Songfacts®:

• Maxwell described this to MTV News as "a bittersweet love song about meeting the right girl at the wrong time."
• This was Maxwell's first single release since his 2002 cover of Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work."
• Black was the first album of Maxwell's BLACKsummer'snight trilogy. He explained to MTV News: "Three sides of my crazy personality. Black is dark. Summer's is the lighter side. That album is more of a gospel side - not in the traditional sense, but more like Deepak Chopra meets that minister or that pastor down in the South somewhere. The Night album is the ultimate love record."
• This was Maxwell's third #1 on the Adult R&B airplay chart. The song took eight weeks to fly to the top position, the chart's fastest since Anita Baker's "You're My Everything" reached the summit in its fifth week in 2004.
• Maxwell told Billboard magazine: "I met this girl who I still respect very much, and although it didn't work out, I got lots of inspiration from it. This track speaks of my time with her."
• This was Maxwell's first #1 on R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, since he topped the chart for eight weeks with "Fortunate" in 1998. His spell between #1s set a record for the longest gap between chart-toppers since the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart began using Nielsen SoundScan data in December 1992. The late Aaliyah held the previous record for the longest gap between R&B/Hip-Hop #1s. She took seven years between "If Your Girl Only Knew" in 1996 and her posthumous 2003 chart-topper "Miss You."