Songfacts®:

• "Best Hearts" centers on the idea that the people capable of the deepest empathy are often those who have experienced the worst pain. The title stems from the chorus line, "the best hearts are broken," suggesting that heartbreak and grief do not necessarily cause people to shut down. Instead, severe loss can crack a heart open, creating a larger capacity for compassion.
• Andy Grammer grounds the song's concept in personal experience during the verses, reflecting on losing his mother, Kathy, to breast cancer when he was 25, a devastating life event he's explored in other songs, including "Wish You Pain" and "She'd Say. That loss serves as the foundation for the track's main argument: surviving trauma can become the catalyst for a greater capacity to show up for others.
• The track originated through Grammer's podcast Showing Up With Andy Grammer, which highlights everyday people demonstrating extraordinary resilience and empathy. The spark for "Best Hearts" arrived via a voicemail from a mother describing her son, who was receiving treatment in a mental health facility while simultaneously taking time to comfort a fellow patient in distress. The mother asked Grammer, "Can you write a song about people who are getting crushed but still show up for others in that moment?" That request provided the blueprint for the track: you do not need to have your own life fully sorted out before offering help to someone else.
• Grammer views his mindset as optimism practiced as an active discipline. Speaking about the song, he noted: "Optimism is a personality trait of mine. But as you get older and you get beaten down, it becomes a choice. Most of the greatest moments in my life have come from choosing sweetness, sincerity and love when it would be maybe easier not to."
  
  Grammer also discussed the vulnerability required to remain open after experiencing deep emotional loss: "There's a sincerity to loving anything and a lot of times you get your heart broken, and it's one of the bravest things that anyone in life can do. And when I was young, you hear that and you think that's like lame or silly, and then you get older and you get your heart freaking destroyed. And then you realize to come back from that is maybe one of the bravest acts possible."
• Grammer wrote "Best Hearts" as a solo composition and co-produced the track alongside Jon Levine, whose resumé includes Dua Lipa's "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)" and Rachel Platten's "Fight Song."
• Levine handled drums, guitar, bass, and keyboards for the track, supported by a full horn section:
  
  Rachel Mazer: tenor saxophone
  Aleko Syropolous: baritone saxophone
  Nick Crane: trombone
  Nathan Kay: trumpet
• "Best Hearts" was released on July 10, 2026, alongside "Big Stupid Heart" as a double single. The two songs approach the same idea from different directions. "Best Hearts" reflects on optimism through the lens of grief and hard-won resilience, "Big Stupid Heart," described by Grammer as "a war cry to myself to stay open," addresses the same core theme, refusing to let heartbreak harden you, from a more defiant angle.