Songfacts®:

• "If I Never See Your Face Again," written by Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine and guitarist James Valentine, first showed up on the group's second album, It Won't Be Soon Before Long, in 2007, but it's the version they released a year later with Rihanna that most of us know.
  
  Levine talked to MTV News about the collaboration: "The song was basically done, but we wanted to try something different, so we had her come in and do bits and pieces. It came together so quick. The only other collaboration I had done before was with Kanye (West), and it was the same way. It sounds cheesy, but if the magic is there, if the chemistry is there, you don't even have to think about it."
• In 2008, the Rihanna version was added to Maroon 5's reissue of the It Won't Be Soon Before Long album, and it was also included on the re-release of Rihanna's album Good Girl Gone Bad. Rihanna told MTV News, "This is the only collaboration on my re-release, because I always wanted to work with Maroon 5. They're one of my favorite bands. When they called me to do this record with them, I was so honored."
• Many Maroon 5 songs find Adam Levine all hot and bothered by a girl, and on the group's first album, there was a specific girl he was singing about on many of them. That album, released in 2002, is called Songs About Jane, and the real Jane (his ex Jane Herman) was his muse for many of those songs, including "This Love" and "Sunday Morning." On Maroon 5's second album, It Won't Be Soon Before Long in 2007, there are lots of songs about girls, but they aren't so personal. In "If I Never See Your Face Again" he's OK with never seeing the girl again because he's happy for the time they had. It went "much further than I thought," so he'll take the win.
  
  He's not this reasonable on every song from the album: In "Wake Up Call" he turns homicidal!
• There was a lot of sexiness in this collaboration: Adam Levine was later named People's "Sexiest Man Alive" and Rihanna was anointed by Esquire as "Sexiest Woman Alive." The video shows them being sexy together, and unsurprisingly, it got loads of views.
  
  In case you're wondering, Rihanna is nine years younger than Levine. They were never linked as a couple in real life.
• Rihanna and Maroon 5 were both pretty big stars by this time, and both were still on the rise. They got there from very different directions.
  
  Maroon 5 was previously known as Kara's Flowers. They released an album in 1997 and were promptly dropped by their label. After rebranding they released the Songs About Jane album in 2002 and were all over the radio by 2004. They waited until 2007 to release their next album, and the lead single, "Makes Me Wonder," was a #1 hit.
  
  Rihanna was 17 when she released her first album in 2005. She put out another in 2006 and did the same in 2007, with the hits getting bigger and bigger, culminating with "Umbrella" in 2007.