"Stereo Hearts" is a song by American

rap rock Rap rock is a music genre that developed from the early to mid-1980s, when hip hop DJs incorporated rock records into their routines and rappers began incorporating original and sampled rock instrumentation into hip hop music. Rap rock is co ...

group

Gym Class Heroes Gym Class Heroes was an American rap rock band from Geneva, New York. The group formed in 1997 when Travie McCoy met drummer Matt McGinley during their high school gym class. The band's music displays a wide variety of influences, including h ...

featuring

Maroon 5 Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. It consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Adam Levine, rhythm guitarist and keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine (musician), James Valentine, d ...

frontman

Adam Levine Adam Noah Levine ( ; born March 18, 1979) is an American musician who is the lead singer, rhythm guitarist and sole continuous member of the pop rock band Maroon 5. Levine began his musical career in 1994 with the band Kara's Flowers, for ...

. The song was released on June 14, 2011, as the lead single from the group's fifth studio album '' The Papercut Chronicles II'' (2011). The song topped the ''Billboard''

Mainstream Top 40 Pop Airplay (also called Mainstream Top 40, Pop Songs, and Top 40/contemporary hit radio, CHR) is a 40-song music chart published weekly by Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played o ...

and also reached number four on the

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

Composition and recording

Produced by

Benny Blanco Benjamin Joseph Levin (born March 8, 1988), known professionally as Benny Blanco (stylized in all lowercase), is an American record producer and songwriter. He is the recipient of the 2013 Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall ...

and

Robopop Daniel Omelio, often known by his stage name "Robopop", is a producer and songwriter based in Los Angeles. He is best known for his work on successful singles by Maroon 5, Gym Class Heroes and Lana Del Rey Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born J ...

, "Stereo Hearts" begins with Adam Levine singing the

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. "My heart's a stereo / It beats for you, so listen close / Hear my thoughts in every note. / Make me your radio / Turn me up when you feel low / This melody was meant for you / So sing along to my stereo." Sheet music for this song shows the key of

A major A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The A major scale is: Changes needed for the ...

. McCoy then raps about serenading his ideal girl and picking love over animosity, all the while relaying the message using music-based metaphors. Additional

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

was played by Austin Bis at Chalice Recording Studios in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Music video

Gym Class Heroes drummer Matt McGinley explained that the song's music video "basically plays on the idea that we're sort of just being casual, hanging out, being ourselves and our shadows get wild and get loose. The video shows the band playing in the city of New York and their shadows are playing on the ground." The video (directed by

Hiro Murai Hiro Murai (born 1983) is a Japanese-born American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He is best-known for music videos for Childish Gambino, Earl Sweatshirt, Chet Faker and others. His music video and television work has received widespread ac ...

) has the feel of a 1980s setting, with a breakdancer and several payphones seen, though the actual setting is modern as evidenced by the

Mini Cooper Mini Cooper may refer to: *Performance Cars of the original Mini series with uprated drive train and brakes, called the "Mini Cooper", made by the British Motor Corporation and also the successors 1961–1971, and 1990–2000 *Cars of the Mini (mar ...

in one scene. It prominently features a pawn shop with a stack of old-fashioned boomboxes and TV sets, on which Adam Levine appears when he is singing the chorus. In October 2024, the video has hit 875 million views making it the fourth-most viewed video on Fueled By Ramen.

Lyric video

A lyric video for the song received millions of views in the first month of its release. This is one of the first lyric videos to incorporate a live action story line, showing a man and a woman in split-screen as they get dressed for the day and go outdoors carrying boom-boxes, until they finally meet in a park. The video stars actress Breana McDow and was directed by music video director

Djay Brawner Djay Brawner (born June 21, 1981) is an American director of music videos, film, and television. Career In 2000, after taking film classes at De Anza College, he moved Orange, California to begin his education at Chapman University's film scho ...

Critical reception

The song received positive reviews. MTV's Jenna Hally Rubenstein complimented the band's new direction on "Stereo Hearts", writing that it is "a little more slickly produced than we're used to, but, we're still solidly behind the experimental new song." MTV's James Montgomery described it as a "prime-time slab of genre-mashing, sweat-inducing pop, the kind of song that may very well push GCH to summertime superstardom." Becky Bain of

Idolator An idolator is a practitioner of idolatry. Idolator or Idolater may also refer to: * Idolator (website), an American music blog * ''Idolator'' (album), a 2005 album by Blood Stain Child * ''Idolator'', a 1986 album by Ole Evenrud * "Idolater", a ...

called it a "head-nodding jam" and "an instantly memorable signal that Gym Class is back in session."

Live performances

Travie McCoy joined Maroon 5 onstage to perform "Stereo Hearts" on

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

on November 5, 2011. Gym Class Heroes and Adam Levine performed the song at the 2011 American Music Awards, along with

Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera ( , ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and television personality. Recognized as Cultural impact of Christina Aguilera, an influential figure in music and having received Public imag ...

for the Maroon 5 song "

Moves like Jagger Moves may refer to: * ''Moves'' (ballet), by Jerome Robbins * ''Moves'' (magazine), a periodical * ''Moves'' (Singing Adams album), 2012 * ''Moves'' (Kirara album), 2016 * "Moves" (Big Sean song), 2017 * "Moves" (Olly Murs song), 2018 * A mo ...

" on November 20, 2011. The duo continued with the song on ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The show ran for nineteen seasons from September 8, 2003, to May 26, 2022, in which it broadcast 3,339 episodes. It was produced by ...

'' on November 23, 2011, and ''

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Super Bowl Fan Jam'', a pre-show of the

Super Bowl XLVI Super Bowl XLVI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

on February 2, 2012.

Track listing

*Digital download # "Stereo Hearts (feat. Adam Levine)" – 3:31 *German CD single # "Stereo Hearts (feat. Adam Levine)" – 3:31 # "Stereo Hearts (feat. Adam Levine)" – Soul Seekers Retronica Extended Mix – 6:17 *Remixes # "Stereo Hearts (feat. Adam Levine)" –

Dillon Francis Dillon Hart Francis (born October 5, 1987), also known as DJ Hanzel, is an American electronic music producer and DJ. He played a key role in popularizing moombahton and later developed its heavier variants, moombahcore and EDM trap. Earl ...

Radio Edit — 3:36 # "Stereo Hearts (feat. Adam Levine)" – Soul Seekerz Retronica Radio Edit — 3:36 # "Stereo Hearts (feat. Adam Levine)" – Dillon Francis Extended Mix — 3:46 # "Stereo Hearts (feat. Adam Levine)" – Soul Seekerz Retronica Extended Mix — 6:17

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stereo Hearts 2011 singles Adam Levine songs Gym Class Heroes songs Songs written by Ammar Malik Songs written by Robopop Songs written by Adam Levine Songs written by Travie McCoy Songs written by Sterling Fox 2011 songs Alternative hip-hop songs Number-one singles in Israel