Little Things is the second single of One Direction from Take Me Home. It was released in the UK on October 29, 2012 and globally on December 3, 2012. It became One Direction's second worldwide #1 single, reaching the top of the charts in 12 countries.
Lyrically, the narrator describes the insecurities of a romantic partner and reassures them that these perceived imperfections only serve to make the narrator love them more.
Background[]
"Little Things" was written by British singer-songwriters Ed Sheeran and Fiona Bevan, and produced by Jake Gosling. In February 2012, One Direction expressed interest in working with Sheeran for their second studio album. In June 2012, Sheeran disclosed that One Direction would be recording two of his songs.[1]
In October 2012, Sheeran acknowledged Bevan's songwriting credit in an interview with British radio network Capital FM: "The great thing about it is I wrote that song with a girl called Fiona Bevan when I was 17 and we lost the song. I've kept in touch with Fiona, we've done gigs and stuff and about two months ago she sent me the tune and was like, 'Oh, do you remember this?' I was like, 'Yeah, I do remember that', and I was in the studio with the One Direction boys at the time and I was playing it and they were like, 'We really like that'. It's got one of my favourite lines that I've ever written in a song."[2] On October 15, 2012, Tomlinson confirmed via social networking website Twitter that "Little Things" would serve as the second single of their second studio album Take Me Home.[3]
Lyrics[]
Music Video[]
| Music Video | Information | |
|---|---|---|
|
Released | November 2, 2012 |
| Length | 3:38 | |
| Director | Vaughan Arnell | |
| Production Co | ||
| Choreographer | ||
| Filmed | October 15-16, 2012 | |
| Location | ||
| VEVO views | 311,643,989 (as of May 09, 2019) | |
Background[]
The music video for "Little Things" was shot entirely in black-and-white and directed by Vaughan Arnell, who had previously directed the band's music video for their previous single "Live While We're Young". Tomlinson disclosed via social networking website Twitter that an accompanying music video for "Little Things" was in production on 15 October 2012. Band member Zayn Malik confirmed that they had finished filming the video the following day.
Release[]
On each of the five days preceding the video's premiere, One Direction posted a teaser trailer of the video online. Each teaser showed footage from the video and behind the scenes, and one member of the band announcing how many days were left until the video premiere. The official video was uploaded to their Vevo account on YouTube on 2 November 2012.
Synopsis[]
The music video consists of a simplistic concept — a One Direction recording session. In a November 2012 interview with MTV News, Arnell said he did not want to make it about anything more than that, "When I first heard the track, the mix on it was so simple and so pure and you could hear all the qualities of the voices on the track, I just wanted to come up with something that when the viewer watched it, it was almost like sitting there listening to the boys sing the track." Arnell wanted to make the music video as "uncontrived as possible" without "any other bullsh-- or effects in the way of it."
The shoot took over twelve hours to complete and said that it was "one of the hardest things I've ever done." The group performed it "over and over again because I was just trying to get different shots, different angles, different qualities." As for the decision to shoot the video in black-and-white, Arnell felt it best captured the essence of the ballad. He also noted that was his intention to give the music video the feeling as if One Direction are singing it right to you, "It's purely about the clarity of it. When you sit there watching it, it's almost like these little bits of eye contact [and] you really feel like the guys are singing it to you."
Lyric Video[]
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Behind the scenes[]
Live Performance[]
Credits[]
- Ed Sheeran — writing
- Fiona Bevan — writing
- Jake Gosling — production
- Chris Leonard — guitars
- Tommy Culm — backing vocals