Why Can't I?

Album: Liz Phair (2003)
Charted: 32
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Songfacts®:

  • This was Phair's only Top-40 hit. It describes a girl who can't be with the guy she has feelings for because they are both in other relationships, but they still hold hands and act like a couple even though they know it's wrong. By the end of the song they can be together: "Isn't this the best part of breaking up? Finding someone else you can't get enough of," but still aren't. She keeps saying that she knows it will happen eventually. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Morgan - Huntsville, AL
  • Phair hoped to attract new fans with her mainstream success and then rattle them with the rest of her repertoire. She told Noisey: "That was always my hope. My hope was that someone would hear the song in the gym and buy the record and then start buying my albums and sort of have an awakening. I pictured someone who just sort of did whatever mainstream told them to do - the woman at the gym who heard the song and bought the song and then slowly started to have uncomfortable thoughts. I like that idea."
  • This was used in the 2004 romantic comedies 13 Going on 30, starring Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo, and Win A Date With Tad Hamilton!, starring Kate Bosworth, Topher Grace, and Josh Duhamel.
  • This was used in the TV series The O.C. in the 2003 episode "The Debut."

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