Songfacts®:

• Ariana Grande started dating luxury home realtor Dalton Gomez in January 2020 and the pair quarantined together during the COVID lockdown. Over a frisky backbeat, Grande sings on "34+35" about their bedroom antics as she describes the pair having sex all night.
• The song title references the sex position 69 (for those of you that are lousy at math, 34+35=69). Grande is urging her partner to use this position while they make love from midnight until the sunrise. It also acts as a play on the album name and its title track.
• Ariana Grande wrote the explicit song with her go-to collaborators Victoria Monét, Tommy "TBHits" Brown, Tayla Parx, and Mr. Franks. The other credited writers are:
  
  Scott Nicholson, who is one of Ariana Grande's choreographers and backup dancers. He has appeared in several of the singer's videos, including "Thank U, Next." Nicholson came up with the "just gimme them babies" line on the first verse, earning him his first ever writing credit.
  
  Peter Lee Johnson arranged the song's fluttering strings. Other Grande tracks he arranged the strings for include "Winter Things" and "Needy."
  
  Grande's Hawaiian music producer friend Xavier "Xavi" Herrera.
  
  Albania born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Albert Stanaj.
  
  Mr. Franks, Xavi, Peter Lee Johnson and TBHits produced the song.
• Speaking to the Zach Sang Show, Grande admitted she had reservations about putting the overt song about sex positions on Positions because she didn't want it to divert attention from the rest of the record.
  
  "The thing about this song, that has been my fear since the beginning, is that it would distract from the vulnerability and the sweetness that is the rest of the album," she said. "It's just a fun song, and it deserves a home on the album for sure. I think that everything I do has a little bit of humor, and the people know that I'm not really sitting here 'til dawn."
• Grande explained how she wanted the lyrics to be as filthy as possible to contrast with its wholesome instrumentation. "I just think it's ridiculous, so funny and stupid," she said. "We heard the strings that sounded so Disney and orchestral, and full and pure. And I was just like, 'Yo, what's the dirtiest possible, most opposing lyric that we could write to this?'"
• Ariana Grande told Zach Sang she wrote the last part of the third verse the night after an earthquake hit California.
  
  Got the neighbors yellin' "Earthquake!"
  4.5 when I make the bed shake
  
  She is likely referring to the magnitude 4.5 earthquake on September 18, 2020, which shook throughout Southern California and Los Angeles.
• In the Director X directed video a scientifically seductive Grande plays both a scientist and a fembotic creation she brings to life. Director X (Julien Lutz) is famous for his work with artists like Rihanna ("Pon De Replay"), and Drake ("Hotline Bling"). This is his first time working with Grande.
• Ariana Grande enlisted two mistresses of the double entendre, Megan Thee Stallion and Doja Cat, for the remix, which she dropped on January 15, 2021. Both rappers stay on brand, adding sexually charged lyrics to the already risqué track. It is Megan's first time working with the Florida singer, while Doja previously jumped on Ariana's Positions cut, "Motive."
  
  The song's cover art features the three ladies each wearing one of Grande's hairstyles from the song's video.
• The Stefan Kohli-directed visual for the remix features Ariana Grande, Megan Thee Stallion, and Doja Cat enjoying a hotel party. They lounge in an opulent pool room, sipping champagne while clad in sexy lingerie, order room service, and shoot grainy home movies of each other on an old-school camcorder. Photographer Stefan Kohli also acted as creative director for the three Positions album covers; this is the first major music video that he worked on.