Songfacts®:

• This is a track from Bruce Hornsby's tenth studio album, Levitate. The majority of the tracks on the album were inspired by an unexpected letter Hornsby received in 2005 from Playwrights Horizons. The New York City theater was convinced that three tunes from Halycon Days - "What The Hell Happened," "Hooray For Tom," and "Heir Gordon" - sounded like Broadway tunes. Hornsby said to Billboard magazine: "They were writing the letter to try and commission me to write a play. So I said to them, 'what the hell, I'll give it a try, as long as its fun.'" Hornsby added that he has since been working on a musical called SCKBSTD with Broadway director Kathleen Marshall and that eight of the album's twelve songs are from the show.
  Hornsby continued: "I feel a freedom when I'm writing for the theater. A couple of the songs that I'm most proud of are 'Paperboy' and 'Michael Raphael' because they are dealing with harmony in a more adventurous, advanced way than on the standard pop song."
• Hornsby told The Express Night Out: "It's a song from the musical and it's a kid who's the paperboy. It's the kid exclaiming to all the rumors he's hearing. None of it's really true, but it's a song shilling about how the rumor mill runs rampant. 'Paperboy' is the oddest lyrical inclusion because it's so pointed but I like where it's headed."