Songfacts®:

• Eg White, who co-wrote Chasing Pavements, helped pen this ballad. Adele told The Sun: "It turned out to be about the early stages of a relationship falling apart."
• This is one of several tracks on 21 inspired by a turbulent relationship Adele had in the years following her success. She told Q magazine: "The album is a story about meeting the love of your life and being perfect for each other, but not at that moment of time."
• When Adele introduces this track during her performance captured on the Live at the Royal Albert Hall CD/DVD, she reveals regarding the ex that inspired most of 21: "He left me a couple of weeks after I played him this song. It was for the best, though. He was an ass and I was a bitch -- it wasn't going to work."
• Adele turned to her 19 collaborator Eg White for the first co-writing session for her second album. This was the only useable song to come out of their session. "I thought we'd be able to do another Chasing Pavements," admitted Adele to Q magazine, "but we didn't click as good as the first time.
• Adele was still with her ex, the subject of 21, at the time she wrote this song, but their relationship was close to ending.