Hey there, Delilah, what’s it like in New York City?
TV series based on the still-annoying 2006 song is in the works
“Hey there, Delilah, what’s it like in New York City?”
More than a decade ago, that single question — the opening line of the Grammy-nominated love song “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s — captivated millions of people and had them all asking the same things: Who is Delilah? Is she real? What is it like in New York City?
As it turns out, Delilah is in fact a real person, named Delilah DiCrescenzo, and the band’s frontman, Tom Higgenson, wrote the song after meeting her in 2002. Described by Time as “an intimate love song that’s damn near universal,” the acoustic guitar ballad, released in 2006, tells the story of a struggling singer-songwriter (Higgenson) pining for a university student who lives in New York (DiCrescenzo).
While many long thought the entire love story fit into three minutes 52 seconds, that’s not the case anymore. Now, fans may finally be able to stop wondering what it’s like in New York City for Delilah. They could potentially see it themselves — in a scripted TV series.
On Tuesday, the Hollywood Reporter revealed that the band has been working with production companies, Lively McCabe Entertainment and Primary Wave, to create a “romantic dramedy” based on the hit song.
“’Hey There Delilah’ is a perfect example of an iconic story song that has introduced characters and a premise to a massive multigenerational audience, and is begging to be expanded into a full-length story for contemporary television audiences,” Michael Barra, Lively McCabe Entertainment’s co-president, said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter.
Billed as a “contemporary fairy tale,” the potential series, which will be pitched to networks and studios this month, aims to expand on the original story in the song, according to the Reporter.
“It’s been more than a decade since ‘Hey There Delilah’ was released, and people always ask me about it. A whole lot of people really connected with that song, and I’m very proud of that,” Higgenson told THR. “I’m so excited to have an opportunity to give a new generation the chance to form their own connection with the song, and fall in love with its story through this new project.”
“Hey There Delilah” is not the first song to be adapted for TV. In June, country star Dolly Parton announced that she would be partnering with Warner Bros. Television to produce a TV film series for Netflix, which is set to debut in 2019. Each instalment will be based on one of her classic songs, the statement said.
Additionally, many movies have drawn inspiration from popular songs. In 2007, Beatles songs became the framework for “Across the Universe,” a movie musical that went on to be nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. A year later, Jessica Chastain starred in “Jolene,” based on Parton’s song of the same name.
Higgenson’s announcement instantly resurrected “Hey
There Delilah” from its status as a relic of the mid-2000s, and the news became a trending moment on Twitter Tuesday.
Steven Hyden tweeted “Hey there, Delilah What’s it like in New York City? I’m a thousand miles away But, girl, tonight you look so pretty Yes, you do Times Square can’t shine as bright as you I swear, it’s true”
“You can get at least six episodes out of that verse.”
It all started about 16 years ago when Higgenson met DiCrescenzo, then a student at Columbia University, through a mutual friend in Chicago. Naturally, Higgenson tried to impress her.
“Something about her really drove me crazy,” he told People in 2007. “So I said, ‘I have a song for you,’ trying to be smooth. That was a big lie.”
Unfortunately, DiCrescenzo was already dating someone, but the pair kept in touch over AOL Instant Messenger. Then, a few months later, when DiCrescenzo and her boyfriend went to a Plain White T’s concert, the musician told her eight life-changing words: “I’m going to write a song about you.”
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would happen,” she recalled in a 2013 ESPN Magazine article.
DiCrescenzo said she was at home in Chicago one Christmas when Higgenson came by and dropped off a CD. Track 13 caught her eye. The song was called
“Hey There Delilah.”
By the summer of 2007, it was nearly impossible to go anywhere without hearing Higgenson singing about Delilah and how Times Square couldn’t shine as bright her. The song rocketed to the top of the charts, spending 35 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100 with multiple weeks in the No. 1 spot.
“There’ve been thousands of aching guy reaching out to distant girl songs recorded over the years, and it’s a credit to the Plain White T’s that this one manages to feel fresh,” Time’s Josh Tyrangiel wrote in 2007. “Singer Tom Higgenson has an imperfect voice, but his nasal delivery makes the nearly-comic sincerity of his lyrics — ‘Delilah I can promise you/ That by the time we get through/ The world will never ever be the same’ — seem completely genuine.”
Then, like many overplayed songs, “Hey There Delilah” went from catchy to “annoying” and faded from mass popularity. But, every so often, it would briefly pop back into relevance, getting radio airplay on “throwback hours” and stirring up feelings of nostalgia.
With the news of the proposed TV series, however, the song has returned to the spotlight.
Although “Hey There Delilah” may not be dominating radio waves as in 2007, Higgenson told Entertainment Weekly that the song continues to resonate with “people young and old” who are curious about the story behind it.
“I’m excited to reimagine the story I’ve told a million times.”