Songfacts®:

• This song finds Miguel using nature's annual fall transformation as a metaphor for an unexpected breakup. He had not expected the ending of the relationship, as the leaves don't change in California. He thought it would be summer forever.
• The song appears to borrow from the Smashing Pumpkins' "1979." Miguel made sure he got the band's approval before he included it on Wildheart. "Kind of after we finished the song, it was like, 'You know what, this is reminiscent of this song,' so we made sure that they heard it and made sure that it was all good," he told Billboard magazine.
  
  "We're all standing on the shoulders of giants. There's nothing that hasn't been done ... there's going to be moments where you do things that are reminiscent of other things," Miguel added. "And even if you're not aware of them, I think it's just best out of respect to reach out."
• The use of autumnal leaves as a metaphor for a change in circumstances is not uncommon in popular music. Here are a three more examples:
  
  "Autumn Leaves Revisited" by Thursday (About a child who loses their father in a war).
  
  "Autumn Leaves" (This jazz standard about lost love and regret has been recorded by many artists, including Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and Steve Allen).
  
  "Autumn Leaves" by Susan Boyle (About losing someone you love).
  
  And here's three more about the last leaf of autumn representing persistence:
  
  "Last Leaf" by OK Go (Waiting on a girl, even if she turns out to be the last leaf hanging on a tree)
  
  "Autumn Leaves" by Chris Brown (About working hard for a difficult relationship and holding on like the last leaf of autumn).
  
  "Last Leaf" by Tom Waits (Reflects on how he's managed to stay alive for so long, when so many of his contemporaries have fallen to the ground).
• Want a couple of leafy fun facts?
  
  Wherever a leaf is in the world, its internal temperature is always 21 degrees C.
  
  It is estimated that your chances of finding a four-leaf clover on the first try are 1 in 10,000.