Songfacts®:

• This song is about a groupie who is into famous singers. In the song, Legend catches her eye and falls for her, but he knows it's his image and fame that she's after, not his true self. "She only loves in stereo" indicates how his music is what's drawing her in, and her favorite colors are platinum and gold, the certifications for high record sales.
• John Legend met his model partner Chrissy Teigen on this song's video shoot (she plays his dream girl). He recalled to UK Cosmopolitan magazine how it was "kind of touchy-feely and like a very backwards introduction - before we even knew each other, we were feeling each other up! So that helped break the ice. It wasn't a proper date but it was sexy."
  
  They started dating soon after and got married in 2013.
• The video was directed by the photographer Nabil Elderkin, who was John Legend's friend. He was looking to make a music video so he could enter that field, so he approached Legend about shooting one for "Stereo." Elderkin decided the concept would be Legend flirting and dancing with a girl, and suggested Chrissy Teigen as the star - Elderkin had photographed her in a print campaign for Billabong and thought she'd be great.
  
  "We had chemistry on the video shoot," Legend explained. "We hung out that night. We stayed in touch by text and over the phone, and would meet up when I would come to LA."
  
  He enjoyed their text exchanges and conversations. "When I was away from her, I started to miss her," he added. "We started dating seriously. Giorgio Armani was doing a men's fashion show in Milan." Between the shows, they sent Legend to Lake Como in Italy, where he and Teigen spent time together. When they parted ways at the airport, he knew he was in love.
  
  "After we fell in love, eventually I proposed to her, and eventually we got married. When we got married, we returned to Lake Como. It's the place where we fell in love."
  
  Before their wedding, Nabil Elderkin shot the video for Legend's song "All Of Me" at Lake Como. In that one, Teigen and Legend share intimate moments as they prepare for their nuptials.
• Devo Springsteen was Legend's main collaborator on this song, writing and producing it with Legend along with Tom Craskey. Springsteen and Legend were roommates at the University of Pennsylvania.
• "Stereo" is part of John Legend's second album, Once Again. Heavy on percussion and with a dance rhythm, the song veers from the piano ballads that proved most popular for Legend.