Nothin’ On You

Story of Song

In the song, Mars is assuring his girlfriend that other women have got ‘Nothing On You’. In an interview with MidWeek, Mars explained: “Every song I write has to do with a real life experience, whether it’s at the time or me back tracking to how I felt at another moment. So, yeah, it was about someone; let’s leave it at that.” B.o.B co-wrote this track with Mars, explaining in an interview with Artist Direct: “I’m still young, but in the song I’m reflecting on my younger days when I was all about chasing girls. I was a hopeless romantic and made a lot of stupid decisions. It’s about those days. I’m compiling my observations of myself and putting them on a record. I feel like it was a happy marriage between the lyrics that Bruno sang and what I’m doing because he pretty much summed it up and I just had to elaborate on it in my way. I switched up my vocal inflection. It’s different; a lot of B.o.B fans didn’t notice it was me on first listen.”

In an interview with MTV News, Mars and Philip Lawrence explained how the song came about, with Mars saying: “Me and Phil always had that hook, It was a different melody at first, though.” Lawrence added: “So one day our other partner, the Silent Bob of the Smeezingtons, Ari, he walked into the studio and said he programmed the drums over.” Mars responded: “It had this old-school hip-hop beat. I said, ‘Give me the piano,’ and that was the first thing I started playing. Magically, that melody worked with this track we were doing.”

Release date

Released February 2, 2010

Songwriter/s

Bobby Ray Simmons Jr. – Peter Hernandez – Philip Lawrence – Avri Levine

Label

Rebel Rock – Grand Hustle – Atlantic

Chart Rankings

US – 1

UK – 1

GERMANY – 22

In the US, ‘Nothing On You’ topped the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Rap Songs, Mainstream Top 40 and the US Rhythmic charts. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it Triple Platinum for sales over 3 million copies. In the UK, it topped the Official Charts Company and the R&B charts. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified it Gold for sales over 400.000 copies. The song topped the charts in Netherlands and South Korea, and reached the top 10 charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand. The song was certified Platinum in Australia and Canada, while in Italy and New Zealand it was certified Gold.

Artist’s age on release date

Bobby Ray Simmons Jr., aka B.o.B, was 22 years old and Peter Gene Hernandez, aka Bruno Mars, was 25 years old when this song was released.

Cover Versions

Mac Miller – Jay Park – XV – “Weird Al” Yankovic – Wonder Girls – Inch Chua – 360 – Vandarth – EXO’s D.O featuring Chanyeol – Leeteuk featuring Sungmin – Request – Raquel Castro – Joseph Vincent – Andrew Bazzi – Ahmir – Sam Tsui – Airto Edmundo – Ryan Jones (piano cover) – Tom Room 39 – Clara C & Jason Yang – Other amateur artists covered this song on Youtube.