Thinking of You (Katy Perry song)

Background

"Thinking of You" was written by Perry and produced by Butch Walker. Amateur video of Perry performing an entirely acoustic version at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles as early as 2006 is available on YouTube. The song is a pop ballad song and features acoustic instruments. The single was released on January 12, 2009, in the US, and in Australia a week later.

Composition

"Thinking of You" is a ballad styled in the genres of pop rock and soft rock with country music influences. According to digital sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony-ATV Music Publishing, the song is written in the key of E major and the tempo moves at 76 beats per minute. Perry's vocal range in the song spans from the low note of G♯₃ to the higher note of C₅. According to Perry, the lyrics of the song are about a break-up after which she doesn't want to move on but has no choice, and is thinking about her ex-boyfriend while she is with her current lover. Perry describes her former lover as "perfection" and feels disgusted with herself when she kisses her current boyfriend, calling him second best in comparison.

Critical reception

Writing for BBC Music, Lizzie Ennever exalted her vocal performance while commenting that the song possesses "edge" and "rawness" that, according to Ennever, are characteristic of the "real [Perry]". David Balls from Digital Spy described the track as a "serious offering designed to show off her vocal and songwriting talents", and compared it to the catalogues of Alanis Morissette and band Evanescence. Giving it three stars out of five, he wrote: "So does she succeed? Well, certainly not for want of trying." In a less positive review, Nicole Frehsee from Rolling Stone dismissed the song as "generic Dawson's Creek schlock".

Jon Caramanica of The New York Times favored the song's production, stating that Perry works better with melody and emotion. He contrasted the song—which he described as "gently and compellingly angry"—with Perry's singles of sexual themes, and concluded that "feeling deeply is shocking enough". For Contactmusic.com, Kelda Manley called the song "high quality" whereas NME reviewer Alex Miller jokingly regarded it as having "all the emotional subtlety of a flamethrower". A writer for The Boston Globe found similarities to Alanis Morissette's musicality in the track, such as her "sour melodicism" and vocals. Reviewing the single for Billboard, editor CT praised Perry for her "distinct vocal inflection". Another writer of Capital described it as "cracking" and "single material".

Chart performance

In the United States, "Thinking of You" attained moderate success. The song debuted on the US Billboard component chart Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles at number 5. Three weeks later, it entered the primary Hot 100 chart at number 79; having climbed to number 50 in the following week. It rose fifteen spots one week after, giving the track the title of "Greatest Digital Gainer" for that chart issue. The following week, it reached a peak of number 29, where it stayed for more two weeks. By doing so, it became Perry's lowest-peaking solo single on the chart, and her first to miss peaking the top 10. By the seventh week spent on the chart, the song moved to number 31; from there on, it started plummeting down the chart. Following a chart progression of 34– 44– 51– 55– 67– 68– 84, it left the chart at number 91 on the May 9 chart issue. "Thinking of You" has sold 1.1 million copies in the United States as of January 2015.

Internationally, commercial outcomes for "Thinking of You" were likewise modest. In Europe, the song received moderate success. The song debuted at number 63 on the UK Singles Chart. After seven weeks on the chart, the song peaked at number 27. The song peaked at 38 on the Irish Singles Chart. In France, the song was much more successful, debuting at number 11 on the singles chart, and stayed in the charts for 32 weeks. The song peaked at number 29 on the Swedish Singles Chart and number 14 on the Italian Singles Chart. In Brazil the song peaked at number 1 and stayed there for several weeks, partly due to the use of the song in the Emmy-winning soap opera India – A Love Story. In Australia, the song debuted at number 34 on the Australian Singles Chart, which was its peak position. The single stayed in the charts for six weeks. The song did not chart in New Zealand, becoming Perry's only single not to chart there.

Original version

The first music video was released in 2007 and surfaced on YouTube in May 2008. The video features Perry in two rooms: a white room in which Perry is happily in a relationship and a dark room with an unhappy Perry showing signs of regret. In the dark room, Perry smokes a cigarette as a man dressed in a suit sits beside her. Soon after, another woman enters and pushes Perry off to the side. Back in the white room, Perry sips red wine as her lover undresses beside her, while Perry's hands are wet with blood and there is blood on the bedsheets. The video ends with the revelation that Perry stabbed her lover in the white room in the back, as she sings tearfully while covered in blood before the shot spans to the side, showing the knife on the floor. The video uses a cross-cutting technique that compares the two relationships. Perry stated that the aim of the video was never to get a commercial release, but that it is just a simple video "made by a friend".

Commercial version

Perry revealed on her blog that she had already started filming a second and official music video in the first week of December 2008, directed by Melina Matsoukas. The video premiered exclusively on iTunes on December 23, 2008. The music video is presented as a flashback montage with a young woman whose lover, played by actor Matt Dallas, is killed in France during World War II, and begins with Perry in bed with another man, played by model Anderson Davis. Perry is clearly unhappy with her new partner and longs for her deceased lover as she looks at a photograph of him. Perry reminisces back to a bicycle ride with him, and looks out of her window to see a vision of the two of them laughing outside. Perry's current boyfriend approaches her and kisses her while she remembers a picnic with her former lover, as well as a trip to a lake. In another flashback, Perry slow dances with her former lover at a bar before emotionally waving goodbye to him before he goes to war. While Perry's new love kisses her, she imagines her old lover at a battlefield, being shot and clutching his chest. In another scene, Perry is tearfully applying makeup and putting on a funeral veil, and in another she is opening a letter informing her that her boyfriend has died in battle. After applying dark makeup and dressed in funeral attire, Perry walks out of her house to attend her dead lover's funeral. On April 16, 2012, Perry uploaded on her VEVO channel an "Extended Version" of the video. The video received largely positive reviews from critics.

Lives performances and covers

Perry performed the song on MuchMusic HQ's MuchOnDemand on December 15, 2008. She also performed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Early Show, and Last Call with Carson Daly.

Outside of the US, Perry performed it on This Morning in the UK, and at the 2009 ECHO Awards in Germany. Perry performed the song as part of a Live Lounge special presented by Fearne Cotton for BBC Radio 1's on March 19, 2012 along with "Part of Me", "The One That Got Away", "Firework", and a cover of "Niggas in Paris". Perry performed "Thinking of You" as part of her setlist on all of her world tours, the Hello Katy Tour, the California Dreams Tour and The Prismatic World Tour.

In June 2009, American pop rock group Jonas Brothers covered the song on BBC Radio 1.

Track listing

1. "Thinking of You" (radio edit) – 3:58
2. "Thinking of You" (album version) – 4:08
3. "Thinking of You" (live acoustic) – 4:51
4. "Thinking of You" (instrumental) – 4:13

1. "Thinking of You" (album version) – 4:09
2. "Thinking of You" (live acoustic) – 4:51