See You Again

Story of Song

Inspired by the death of actor Paul Walker. When talking to MTV News about the ‘Furious 7’ movie soundtrack and tribute to the actor Paul Walker, Wiz Khalifa explained: “To have the responsibility to do the Paul Walker record was really dope, I basically thought about what the movie stands for as far as family and the brotherhood, and of course, using the metaphor of the last ride and the last race because of that last scene.” Wiz Khalifa recorded his verses in Snoop Dogg’s home studio in L.A.

As for Charlie Puth, he penned the song in July 2014 during his second day of writing in LA. He talked to American Songwriter about writing this song, saying that: “I had come out here by myself just to go to LA and be a songwriter, because that’s what I originally intended to do. Though, between you and me, in the back of my mind I also secretly wanted to be an artist, but I thought the best way to go about that was to write songs first. My first day I wrote my other single “Marvin Gaye, my second day I heard a message from the Fast and Furious franchise that they wanted a song to honor Paul Walker’s legacy for a three minute scene at the end of the movie , the most significant part of the movie. I thought, ‘Who am I?’ But I took a whack at writing it. I wrote it with my co-writer, Justin (DJ Frank E), who I just met at the time. When we wrote the song it was so powerful, just crazy human interaction. We were like, ‘How did we just do this so quickly? We sent it to them and they loved it, they got Wiz Khalifa on it, and the rest is history. They just told me about the scenes. Later on, they wanted us to write a bridge which became (singing) ‘So let the light guide your way, hold every memory as you go,’ so I actually went to see a rough cut of the movie with the song and, oh, you know what I just realized? When I went to that rough cut I still didn’t know they were going to use my vocals on it. They were going to get someone else to sing it, and they had a lot of great people try it, but they showed the movie with me singing the hook. I was like, ‘By the way, did you guys put my cut of the vocals in there on accident?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, no. We’re going to use you on the song.’ I was like, ‘What!? You’re going to use me!?”

Release date

Released on March 17, 2015

Songwriter/s

DJ Frank E – Charlie Puth – Cameron Thomaz – Andrew Cedar

Label

Atlantic

Chart Rankings

US – 1

UK – 1

GERMANY  – 1

This worldwide hit topped the charts in 28 countries including the UK. The song won Choice R&B/Hip-Hop Son, Choice Collaboration and Choice Song from a Movie or TV Show awards at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards. It doesn’t stop here, as it was nominated for the Song of the Year and Collaboration of the Year awards at the American Music Awards. Furthermore at the MTV VMAs it was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Video and Best Collaboration awards. In the US the song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for 12 non-consecutive weeks, and was certified 4 times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) with sales over 3.5 million copies. It is Charlie Puth’s first number 1 ever in the US. In the UK, it became the fastest selling single of 2015. It was number 1 on the UK Singles Charts, achieving 1.8 million streams in 1 week in April 2015. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified it platinum with sales over 1.07 million copies. In Australia the (ARIA) certified it 5 times platinum, in Canada and Italy it reached 4 times platinum, 3 times platinum in New Zealand and Sweden, 2 times platinum in Denmark, Norway and Switzerland, while in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Mexico and Spain it was certified platinum.

‘See You Again’ was streamed 4.26 million times on Spotify in one single day in the US.

Artist’s age on release date

Wiz Khalifa was 26 and Charlie Puth was 23 years old

Cover Versions

Boyce Avenue featuring Bea Miller – Nicole Cross – Against The Current – other talented artists covered this song on YouTube.