I don't know what that means ... I'm not sure that should go in there.' He really fought for it, and now it's like a lot of peoples favorite part of the song."
