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“Perfect”
Perfect cover
Information
Album

Made in the A.M.

Released

October 16, 2015

Format

Digital Download

Recorded

July, 2015

Length

3:50

Writers

Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Julian Bunetta, Jesse Shatkin, Jacob Kasher, John Ryan and Maureen Anne McDonald.

Producer

Julian Bunetta, Jesse Shatkin, AFTERHRS

Perfect is the third track on Made in the A.M. It was announced on October 9, 2015 that "Perfect" would be released as the second single on October 16, 2015.

The song is "an emotionally charged ironic love song featuring passionate drumming, rousing guitars, shimmering synths and an immense chorus."[1]

Background

"Perfect" was written and recorded in Los Angeles during July 2015. On July 3, 2015, Louis posted a picture of himself with some of the songwriters, as well as rapper Lunchmoney Lewis, onto Instagram[2]. On October 4th, "Perfect" was registered on ASCAP and all of the track's songwriters were revealed. A fan on Twitter noted the song was co-written by Harry, despite not being in the photo Louis uploaded. Lunchmoney Lewis favorited this tweet, confirming Harry had been in the recording studio on July 3rd.[3]

On October 14, 2015 Louis spoke to Good Morning Britain about writing the song with Harry, describing the song's meaning as "you’re not the typical knight in shining armor, Romeo kinda guy…you’re not taking it so seriously. It’s more about the moment.”[4]

The media heavily speculated the lyric "If you're looking for someone to write your break-up songs about" was a reference to Taylor Swift, who dated Harry briefly in 2012, and wrote numerous songs about their relationship for her 1989 album. Harry denied the rumours, saying "I don't really read it [the speculation]. I'm never going to tell someone what it means to them, because there's a lot of songs where I feel something completely different from what the writer intended me to feel. It's obviously funny to see, but it's up to everybody's individual interpretation."[5] Liam also denied the rumours saying "Louis wrote on [Perfect] too, so how could he write about Taylor Swift - [to Louis] unless you have some secret thing going on? It might be for somebody, but we can’t say that. It’s still a bad boy tune."[6] Louis added “Everybody draws on their own experience so it’s not a crazy thing if that’s what it’s about.” The "secret thing" Liam refers to is presumed to be Harry and Louis's relationship; see this.

On September 29, 2015, Julian Bunetta tweeted "I mean it's not perfect" in response to a fan asking if "Infinity" was the best song he's ever heard.[7] He later told another fan "Perfect" is "a jam. I play it in my car all the time."[8] Bunetta also said the song took a long time to write "because it was written over a couple different continents. It started as one thing and ended up where it is. Good driving song."[9]

On October 9, 2015, Apple Music's official Twitter account posted a confirmation tweet stating "Perfect" was the second single. Two hours later, the tweet was deleted. A short time later, Liam tweeted "Looks like the cat's out of the bag!!! Our next single is "Perfect". Can't wait for you all to hear it!"[10] and Harry tweeted "Our next single is called 'Perfect'. Looking forward to you hearing it, hope that you like those apples."[11](in reference to Apple Music prematurely confirming the news). Niall posted the official single artwork to Instagram[12] and Louis expressed his excitement for the single, tweeting "Soooooo excited for you all to hear Perfect ! Ahhhhhh"[13]

Lyrics

[Louis]
I might never be your knight in shining armor
I might never be the one you take home to mother
And I might never be the one who brings you flowers
But I can be the one, be the one tonight

[Liam]
When I first saw you
From across the room
I could tell that you were curious,
Oh, yeah
Girl, I hope you’re sure
What you're looking for
'Cause I'm not good at making promises

[Harry]
But if you like causing trouble up in hotel rooms
And if you like having secret little rendezvous
If you like to do the things you know that we shouldn’t do
Then baby, I'm perfect
Baby, I'm perfect for you
And if you like midnight driving with the windows down
And if you like going places we can’t even pronounce
If you like to do whatever you've been dreaming about
Then baby, you're perfect
Baby, you're perfect
So let's start right now

[Niall]
I might never be the hands you put your heart in
Or the arms that hold you any time you want them
But that don’t mean that we can’t live here in the moment
'Cause I can be the one you love from time to time

[Liam]
When I first saw you
From across the room
I could tell that you were curious,
Oh, yeah
Girl, I hope you’re sure
What you're looking for
'Cause I'm not good at making promises

[Harry]
But if you like causing trouble up in hotel rooms
And if you like having secret little rendezvous
If you like to do the things you know that we shouldn’t do
Then baby, I'm perfect
Baby, I'm perfect for you
And if you like midnight driving with the windows down
And if you like going places we can’t even pronounce
If you like to do whatever you've been dreaming about
Then baby, you're perfect
Baby, you're perfect
So let's start right now

And if you like cameras flashing every time we go out,
Oh, yeah
And if you're looking for someone to write your break-up songs about
Baby, I'm perfect
Baby, we're perfect

If you like causing trouble up in hotel rooms
And if you like having secret little rendezvous
If you like to do the things you know that we shouldn’t do
Then baby, I'm perfect
Baby, I'm perfect for you
And if you like midnight driving with the windows down
And if you like going places we can’t even pronounce
If you like to do whatever you've been dreaming about
Then baby, you're perfect
Baby, you're perfect
So let's start right now

Release

"Perfect" premiered on October 16th, during UK radio show BBC Radio1 Breakfast, hosted by Nick Grimshaw. It was made available for pre-order in the UK and Ireland two days before.

Perfect EP

On October 21, 2015, a special edition extended play called the "Perfect EP" was released onto Spotify. It featured a brand new unreleased track called "Home", two remixes of "Perfect" and one remix of "Drag Me Down", produced by Liam and featuring rapper Lunchmoney Lewis. The EP became available on iTunes worldwide over the following 24 hours.

Tracklist

  1. Perfect (Stripped)
  2. "Home"
  3. Perfect (Mamota Remix)
  4. Drag Me Down (Big Payno Remix) ft. Lunchmoney Lewis

Charts

"Perfect" reached #1 in Ireland, Scotland and Slovakia. It was a top 10 hit in numerous other countries including the USA where it became their 6th top 10 hit, beating the record previously held by The Beatles. On January 29, 2016, BPI announced the song had gone gold in the U.K[14].

Performances

One_Direction_Performs_"Perfect"

One Direction Performs "Perfect"

One_Direction_make_Perfect_return_Week_3_Results_The_X_Factor_2015

One Direction make Perfect return Week 3 Results The X Factor 2015

One_Direction_Performs_'Perfect'

One Direction Performs 'Perfect'

One_Direction_-_Perfect_-_Premios_Telehit_2015

One Direction - Perfect - Premios Telehit 2015

ONE_DIRECTION_-_PERFECT_(THE_LONDON_SESSION)

ONE DIRECTION - PERFECT (THE LONDON SESSION)

One_Direction_-_Perfect_Live_at_the_AMAs_2015

One Direction - Perfect Live at the AMAs 2015

American Music Awards 2015

One_Direction_Perfect_Live_-_Royal_Variety_Performance_2015

One Direction Perfect Live - Royal Variety Performance 2015

Royal Variety 2015

Music Video

Music Video Information
One_Direction_-_Perfect_(Official_Video) Released October 20, 2015
Length 3:49
Director Sophie Muller
Production Co
Choreographer
Filmed 2015
Location New York City, United States
VEVO views 363,295,679 (as of July 31, 2018)

References

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