Pop Song 135 'Photograph' Ed Sheeran 2014

Pop Song 135 'Photograph' Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran wrote "Photograph" in May 2012 with Johnny McDaid, instrumentalist and background vocalist of the Irish band Snow Patrol. Sheeran toured with the band as a support act in select North American dates. McDaid had a three-note piano loop that became the basis of "Photograph". The song's development began when Sheeran, while in a hotel room in Kansas City, was humming "loving can hurt, loving can hurt" to the loop that was playing on McDaid's laptop.Sheeran recalled: "I started humming, and then [McDaid] put a beat behind it."

They developed ideas for the song while Sheeran was building a Lego and McDaid was working on his laptop. After four hours, Sheeran picked up a guitar and they began properly structuring the composition. According to Sheeran, they ended up composing the song "within about half an hour". Both realized what had transpired only after listening back to the song the following day; they then decided on recording it.Sheeran completed writing the song while in Denver, Colorado.

Sheeran credited "Photograph" as the first record "properly" completed for his second studio album. According to him, he had "probably" recorded 60 to 70 versions of the song; these varied from live to that with piano accompaniment. Aside from the earlier versions he made with McDaid, Sheeran had recordings with songwriter-producer, Jake Gosling, who produced much of Sheeran's debut album, and producer, Rick Rubin, who was involved in other tracks from the follow-up album. However, Sheeran thought these versions "never fit" and he eventually solicited help from producer, Jeff Bhasker. This particular collaboration generated a version that Bhasker continued to enhance for several months.