Songfacts®:

• When young people set their sites on a career making music, they picture the excitement that comes with creating and performing. But there are a lot of down days too, which can range from just boring to outright depressing. In this song, the Alabama singer-songwriter Tim Higgins comes to terms with this balance, describing a hazy day where it's hard just to stay motivated.
• Higgins got the idea for this song from a conversation with Jessi Zazu of the Nashville band Those Darlins. They got some attention in the Americana scene with their first three albums; when Higgins asked the secret to their success, Zazu told him, "We said yes to everything."
  
  "I took that to heart," Higgins said on the Songfacts Podcast. "I had to have that realization that every day is not a party, which I thought was a hilarious sentiment."
• Higgins wanted to record this song with Jessi Zazu, but she died before she could - Zazu succumbed to cervical cancer in 2017. He ended up singing it with LG, the frontwoman for the band Thelma and the Sleaze.
• Based on the title, this song isn't always welcomed where folks have come for a good time. "The first time I sang that song in New Orleans, I said, 'Here's my next song, 'Every Day is Not a Party,'' and everybody booed," Higgins told Songfacts. "Then I finished it and I got a lot of knowing nods from everybody in a city that never sleeps. It's my bumper sticker. Put it on your fridge."