Songfacts®:

• "Beautiful Girls," which samples heavily from Ben E King's 1961 classic "Stand By Me," was written by the then 16-year-old Sean Kingston in a couple of hours. The song is not an ode to beautiful girls but a warning: they'll do you dirty and break your heart. The lyrics describe the feelings of a teenage boy when he's dumped by his girlfriend. It's sad stuff, but the music is upbeat, as is Kingston's delivery, so we're pretty sure he'll get over it.
• In an interview with djbooth.net, Sean Kingston explained how this song was based on his own life experiences: "Man, it was like young love. It was like I was going out with this girl for three years. We not doin' nothin' for a long time, and then in that third year, she didn't want us to be together. So, I'm thinkin' what am I supposed to do? And I was going crazy because I was really in love with this girl. A lot of people are sayin' there's a lot of beautiful girls out there, but I'm thinkin' it's deeper. There's more than just beauty."
• The lyrics caused some controversy because of the repetitive use of the word "suicide" in the chorus:
  
  They'll have you suicidal, suicidal
  When they say it's over
  
  Some radio stations played a censored version that replaced the word "suicidal" with "in denial."
• "Beautiful Girls" was a global hit in 2007, spending four weeks at #1 in America starting that August. It also topped the charts in Australia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Ireland.
  
  It was Sean Kingston's debut single, released in May 2007 when he was 17.
• The song has a reggae rhythm to match Kingston's vocal stylings - he was born in Miami but spent several years in Jamaica when he was young. When he moved back to Florida, he started making music with an island feel and posting it on MySpace. In 2007, Rihanna showed how teenage singers from the Caribbean (Barbados) could become stars, so the timing was right for Kingston, who got the attention of producer J.R. Rotem and signed to his label, Beluga Heights (Rotem co-wrote Rihanna's 2006 hit "SOS"). Rotem put the track together for "Beautiful Girls" suing the "Stand By Me" sample, and Kingston added the lyrics.
• Because of the "Stand By Me" sample, that song's writers - Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller and Ben E. King - are credited on "Beautiful Girls." It's rare for a hit song to sample one from 46 years earlier, but "Stand By Me" held up as a classic and was revived in 1986 when it was used in the movie of the same name.
  
  Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were one of the biggest songwriting/production teams of the '50s and '60s. Their first #1 hit was Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog," which reached the summit on August 18, 1956. When "Beautiful Girls" went to #1 it gave them the record for longest span of #1 hits for songwriters in the Rock Era, with 50 years, 51 weeks between those two songs. The previous record holder was Lincoln Chase, who has credits on Bert Kaempfert's "Wonderland by Night," #1 in January 1961, and Mariah Carey and Jay-Z's "Heartbreaker," #1 in October 1999, a gap of 38 years and 9 months.
  
  Another record broken by Leiber and Stoller thanks to the success of this song is the longest gap between #1 hits in the Rock Era. Their previous chart-topper was Wilbert Harrison's cover of their song "Kansas City," which climbed to the peak in May 1959, creating a gap of just over 48 years between the two #1s.
  
  And for Ben E. King, "Beautiful Girls" was his first #1 hit as a songwriter ("Stand By Me" peaked at #4). He first charted as a member of The Drifters in 1959 - the gap of 48 years between making a chart debut and reaching #1 is probably another record.
• When "Beautiful Girls" topped the chart, Sean Kingston became the first artist born in the 1990s to have a #1 song on the Hot 100. He was born on February 3, 1990.
• Sean Kingston explained the song in publicity materials: "I heard the track 'Stand By Me,' one night in the studio while listening to the radio and asked J.R. (Rotem, producer) if anyone had ever used that sample. He made the beat immediately and I wrote down the lyrics within an hour – it happened very quickly. I loved the way it turned out and I think my sound is a lot different than what else is out there. It all just worked and we knew we had something special with the track. I'm also singing about something people can relate to – I'm singing about being in love with someone who you think is your world but they don't see it that way and you have to end the relationship."
• Kingston's next single was another that relied on a famous sample: "Me Love," which incorporates "D'yer Maker" by Led Zeppelin. It went to #14, and the next single, "Take You There," reached #7. Kinston kept his momentum with "Fire Burning" in 2009 (#5), but the hits dried up over the next few years and he was off the radar by 2014. According to court records, he later became a grifter, joining his mom in schemes to defraud banks, jewelers and car dealers out of over $1 million. They were convicted in March 2025.
• The music video, directed by Marcus Raboy, takes the edge off the "suicidal" lyrics by showing Kingston as a high school kid vexed by the cheerleaders and other popular girls. It plays like an episode of a Disney show, with lots of attractive young people dancing and having fun.
• The lyrics get rather specific and kind of surprising in parts, especially this one:
  
  It was back in '99
  Watching movies all the time
  Oh when I went away
  For doing my first crime
  
  According to an early bio, Kingston was arrested at age 11 while living in Kingston, Jamaica, charged with breaking and entering.