You're Gonna Live Forever In Me

Album: The Search for Everything (2017)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This touching piano ballad came to John Mayer when he was working on his The Search For Everything album at Capitol Records' Hollywood building. The only other person in the room at the time was longtime engineer Chad Franscoviak. "I wrote this in one night," Mayer recalled to Rolling Stone. "The first week we were here, we had an assistant in the room and I worked a little bit but didn't get very far. So I said, 'We have to kick everybody out and it just has to be me and Chad.' He's the only guy who I can really write in front of."

    Mayer had already prepared some lyrical ideas at home, and was trying to find the right music for them one night, when this song formed itself within a space of a few minutes.

    "We would dim the lights in the studio," he said, "I sat at the piano for hours teaching myself how the song might go. I sang it that night, and that was it: what you hear on the song is the original take. I couldn't sing the vocals again if I tried. It would be like the second snowball fight in Groundhog Day. This is the first time in my life as a singer that I'm in a state of emotion, not just intellectualizing how to sing a song. Every time I hear it, it's like getting to meet myself in the same room and take a walk around myself, like, 'I guess that's what I look like from that angle.'"

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s Edition

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s EditionMusic Quiz

You know the scenes - Tom Cruise in his own pants-off dance off, Molly Ringwald celebrating her birthday - but do you remember what song is playing?

Waiting For The Break of Day: Three Classic Songs About All-Nighters

Waiting For The Break of Day: Three Classic Songs About All-NightersSong Writing

These Three famous songs actually describe how they were written - late into the evening.

Peter Lord

Peter LordSongwriter Interviews

You may not recognize his name, but you will certainly recognize Peter Lord's songs. He wrote the bevy of hits from Paula Abdul's second album, Spellbound.

Eagles Lyrics Quiz

Eagles Lyrics QuizMusic Quiz

Lots of life lessons in these Eagles lyrics - can you match them to the correct song?

Timothy B. Schmit

Timothy B. SchmitSongwriter Interviews

The longtime Eagle talks about soaring back to his solo career, and what he learned about songwriting in the group.

Dan Reed

Dan ReedSongwriter Interviews

Dan cracked the Top 40 with "Ritual," then went to India and spent 2 hours with the Dalai Lama.