Songfacts®:

• "Valentine's Day" is a soft lie that LANY frontman Paul Klein told following his breakup with English music star Dua Lipa. In the song he's telling her he's found someone else just as good and is starting to move on, but by the end, he admits it's all been a lie. Lipa's still the one in his heart, and he knows she'll be the best he ever had.
  
  Klein did eventually move on; by the time the song was released in 2018, he was dating the actress Nicola Peltz. She later married Brooklyn Beckham.
• All the songs on Malibu Nights, LANY's second album, were written on a 41-day marathon that began after Klein broke up with Lipa following a New Year's Day fight. He locked himself away and worked through his heartache with creativity. Every night he'd send a demo to bandmates Jake Goss and Les Priest. "Valentine's Day" was written on the actual holiday and was sent in as a rough idea, with only piano and vocals. It was the last song written for the album.
• Guitarist Taylor Johnson added the atmospheric guitar on this one. LANY is made up of Klein and Jake Goss (the aforementioned Priest left the band in 2022 to write and produce in Nashville), so they frequently bring in session and touring musicians. Johnson has worked with them many times, playing on two of their biggest hits, "Malibu Nights" and "Stuck." He's also played with Avril Lavigne, Lorde, and Frank Ocean.
• In his interview with American Songwriter, Klein revealed that one of the lyrics from "Valentine's Day" was changed at the last moment. "I kissed her hips to find some help" evolved out of something he only described as "more visceral."
  
  "Yeah," he laughed, "I think everyone would have known exactly what I meant with the other line."
  
  This isn't unusual for Klein. He often runs lyrics by collaborators and friends to test their reactions. "You just don't know how people will take some things," he added. "Just because you have it and you're thinking one way in your head, that word, that line could mean something completely different to somebody else."