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Thinking out Loud

“Thinking Out Loud” is Sheeran’s smash hit about lifelong love. Though he was just 23 when he wrote it, he imagines the love lasting well into his later years.

The message resonated with fans, and it shattered several records—it was the first song to spend a full year in the UK Top 40, and the first song to reach 500 million streams on Spotify (the service also deemed it the top “first dance” song in the world).

Sheeran wrote the song about his then-girlfriend Athina Andrelos. He calls it the only happy song on the album x, on which he strived for a more serious vibe, working extensively with Rick Rubin.

Sheeran co-wrote “Thinking Out Loud” with Welsh folk singer Amy Wadge, and his friend and long-time collaborator Jake Gosling produced the track. Chris Leonard engineered it, and played guitar.

Don’t

Written about a relationship Sheeran went through, “Don’t” is believed to be about Ellie Goulding, though it’s never been officially confirmed.

What has Ed Sheeran said about the song?

That was a riff that I had on my phone for a year. The song’s pretty self-explanatory, story-wise, it was one of those situations where someone comes across as a very, very sweet, innocent person, and you take that for granted, then stuff unravels and you see a different side to them. It’s a frustration song, I’m saying, ‘I didn’t really know she was like this, fuck! You bastard…”. But I got over it quite quickly [laughs].

On the first album, I’d only really ever dated one person, and I’ve had a lot of experiences with this album – good and bad – but they’ve all been positive, I’ve learnt from all of them. And if I didn’t make all these mistakes, I wouldn’t’ have written a good album. That song will ruffle some feathers – I’ll get a few angry emails.