Cherry

Album: Fine Line (2019)
Charted: 84
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Harry Styles poured his heartache following his breakup with the French model Camille Rowe into several of the Fine Line tracks. The pair had a year-long romance before splitting in July 2018; the Victoria's Secret beauty went on to date the art collector Theo Niarchos.
  • Theo's father owns a multi-million-dollar collection of artwork that is rumored to be one of the biggest in the world. During this mournful acoustic song, Harry mocks Camille's new boyfriend.

    Does he take you walking 'round his parents' gallery?

    He also tells her he's remained in touch with her pals.

    I just miss your accent and your friends
    Did you know I still talk to them?


    Harry told Apple Music's Zane Lowe he was still cut up about the breakup when he penned the song. "I was feeling not great. It's all about being not great," he said. "Because you get petty when things don't go the way you want it. There's parts that's so pathetic."
  • The night Harry Styles wrote the song, everyone had left the studio, apart from him, his frequent songwriting collaborator Tyler Johnson, and his engineer Sammy Witte. Harry told Apple Music that he wanted to be true to how he was feeling about the breakup. At the same time he was feeling under pressure to make "big songs" that were more commercial than the music on his debut solo album. Johnson told him, "You just have to make the record that you want to make right now - that's it." So they stayed up and wrote "Cherry" that night."
  • The song begins with Camille Rowe greeting Harry in French. "Coucou," she says.

    The outro is a soft-spoken French voicemail of the model talking. Harry told Rolling Stone, "I was playing guitar and she took a phone call - and she was actually speaking in the key of the song."
  • Camille's phone conversation translates into English as:

    Hey! Are you asleep?
    Oh, I'm sorry…"
    "Well, no… Nope, it's not important…"
    "Well then… We went to the beach and now we..."
    "Perfect! Let's go!"


    Said Harry about the voice sample, "It just felt like it needed it. We're friends and stuff, so I asked her if it was okay. And she was okay with it. I think she liked it."
  • The song title is not included in the lyrics, but does continue Harry's apparent fruit fetish. He has already given us tracks about kiwi and watermelon. Also, the general admission pits for his 2020 Love On Tour were named Cherry and Watermelon.
  • The song's co-producer, Kid Harpoon, revealed to Music Week that "Cherry" was written in the early hours of the morning, "with Sammy, Tyler and Harry a bottle of tequila down."

Comments: 1

  • Greenbean from AlaskaHarry, your as precious, truthful, brilliant and much loved. I’m looking forward to watching you blossom in the many decades ahead. Be safe...be happy.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

The Girl in That Song

The Girl in That SongFact or Fiction

Billie Jean, Delilah, Sara, Laura and Sharona - do you know who the girls in the songs really are?

Album Cover Inspirations

Album Cover InspirationsSong Writing

Some album art was at least "inspired" by others. A look at some very similar covers.

Does Jimmy Page Worship The Devil? A Look at Satanism in Rock

Does Jimmy Page Worship The Devil? A Look at Satanism in RockSong Writing

We ring the Hell's Bells to see what songs and rockers are sincere in their Satanism, and how much of it is an act.

Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne

Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of WayneSongwriter Interviews

The guy who brought us "Stacy's Mom" also wrote the Jane Lynch Emmy song and Stephen Colbert's Christmas songs.

Dwight Twilley

Dwight TwilleySongwriter Interviews

Since his debut single "I'm On Fire" in 1975, Dwight has been providing Spinal-Tap moments and misadventure.

Peter Lord

Peter LordSongwriter Interviews

You may not recognize his name, but you will certainly recognize Peter Lord's songs. He wrote the bevy of hits from Paula Abdul's second album, Spellbound.