Songfacts®:

• In this song, Tevin Campbell tries to get to know a girl, but they're both too shy and head their separate ways. Now he keeps thinking about her, looking forward to the next time they'll meet, when he'll be sure to strike up a conversation. He already has his opening line picked out: Can we talk?
• "Can We Talk" was written and produced by Babyface and Daryl Simmons, who teamed to write most of the hits for Karyn White, Johnny Gill, and Bobby Brown from this time period. It was the first single from Campbell's second album, I'm Ready, released when he was just 16. Campbell's first single, "Round And Round," was issued in 1990 when he was 13. That song was written by Prince, who contributed four songs to I'm Ready, none with the innocence of "Can We Talk." One of the Prince songs, "Shhh," was released as the next single. That one is all about lovemaking on the down-low, with lines like "I'd rather do you after school, like some homework."
  
  The Babyface-Simmons team had two other songs on the album, including the title track, which was the next single. Another four songs were written and produced by Narada Michael Walden, who contributed Campbell's big hit "Tell Me What You Want Me To Do" from his previous album.
• Campbell is gay, but didn't reveal that in the '90s. It wasn't easy for him to project the loverboy image, but he was an immensely talented vocalist who could pull it off, even if it wasn't authentic. Campbell stopped making music in the '00s and started working in musical theater, where he found his tribe. He told People, "Being around people who were like me, LGBTQ+ people that were living normal lives and had partners - I had never seen that."
• Regarding the line, "And just like a Roni, you were too shy," a "Roni" is a young, innocent girl. Bobby Brown famously sang about one in his 1988 hit "Roni," also written by Babyface and Daryl Simmons.
• Babyface made sure the lyric was age-appropriate for 16-year-old Tevin Campbell, but that didn't mean stripping the passion. "I always tried to go for that real emotion, that raw emotion that you would have as a kid," he told People. "Puppy love is the strongest love that you can have. Because it's everything, and you'll die for it - at least you think you will."