Songfacts®:

• This was released as the lead single from the soundtrack to the Baz Lurhmann-directed movie, The Great Gatsby. Lana Del Rey wrote the song with San Francisco songwriter Rick Nowels, whose other credits include Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven Is A Place on Earth," Dido's "White Flag" and Colbie Caillat's "Fallin' For You." Del Rey said, "It was an honor to work with Baz Lurhmann on his amazing adaptation of one of the most extraordinary books ever written. The movie is highly glamorous and exciting; Rick Nowels and I were thrilled to write the song for the film."
• The Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film The Great Gatsby soundtrack blends traditional Jazz with Hip-Hop and other contemporary musical textures. "[The idea] didn't come from 'Let's make a great soundtrack, it came from Fitzgerald,'" Luhrmann explained to MTV News. "When he wrote that book, he was a modernist, he was in the moment, and the music of the moment was African-American street music called Jazz, and when he put Jazz music in Gatsby, everyone was like 'What are you crazy? It's a fad.' And then he put Hit Parade songs, pop songs, the equivalent of Lana Del Rey singing a beautiful ballad."
• This song is suited to Del Rey, as she can sing it in a very low register. "She has this beautiful deep speaking voice," her former vocal coach Tina Shafer told us. "So she's written tailor-made a lot of her songs around a comfortable speaking voice area of her voice."
• This started out as a different song before Baz Luhrmann got to hear it. Del Rey told Radio.com: "He asked me if I could I write a memory cue for Daisy. So I sang him a chorus of 'Young and Beautiful' that I had already — just a chorus — and he thought that'd be good for her. I wrote the whole thing after I watched her garden scenes."
• In the music video, a collaboration between directors Chris Sweeney and Sophie Muller, Del Rey performs Dan Heath's orchestral version accompanied by a full-string orchestra.