Songfacts®:

• This is the title track and second single from the fourth studio album by American rock band The All-American Rejects. Singer/Bassist Tyson Ritter explained the song's meaning to Kerrang! magazine: "It's about that moment in life when you're burning the last of the 'candle of innocence' right before you start to burn the one of cynicism that comes with being an adult."
• The Kids In The Street album finds the Rejects hearkening back a lot to their early years when they were punk rock kids. Guitarist Mike Kennerty explained why to AOL Music: "When we were recording Kids In The Street, there was just a lot of talk about the good old days, and I think it comes from the song itself. Lyrically, it's rooted in looking back on those times, when we were rambunctious, and didn't really care about the rest of the world. Not in a selfish way, just you want to live your life the biggest way you can, which kind of became an underlying theme. I don't know if it was purposeful or not, but it just kind of bled through into everything."