Songfacts®:

• This promotional single from American singer-songwriter Christina Perri's debut album, lovestrong, was released to iTunes March 29, 2011. The song draws inspiration from an experience in Perri's life, when she found herself attending a dining event on her own. She explained to AOL Music: "'The Lonely' was funny. Well, not really funny, but kind of sad. It was the August of last year, and I remember I went to this event. I was all dressed up with full hair and makeup and poufy dress. Then I pulled into my driveway, alone, and sat in the car at 2AM and cried my eyes out and wrote that song. It's about loneliness but personified. It's about my relationship with nobody or with this ghost of somebody. And it couldn't have been more true for me during that time in my life."
• Christina explained the song's meaning to Teenvogue: "'The Lonely' is about my love affair with loneliness. The saddest, quietest, most painful kind. It's lonely personified. It's my relationship with no one, and I'm very happy I kept it superdramatic and simple at the same time. It's me, a piano, plus a nineteen-piece orchestra."