Ladykiller

Album: Overexposed (2012)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Adam Levine begging a femme fatale to come back to him from her new boyfriend. The Maroon 5 frontman penned the song with guitarist James Valentine and bassist Mickey Madden. Valentine recalled to Ultimate Guitar: "One day I was talking to Mickey Madden and it was like, 'Let's just come up with a couple song titles' and he came up with the titles 'Ladykiller' and 'Fortune Teller. He said, 'Those sound like good sounding names.' We were on the road and I'm always sort of tinkering around with riffs and ideas and track ideas in Logic Pro. I looked at 'Ladykiller' and I ended up sort of writing a song with first-draft lyrics and then played it and Adam was into it and he added to the lyrics and tweaked a couple of the melodies to suit more of where he would sing it."

Comments: 1

  • Nicole from ReadingNot to be that person, but I'm pretty sure the song is about a girl leaving the singer for another girl....

    "Baby she'll eat you live
    As soon as she smells your blood in the water
    You better run to survive
    Before she makes you her latest slaughter
    How could you do it?
    Oh, just come back to me, baby I'm begging please
    How could you do it?
    Oh she knows I love you still, you're just her latest kill"

    Doesn't sound to me like he's talking to the same person from different perspectives... Sounds more like he's begging his ex-girl to come back to him and leave the girl she started dating after him because the new girl is a ladykiller. The love interest in this song is probably bisexual.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Go's

Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Go'sSongwriter Interviews

Charlotte was established in the LA punk scene when a freaky girl named Belinda approached her wearing a garbage bag.

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"They're Playing My Song

A song he wrote and recorded from "sheer spiritual inspiration," Allen's didn't think "Southern Nights" had hit potential until Glen Campbell took it to #1 two years later.

Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues

Justin Hayward of The Moody BluesSongwriter Interviews

Justin wrote the classic "Nights In White Satin," but his fondest musical memories are from a different decade.

John Doe of X

John Doe of XSongwriter Interviews

With his X-wife Exene, John fronts the band X and writes their songs.

Emilio Castillo from Tower of Power

Emilio Castillo from Tower of PowerSongwriter Interviews

Emilio talks about what it's like to write and perform with the Tower of Power horns, and why every struggling band should have a friend like Huey Lewis.

Strange Magnetics

Strange MagneticsSong Writing

How Bing Crosby, Les Paul, a US Army Signal Corps Officer, and the Nazis helped shape rock and Roll.