Songfacts®:

• John Legend explained to MTV News: "The song is simple. It's just me trying to pick up a girl at a club and convince her to come have some fun with me."
• This song features rapper André 3000 from OutKast, who co-wrote the song along with Legend, Rick Nowels ("Heaven Is A Place On Earth," "White Flag"), the British singer Fink, and Malay, who also produced the track.
• Legend told The Daily Mail October 10, 2008: "It just happened, I didn't plan to write a club track."
• Legend's circle were initially worried about this being the first single to be taken from Evolver. He explained to MTV News: "Some people in my camp were kinda afraid. Man, you've been known as the midtempo-ballad guy. People have seen you on the piano all this time. I don't know if you can come with this uptempo joint with Andre on it. It's gonna throw people off.' I felt like the record spoke for itself. It could get played on all the stations, people would love it in the clubs, and I wanted to make a statement that this album would sound a bit different."
• Andre 3000 also made a rare music video appearance as does the UK singer Estelle, who is managed by Legend. The singer-songwriter told MTV News about the OutKast member's contribution to the promo: "Well, Andre, he really loved the song 'Green Light.' He wanted to be a part of it and was proud of his contribution, so he was down to do the video. I was honored. I know he doesn't do a lot of collaborations these days. I know he doesn't do a lot of guest appearances. He chose to do it with my song. I'm grateful, and he helped make the video what it was. He's a creative talent, great performer. We got on the phone and did a conference call before the video. He had a lot of ideas for the video. We had a good time. The people we hired - as far as the extras and dancers - they had a good time."
• Legend explained the music video to MTV News: "The video definitely has that story line in it, but we just take it kind of different places to do some unexpected visual things. We have this surreal kind of dance sequence, and it features synchronized swimmers and showgirls. We just throw a little extra twist on it. We wanted to mix a current, modern feel with an old-school, classic Hollywood feel because the song has kind of a big-band quality to it as well as a more modern dance-song quality. We wanted to mix the two different parts."
• In 2015, Legend's wife Chrissy Teigen said on The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore that this was by far her least-favorite John Legend song. "I had a meltdown on the set of the video, a fit of jealousy," she explained. "But I also think it's just horrible, pandering to radio audiences."