On 28 July 2007, Plain White T's reached No. 1 on the US Hot 100 with "Hey There Delilah", a track that would go on to become one of the decade's defining love songs and earn the band two Grammy nominations. The twist behind its enduring status as an anthem for long-distance couples is that its subject, runner Delilah DiCrescenzo, was not actually in a relationship with frontman Tom Higgenson, who wrote the song after meeting her through a mutual friend while she was dating someone else.

The song first appeared on the band's 2005 album "All That We Needed" and flopped as a single, but strong album sales caught Hollywood Records' attention, leading to a new record deal. After their first major-label single underperformed, executives witnessed fans' enthusiastic response to "Hey There Delilah" live and pushed the band to rerecord and re-release it, this time to huge success. Higgenson has said the lyrics were largely imagined rather than autobiographical, since he barely knew DiCrescenzo, and although she attended the Grammys with him, the outing remained platonic.