Songfacts®:

• This song from Fall Out Boy's debut album is about a boy who tries to steal another guy's girlfriend. He tries to convince her that he's better than her neglectful boyfriend and even suggests she hates the boyfriend more than she notices. But the boy also realizes he isn't making a big enough commitment to win her over: "Someday I'll appreciate in value, get off my a-- and call you." >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Evan - Livingston, NJ
• The title is a play on the popular video game Grand Theft Auto.
• Lead singer Patrick Stump and bassist Pete Wentz fought hard to keep this song off the album because they both hated it during the recording process. Stump in particular was against doing the a cappella opening but producer Sean O'Keefe won the battle. Not only was the song kept on the album, it was released as the second single. In retrospect, both guys admitted the producer was right and they grew to love the tune, especially because it means so much to their fans.
• The lyrics originally asked "Where is your man tonight?" but Wentz convinced Stump that "Where is your boy tonight?" would work better, considering the singer was still a teen at the time.
• Take This To Your Grave was put together quickly at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, where Nirvana laid down tracks for Nevermind more than a decade earlier. According to Pete Wentz, the facility still had the microphone used on the famous album, but no one except Shirley Manson of Garbage was allowed to use it.
• The blue-tinted album cover, which features the quartet clustered together on a futon in their apartment, became an iconic image among pop-punk album art. But it wasn't the band's first choice. For the original cover - a shot of Wentz's then-girlfriend lying alone in his bed - the band worked with photographer Ryan Bakerink on redesigning Wentz's bedroom with nostalgic items. The problem was, the label couldn't get clearance for all the toys and other memorabilia shown in the photograph (at least at first - they ended up using the photo for the vinyl edition), so they had to scramble for another image.
  
  Inspired by the art on old jazz recordings, Stump suggested the blue cover. "I was pushing the Blue Note jazz records feel," he told Alternative Press in 2013. "That's why the CD looks a bit like vinyl and why our names are listed on the front. I wanted a live photo on the cover. Pete liked the Blue Note idea but didn't like the live photo idea. I also made the very fateful decision to have my name listed as 'Stump.'"
• This was used in the 2008 comedy Sex Drive.
• In the wintry music video, directed by Dale "Rage" Resteghini, the band performs in front of a cabin on the Muskegon River in Michigan. Meanwhile, a boy (Jeremiah Pilbeam) trudges through the snowy woods with a camera and films a girl (Leila Mahadin) through her bedroom window. The actors also appear as funeral goers in the 2006 video for "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race."
• On the way to shoot the music video, the band got into a terrible van accident when their driver slid on black ice and ended up crashing in the forest. No one was injured, but the van, trailer, and a lot of gear was destroyed.