Songfacts®:

• "If Only I Could Wait" is the sound of two people clinging to each other for dear life while simultaneously wondering if they should let go. A duet between Bon Iver's Justin Vernon and Haim's Danielle Haim, it captures that peculiar moment when the rush of new love gives way to something heavier - the realization they no longer have the strength to be the best version of themselves.
  
  Vernon said the song is "a bilateral crying question. How long can the two of us hang on to each other?"
• "If Only I Could Wait" and "Walk Home" were released as singles from the Sable, Fable album on March 14, 2025. "Walk Home" is all about breathless passion, while "If Only I Could Wait" is the moment when reality sneaks in, puts its feet up on the coffee table, and asks some difficult questions. The two songs embody the album's central theme: love as both euphoric connection and existential puzzle.
• Like the rest of the album, "If Only I Could Wait" was recorded at April Base, Vernon's personal studio in the wintry wonderland of Wisconsin. The project was co-produced by Jim-E Stack, who showed up there on February 2, 2022, with Danielle Haim in tow. What was meant to be a brief visit turned into an extended stay when a snowstorm left them stranded. With nothing better to do (besides possibly figuring out how to dig their car out of a snowdrift), they started recording. Haim's contribution to "If Only I Could Wait" became, in Vernon's words, the "essential perspective" the song needed.
• Stack had worked with the band Haim before, adding keyboards to their song "Want You Back" and drum programming to "FUBT." Their collaboration on "If Only I Could Wait" was a pivotal moment in the creation of Sable, Fable, an album billed as "a love story set to lush, radiant pop music."