Songfacts®:

• "Get Him Back!" is a shuffling pop-rock anthem that's all about a love story gone awry. Olivia Rodrigo goes through a roller coaster of emotions as she's torn between reigniting the flames of passion and serving up a dish of sweet vengeance.
  
  I wanna get him back
  I wanna make him really jealous, wanna make him feel bad
  Oh, I wanna get him back
  'Cause then again, I really miss him and it makes me real sad
  Oh, I want sweet revenge and I want him again
  
  Rodrigo plays on the double entendre of "get him back" – it's about both rekindling their love and plotting revenge.
• Their romance started off with a blast, partying hard and living it up. But there were red flags, like his eccentric friends and his wandering eye. Now she's split between her love for her ex and the desire to make him pay. Keying his car? Making him lunch? Breaking his heart and then fixing it? She's got a whirlwind of emotions!
  
  Towards the end, Rodrigo is on a mission to get him back, but in a way that'll leave him utterly baffled. He's gonna love her and hate her, all at the same time!
• Some fans have been connecting the dots, suggesting Rodrigo is hinting at her past romance with producer Adam Faze. The clues start with the opening lines of the first verse:
  
  I met a guy in the summer and I left him in the spring
  He argued with me about everything
  
  Rodrigo and Faze were first caught sharing a kiss in July 2021, aligning with the summertime reference. However, by the time the New Year rolled around in 2022, their romance seemed to have cooled off. Reports surfaced that Rodrigo had unfollowed Faze on Instagram, and they spent New Year's apart.
  
  He had an ego and a temper and a wandering eye
  He said he's 6'2 and I'm, like, "Dude, nice try"
  
  Faze, who is 5'9 (175 cm), may have stretched the truth to 6'2 (188 cm), which Rodrigo playfully calls him out for.
• Rodrigo wrote "Get Him Back!" with her producer Dan Nigro at Electric Lady Studios in New York. "We were writing all day," she recalled to Apple Music. "We wrote a song that I didn't like and I had a total breakdown. I was like, 'God, I can't write songs. I'm so bad at this. I don't want to.' Being really negative. Then we took a break and we came back and we wrote 'Get Him Back!'. Just goes to show you: Never give up."
• Nigro produced and engineered the song with Alexander 23 and Ian Kirkpatrick, and also provided vocal production.
  
  Chicago singer-songwriter Alexander 23 previously co-produced Olivia Rodrigo's Sour hit "Good 4 U."
  
  Los Angeles-based producer Ian Kirkpatrick's resumé includes hit songs for Dua Lipa ("New Rules," "Don't Start Now") and Selena Gomez ("Bad Liar," "Back to You").
• Rodrigo gave the song its live debut on the September 8, 2023 episode of The Today Show. She played a four-song set, also performing Guts' lead single, "Vampire," and the Sour tracks "Drivers License" and "Good 4 U."
• The music video for "Get Him Back!" was directed by Jack Begert and filmed on an iPhone 15 Pro in collaboration with Apple. Released on September 12, 2023, shortly after the device's announcement, the clip features multiple versions of Rodrigo dreaming up the ultimate revenge scenario. We see her smashing car windows, whipping out knives and trashing an apartment. The fast-paced visuals, featuring the crash zoom technique, were done with the iPhone 15 Pro's 5x Telephoto camera.
• During a gig at LA's Ace Hotel, Nigro reminisced about the time he and Rodrigo got some sage advice from his dad: "The best songs often ride on just two chords."
  
  After hearing those wise words, the pair went into the studio and wrote this song. "We tried and failed - but wrote something we really liked with three chords," Nigro said.