Hunter Hayes (feat. Jason Mraz), ‘Everybody’s Got Somebody But Me’

When and Hunter Hayes and songwriters Dave Brainard and Jennifer Zuffinetti sat down to pen the 'Everybody's Got Somebody But Me' lyrics a few years ago, Hayes had big plans for the song. Fast-forward a few years later, and the tune is Hayes' latest single and his first track to feature well-known pop singer Jason Mraz.

According to Zuffinetti, Hayes walked into the songwriting session back in 2010 or 2011 ready to pen a pop song about feeling isolated in a world of couples. At the time, Hayes wasn't a big name in the business -- he was just a young kid with a lot of dreams. Brainard and Zuffinetti spent the day writing with Hayes, and they even finished the song -- but it sounded so much like a Mraz tune that they thought Hayes would never be able to do anything with it.

“The day we wrote it, Hunter left and I turned to Dave and was like, ‘Well, we’re not gonna get that cut. It sounds too much like Jason Mraz,’" Zuffinetti recalls in an interview with Billboard. “Here we are now, and Hunter cut it with Jason! I couldn’t even believe it. Too weird."

Although the two experienced songwriters had never heard of Hayes -- and at age 18 or 19, he looked really young to them -- the country star was able to silence any doubts they might have had with his guitar. When Hayes played a bubbly, yet intricate guitar hook to offset sad lyrics about his dating blues, both Zuffinetti and Brainard realized that he had something special.

“As soon as he pulled out his guitar, I realized I had to lock mine up and throw it down the Cumberland [River],” Brainard jokes.

Hayes came not only prepared to impress with his musical talent, he also had a few hooks and 'Everybody's Got Somebody But Me' lyrics up his sleeve after a recent dating experience left him feeling rather melancholy.

“I found myself hanging out with this person and yet not hanging out with this person,” Hayes says. “I went to this party or something, and most of the night I felt kind of invisible. I didn’t know anybody there, I felt really out of place. I’m naturally awkward anyway, so it didn’t really help. I remember how alone I felt. It made me sort of miss other [dating] scenarios in the past where that wasn’t the case.”

With that experience in mind, Hayes penned the first lyrics to the song: "I wish the couple on the corner would just get a room." When he shared the words with Brainard and Zuffinetti, he thought they were kind of stupid, but Brainard disagreed. He thought they were perfect.

From there, the three songwriters penned the 'Everybody's Got Somebody But Me' lyrics, calling on inspiration from love stories like 'Romeo and Juliet.'

"Well I don't know how I landed on this movie set / It's like a casting call for 'Romeo and Juliet' / I never would have noticed if we'd never met / But everybody's got somebody but me," Hayes sings in the second verse.

Hayes originally cut 'Everybody' for his self-titled debut, which was released in 2011. When he decided to re-release the album, he called on Mraz to fill in the tune with background vocals and some lead vocals.

Atlantic Nashville released the new version of the song, featuring Mraz, in April. It's already nearing the Top 40 on the Country Airplay chart, and it has all the marks of a future hit.

Listen to Hunter Hayes and Jason Mraz, Everybody's Got Somebody But Me'