Sing To You

Album: Make It Happen EP (2016)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Singer-songwriters have an edge when it comes to romance: they can sing a song to their loved one. That what John Splithoff does here; his significant other wants to keep their relationship low-key, but he has other ideas:

    Just try to understand me
    Won't you come a little closer
    And let me whisper to you
    And I'll say
    You don't have to worry 'bout a single thing
    Just let me sing to you


    Who can resist this charm?
  • John Splithoff wrote "Sing To You" soon after moving to New York City from Chicago. He told the story on the Songfacts Podcast: "I was crashing on my buddy's couch before I found my own apartment, and I would just walk around humming that bassline non-stop, and it just took me forever to write the lyrics to it. He was like, 'All right man, that's catchy but will you please do me a favor and write some lyrics and stop humming that song, because you're living in my apartment and I can't stop hearing that in my head too.' Which I think is a good sign.

    That was a song where things just worked out with the writing and the production. It's a good vibe of a song.

    The response and love that that song got was really inspiring and motivated me to keep doing this to the best of my ability. I don't want to say it is like lightning in a bottle, but that song definitely gave me a bigger audience than I had before, and it's very different from this last album, but there are definitely bits of this record that remind me of what I had when I was working on that song."
  • This song was a breakthrough for Splithoff, who started recording just a few years earlier. It took off on YouTube and on various streaming services, especially Spotify, where it quickly amassed over 40 million streams.

    Splithoff, though, didn't release a full-length album until 2021, when he issued All In.
  • Splithoff wrote and produced "Sing To You" with the Los Angeles production duo Noise Club (Chris Petrosino and Rob McCurdy).

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

They Might Be Giants

They Might Be GiantsSongwriter Interviews

Who writes a song about a name they found in a phone book? That's just one of the everyday things these guys find to sing about. Anything in their field of vision or general scope of knowledge is fair game. If you cross paths with them, so are you.

Kim Thayil of Soundgarden

Kim Thayil of SoundgardenSongwriter Interviews

Their frontman (Chris Cornell) started out as their drummer, so Soundgarden takes a linear approach when it comes to songwriting. Kim explains how they do it.

Women Who Rock

Women Who RockSong Writing

Evelyn McDonnell, editor of the book Women Who Rock, on why the Supremes are just as important as Bob Dylan.

Laura Nyro

Laura NyroSongwriting Legends

Laura Nyro talks about her complex, emotionally rich songwriting and how she supports women's culture through her art.

Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy and Black Star Riders

Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy and Black Star RidersSongwriter Interviews

Writing with Phil Lynott, Scott saw their ill-fated frontman move to a darker place in his life and lyrics.

Director Paul Rachman on "Hunger Strike," "Man in the Box," Kiss

Director Paul Rachman on "Hunger Strike," "Man in the Box," KissSong Writing

After cutting his teeth on hardcore punk videos, Paul defined the grunge look with his work on "Hunger Strike" and "Man in the Box."