So you’ve stumbled on the love of a lifetime, have you? Now you want to express just how you feel about them. Only you can’t quite summon the words that haven’t been said a million times before in the words of poems and songs. You might just want to call up Ben Folds’ “The Luckiest” on your listening device of choice and play it for them. Because the song both addresses that very problem and overcomes it, all in one gorgeous stroke.
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From the Big Screen to Music History
Ben Folds originally wrote “The Luckiest” for inclusion in a film. Alas, the filmmakers pivoted, cutting the scene for which it was intended. Suddenly, Folds had a love song on his hands for which he had no outlet.
That outlet presented itself when he decided to record his first solo album. Rockin’ The Suburbs, his first album following the breakup of Ben Folds Five, arrived in 2001. Folds played most of the instruments and showed off the extreme versatility in his songwriting, from wisecracking rockers (the title track) to touching ballads (“Fred Jones Part 2”).
As this was his first effort in the singer-songwriter genre, it made sense for Folds to include a love song. Since he already had “The Luckiest” in his arsenal, he decided to deploy it. By the time he recorded it, he had added a new final verse that he devised after reading a news item about a longtime couple.
Ironically enough, “The Luckiest” finally received the opportunity to star in cinema after it was initially denied it. The 2013 romantic film About Time prominently featured the song. Folds also makes the song a showcase of his live shows, either solo or when he’s occasionally backed by an orchestra.
Exploring the Lyrics of “The Luckiest”
Each verse in “The Luckiest” seems like a different attempt by the narrator to sum up how he feels about his significant other. He focuses on fate’s role in all of it, how he found this all-encompassing love that easily could have eluded him, as it has eluded so many others less fortunate.
He admits that he hasn’t particularly followed a flawless path to finding this person. “Now I know all the wrong turns,” he says. “The stumbles and falls brought me here.” His former life almost seems unreal to him now. “And where was I before the day/That I first saw your lovely face?” he wonders.
In the second verse, he ponders how kind destiny has been to him by imagining a scenario where they couldn’t have been together. What if these two kindred souls had been born too far apart to connect? It’s his way of acknowledging just how blessed he feels. And he emphasizes this by testifying to how much he relies on her. “And in a wide sea of eyes/I see one pair that I recognize,” he confides.
The final verse is devoted to the tale of the couple who lived together to a ripe old age before passing away within days of each other. Again, he’s simply trying to find some method of conveying the depth of his feelings for her. “I’m sorry, I know that’s a strange way/To tell you that I know we belong,” he says.
In the refrains, Folds leaves all the excess philosophizing aside and lets the sweep of his melody do its thing. One line says it all: “I am the luckiest.” Next time you’re fumbling for just the right twist on “I love you,” let “The Luckiest” do the talking for you.
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
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