Boyfriend

Album: Achin' and Shakin' (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • Laura Bell Bundy is a stage actress who played Elle Woods in Legally Blonde - The Musical. Achin' and Shakin' is her second album, and it's split into two parts representing the two sides of her personality. This song fits squarely on the "Shakin'" side. In our interview with Laura Bell Bundy, she explained: "I had written this poem for a guy I was seeing at the time. And we didn't label our relationship. We didn't call each other 'boyfriend/girlfriend.' I was on the phone with my friend one day and I said, 'Yeah, I'm out visiting my man toy.' He said, 'I have never heard anybody call their significant other man toy. That is awesome.'

    So I started coming up with a poem, and I came up with 'man toy, lover boy' all these things that I was saying instead of 'boyfriend.' 'Sweetheart that brings me joy, better half, sweetie pie, yes, I'm still seeing that same guy, no labels, or can I call you my boyfriend?' I had this in my computer for months. I got together with Luke Laird and Barry Dean and we started looping some beats and stuff, because with the Shakin' side that's kind of how we did it, we looped beats, we came up with these melodies first. And then we wrote the lyrics. So we started doing this, and they started playing piano, and I realized on the chorus part I could sing 'man toy, loverboy' over it, and I was like, 'Oh my god, I have this poem. It's a great idea for a song.' And that was it. It fit perfectly, it fit absolutely perfectly. And then we started creating the verses on that. So honestly, it was like the story was blatant in front of me. It was blatant."
  • So, does the guy Laura wrote this song about know it's about him? Yes he does. Says Bundy: "It's an amicable breakup. We're still good friends, we're fine. In fact, I sang it on Leno, and he said, 'Great job on Leno. It's hard to swallow hearing that song. It's hard to hear you sing that song.' Because he knows that's about him. And it was almost like when we started calling each other boyfriend/girlfriend, because I wrote that song. So yeah, it doesn't feel like I'm singing it to him now. When you write a sad song about somebody, that feels like you're singing it about them. But when you write an up-tempo that's kind of sassy, it's like it could be anybody you're saying. It's not like I don't think about him, but it doesn't wreck me. If we weren't friends it might wreck me. We're friends, so there's some peace now."

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