Bruno Mars is having quite the bittersweet week. The singer-songwriter was arrested for cocaine possession while in Las Vegas, but let’s look on the bright side: his single “Just The Way You Are” topped the Hot 100, he just got word that he’ll be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, and we’re completely enchanted by the newly surfaced studio version of his track “Grenade”, a heartsick ballad about a lover who won’t reciprocate the way you want them to. Listen to the Doo-Wops & Hooligans tune below.
Bruno Mars – “Grenade”
“I would go through all this pain, take a bullet straight through my brain,” croons Bruno on the soulful, melancholy track. “Yes I would die for you baby, but you won’t do the same.”
When we spoke to Bruno the day after he debuted the song during a New York show, he explained the back story of how the song came to be:
I was with my friend Benny Blanco [songwriter of hits like Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl” and Ke$ha’s “TiK ToK”] and he was playing me some songs, and he played me this song that had a lyric like [the one in “Grenade”]… he said, this band is not signed, this is a CD that wasn’t released. I said to Benny, I can relate to that so much, I want to take that and make it my own. He was in contact with the dude, and I started writing my version, basically. It’s a heartbreaking, heartbreak song, and I think everyone can relate to that. You’re so in love with this woman and you don’t understand, “ What am I doing wrong? What am I not giving to you? I’ll go as far as putting as putting a bullet in my brain for you, and why can’t I get that kind of love in return?”
Mars also revealed that the song was one of his personal favorites on Doo-Wops, and he hopes that it becomes a single.
Would you like to see this track become Doo-Wops‘ next single? Personally, we think it’s one of Bruno’s best, and a song Ryan Tedder would have wished he wrote. Plus, we can already hear it being sung to death on American Idol.
Grenade doesn’t stand out from the get go, but after several listens it keeps your attention. Really like the simplicity of the lyrics tackling a subject where the person usually isn’t so logical. Maybe if the bass alternated its sound as a slap to something more grounding and tonal it could bring a bigger contrast to when the instrumental drops out for a bit.
Yea, I can see this being sung on American Idol, Youtube and talent shows. But I’m most looking forward to the parody videos.
Let’s see if the music video is worth parodying! But there will be plenty of people on YouTube covering this song with their eyes closed, playing along with their acoustic guitar within two days of its single release, I bet you.
AWESOME! Hope it gets single treatment
Haha, yea. But seriously, I haven’t listened to this song since I’ve commented and it’s still stuck in my head. How infectious will it be once it make rounds on the radio?
And the lyrics itself dictates certain scenes for a music video. If there’s an official release, wonder how literal they’ll take the lyrics.. like catching grenades, bullet through the brain. Hmm.
Omg! You the Best! I Love Your Song’s ;]*