Heat Waves

Album: Dreamland (2020)
Charted: 5 1
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "Heat Waves" is about a man who's failing at a romantic relationship. He doesn't feel like he's giving his partner the life that she deserves. It differs from the typical heartache song in that all of the angst is directed inwardly. Frontman Dave Bayley never blames or condemns his partner - only himself.

    According to Bayley, it's about a real person who was very important to him, but is no longer part of his life. "The whole thing is meant to feel really reflective, and it ends up focusing on one memory, which is about a certain person that I really missed," he told Genius.

    He wrote the song in May 2019, but this person's birthday is in June, thus the lines:

    Sometimes, all I think about is you
    Late nights in the middle of June


    "Every time it gets to May I start thinking about this person and how they're not in my life anymore, and I start missing that person," he said.
  • The term "heat wave" usually denotes a stretch of uncommonly hot weather, but that's not the way that Bayley uses it here. In this song, the term is used in the sense of a heat haze, which is sometimes also called a highway mirage. Both names refer to the wavy air that rises off asphalt on extremely hot days. Bayley is using it as a metaphor for his own failed promises. He's tried to offer his love all the things she wants and needs but they're just like heat waves rising off hot asphalt, illusory and without substance.
  • The band recorded the music video for the song during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their neighbors filmed it on their own phones.

    The video shows Bayley carting an amp in a wagon through London. He reaches an empty music hall and performs this song with the rest of the band. Bayley called the video "a love letter to live music and the culture and togetherness surrounding it."
  • The song shares certain lyrical themes with "Your Love (Deja Vu)."

    "They're both definitely two of the songs that are about relationships and sort of knowing that they're doomed," Dave Bayley told ABC Audio.

    He added that "Heat Waves" could be considered the "sequel" to "Your Love."

    "'Your Love' is sort of realizing that person's gonna keep hurting you, and that you can't save this thing... it is doomed," Bayley explained. "And 'Heat Waves' is kinda realizing that that's OK. It's just accepting that you can't always make everyone happy."
  • This topped the 2020 Triple J Hottest 100, Australia's annual listener-voted poll of the most popular songs of the year. Glass Animals were the first British act to top the countdown since Mumford & Sons won the 2009 poll with "Little Lion Man."
  • Spearheaded by Scottish postman Nathan Evans's version of the traditional nautical song "Soon May The Wellerman Come," sea shanties went viral on TikTok in early 2021. Glass Animals jumped on the "ShantyTok" trend by transforming "Heat Waves" into a sea shanty.
  • The song originated late at night when Dave Bayley was fumbling with his guitar trying to come up with a long chord pattern. "After 10 minutes of looking into space and plucking the guitar, I hit those eight chords, and I was like, 'Ooh, that's it,'" he recalled to Billboard. "As soon as I had [that], I started singing. Literally the first thing that came out was the hook."
  • Sometimes, all I think about is you
    Late nights in the middle of June


    Bayley was in a melancholic mood when he penned the song, as it was coming up to a sad time of the year for him. He explained: "There's a certain time of year where I always start to feel a bit s--t, because I lost someone really important to me, and 'round their birthday, I start to feel a bit weird. Their birthday is in June, by the way. It was coming up to that period and it was late at night."
  • The song climbed to the top of the Australian ARIA Singles Chart dated March 1, 2021 in its 12th week on the survey.
  • When the song reached #1 on Alternative Airplay, it gave Glass Animals their first-ever chart-topping Billboard single. The band's previous best ranking had been the #7 they achieved on Alternative Airplay with "Your Love (Deja Vu)."
  • Glass Animals released an updated version of "Heat Waves" featuring Iann Dior on March 25, 2021. The reworking comes complete with an extra verse from the Puerto Rican-born, Texas-raised rapper.
  • After originally peaking at #19 on the UK singles chart in the first half of 2021, the song slowly slipped down the tally. It rebounded to its highest chart position yet on the chart dated September 3, 2021 thanks to the #allithinkaboutisyou trend on TikTok playing off the song's lyrical hook.
  • The song climbed to #1 on Billboard's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs September 11, 2021-dated chart. It reached the summit in its 60th week on the tally, breaking the record for the longest ascent to the top previously held by Twenty One Pilots' "Ride" (47 weeks in 2015-16). It was Glass Animals' first ever #1 on any Billboard tally.
  • The song set a new US chart record when it entered the Hot 100 top 10 for the first time on the listing dated November 13, 2021. The song, which first entered the US singles chart in 100th place in January 2021, slowly climbed the tally before finding landing at #10, 42 weeks later. Its slow-but-steady rise broke the record for the lengthiest ascent, surpassing Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" (38 weeks).

    "Heat Waves" finally reached #1 on its 59th week on the Hot 100, breaking the record for the longest run to the top of the chart. Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" previously held the record, spending 35 weeks on the tally before reaching the apex in December 2019.
  • Bayley attributes the song's success to it landing at the right time. "I feel like everyone in the pandemic has been feeling nostalgic," he told NME. "No one was going out and creating new memories, they were all reliving the old ones. This song is about that – it's about memories, it's about missing someone, everyone's been missing people in this age."
  • "Heat Waves" is the longest charting song on the Hot 100 of all time. On the chart dated October 22, 2022 it surpassed the 90-week run of The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" (in 2019-21), which had held the record since August 2021. "Heat Waves" eventually dropped off the survey after 91 weeks.

Comments: 15

  • Anonymous from MnWOW great song
  • Hi from L’manbergDreamnotfound dnf dreamnotfound dnf dreamnotfound dnf dreamnotfound
  • Jess from FelthamIt’s about a person who can’t love a narcissist and there’s plenty out there
  • SongbingerIt just hits different when you can relate
  • Anon from In My Head“Sometimes all I think about is you, late nights in the middle of June”- reminds me of a time in my life where everything was brighter, like when you wake up from a long nap and everything is just fresher.
    But this song also makes me sad, like I grieve the person I was becoming before that one thing happened. Sometimes the harder you try to make something work the more you realize it’s not working. Whether it’s a relationship or a job, there’s a limit to how much you as a person can change/compromise. This song is about who I was and who I am and how compatible/ incompatible I am within myself. Like a love song to myself telling me to get it together because I deserve to give myself everything.
  • Allison from UsaI definitely feel this song is about a gay relationship. He literally says he thinks their lover would be "better off IN someone new".
  • Leia from NhThe part when he said-
    Sometimes, all I think about is you
    Late nights in the middle of June
    Heat waves been faking me out
    Can't make you happier now.
    That really hits on a late-night when you're trying to sleep or maybe it's just me. Otherwise the sad part, I think this song is amazing.<3
  • Person from MinnesotaI think this song is that no matter how hard you try you'll never be able to please everyone and as he learns he learns to let them go.
  • Jojo from South AfricaThe very last verse gets my - I can't figure it out without projecting.

    Road shimmer
    Wiggling the vision
    Heat heat waves
    I'm swimming in a mirror"

    Is this a bit about self-reflection VS illusions VS self doubt brought on by the sudden heatwave (flashflood of emotion)?
  • Raye from Berkeley, CaIt's actually about a friend of his who died and how he's grieving and processing that loss. He said he made the lyrics intentionally ambiguous though, so it can be interpreted in different ways. He talks about how he wrote the song on Song Exploder podcast.
  • Kkbird from NarniaI like to think that it is about a gay relationship, June being pride month and all. Hence, I will keep referring to it as the #1 gay song of 2021. :]
  • AnonymousAlthough this song has up best tone and rhythm the song is actually about a friend who committed suicide and then wishing they could of done more for that friend
  • AnonymousI love this song so much, and I think it's just because of it's weird rhythm. Even his voice is almost a forced whisper mixed in with a good singing voice. It's the perfect song for when you want to think, because the lyrics can go multiple ways. You can view the lyrics as SongFacts said, which is about him feeling that he didn't give enough. But you can also listen and hear how maybe she is with someone and he thinks he can do better for her.
    "You just need a better life than this" - he would provide her with that.
    "You need something I can never give" - he doesn't have the opportunity to because she is with someone else and he has to respect that.
    "Sometimes all I think about is you" - obviously, he thinks about her all the time.
    May 10, 2021
    Age: 15
  • Spoopyghost from SomewhereThis helped me with a deep analysis in my English class, thank you! (It was during the poem unit and we had to choose a song to do with love or hate)
  • Ghost8841 from Somewhere In Coloradowow :)
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Mike Scott of The Waterboys - "Fisherman's Blues"

Mike Scott of The Waterboys - "Fisherman's Blues"They're Playing My Song

Armed with a childhood spent devouring books, Mike Scott's heart was stolen by the punk rock scene of 1977. Not surprisingly, he would go on to become the most literate of rockers.

Vanessa Carlton

Vanessa CarltonSongwriter Interviews

The "A Thousand Miles" singer on what she thinks of her song being used in White Chicks and how she captured a song from a dream.

Women Who Rock

Women Who RockSong Writing

Evelyn McDonnell, editor of the book Women Who Rock, on why the Supremes are just as important as Bob Dylan.

Chris Frantz - "Genius of Love"

Chris Frantz - "Genius of Love"They're Playing My Song

Chris and his wife Tina were the rhythm section for Talking Heads when they formed The Tom Tom Club. "Genius of Love" was their blockbuster, but David Byrne only mentioned it once.

Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty

Rob Thomas of Matchbox TwentySongwriter Interviews

Rob Thomas on his Social Distance Sessions, co-starring with a camel, and his friendship with Carlos Santana.

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"They're Playing My Song

Gramm co-wrote this gorgeous ballad and delivered an inspired vocal, but the song was the beginning of the end of his time with Foreigner.