The 2010s File Feature
What Lovers Do
What Lovers Do: Creation, Recording, and Chart History Maroon 5 released "What Lovers Do" as a promotional single from their sixth studio album Red Pill Blue…
01 The Story
What Lovers Do: Creation, Recording, and Chart History
Maroon 5 released "What Lovers Do" as a promotional single from their sixth studio album Red Pill Blues in August 2017, featuring Grammy Award-winning R&B vocalist SZA. The song marked a deliberate sonic pivot for the Los Angeles pop-rock group, trading the guitar-forward textures of their earlier work for a smooth, stripped-back R&B aesthetic that leaned directly into the emerging neo-soul and contemporary R&B sounds dominating radio in the mid-2010s.
The track was produced by Adam Levine, J. Kash, and Whethan, with songwriting credits shared among Levine, SZA (whose legal name is Solana Imani Rowe), and the production team. The recording sessions took place in Los Angeles, with the production framework built around a lightly swinging groove, sparse percussion, and a melody deliberately constructed to allow vocal interplay between Levine's tenor and SZA's distinctively breathy alto. The arrangement is intentionally minimalist, creating space for the two voices to carry the emotional weight of the song rather than relying on instrumental density.
SZA's inclusion was commercially and artistically well-timed. Her debut studio album Ctrl had been released just weeks before the single's promotional push, in June 2017, generating substantial critical acclaim and positioning her as one of the most important new voices in contemporary R&B. Her participation on "What Lovers Do" introduced her to Maroon 5's substantial mainstream audience while simultaneously lending the group a degree of credibility within R&B circles they had not previously occupied.
The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 16, 2017, entering at position 73. Its ascent was methodical and sustained, a reflection of radio programmers embracing it as a reliable, format-friendly record. By late September it had climbed into the top 30, reaching number 27 on the chart dated September 23, 2017. The track continued its upward movement through October and November, ultimately peaking at number 9 on the chart dated November 25, 2017, where it remained for its highest placement. The song spent a total of 22 weeks on the Hot 100, a testament to its broad appeal across pop, adult contemporary, and R&B radio formats.
On the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart, the song performed even more strongly, reaching the top five. It also made meaningful impressions on the Adult Top 40 and Pop Songs airplay charts, demonstrating cross-format appeal that few collaborations manage to achieve simultaneously. The music video, directed with a warm, intimate visual palette, accumulated hundreds of millions of views on YouTube, further driving streaming figures that contributed to its Hot 100 longevity.
Red Pill Blues, released in November 2017, positioned itself as a project exploring adult themes of relationships and desire. "What Lovers Do" served as the album's most commercially successful lead, helping establish the album's overall tone and demonstrating that Maroon 5 retained the ability to generate Top 10 pop hits more than fifteen years into their career. The album itself debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, with the success of the single widely credited as a key driver of pre-release momentum.
Radio promotion for the song was aggressive throughout the fall of 2017, with the track receiving heavy rotation on pop and adult contemporary stations across North America. International chart performance was similarly strong, with the song entering the top 20 in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, as well as charting across numerous European territories. The collaboration's commercial success prompted both acts to perform the track together during Maroon 5's touring cycle in support of the album.
In the broader context of Maroon 5's discography, "What Lovers Do" stands as one of their most deliberate R&B crossover efforts, sitting alongside earlier collaborations like their work with Wiz Khalifa on "Payphone" and their later partnership with Cardi B on "Girls Like You" as examples of the group's systematic strategy of pairing with prominent artists from adjacent genres. SZA's contribution to the track is widely regarded by critics as one of its greatest commercial and artistic assets, her distinctive vocal delivery adding textural warmth and emotional nuance that differentiated the record from standard pop fare in that release window.
02 Song Meaning
What Lovers Do: Themes and Meaning
"What Lovers Do" centers on the tension between desire and emotional uncertainty in the early stages of a romantic relationship. The song's central preoccupation is the question of physical and emotional intimacy, framed through a yearning to move beyond the ambiguity of undefined connection and into the kind of closeness that characterizes a committed romantic bond.
The male vocal perspective, delivered by Adam Levine, articulates longing and gentle impatience. The narrator expresses a wish to progress from the tentative space of attraction into something more concrete and physical, describing the emotional restlessness that comes with mutual but unspoken desire. The song does not present this longing as aggressive or demanding; rather, it frames it as a kind of tender persistence, a hopeful request to move forward together.
SZA's vocal contribution adds an important second dimension to this dynamic. Her response within the song introduces a sense of mutual participation, suggesting that the yearning is not one-sided but shared. This call-and-response structure between the two vocalists mirrors the emotional negotiation that characterizes the song's theme, two people circling the edges of intimacy and silently asking the same question of each other.
The production reinforces the thematic content. The sparse, warm arrangement and the gentle swing of the rhythm section create a mood of relaxed sensuality rather than urgent desire. This sonic environment signals that the song's emotional register is one of warmth and comfort, not urgency or anxiety. The minimalist instrumentation places the listener's attention squarely on the voices and the emotional exchange they represent.
Culturally, "What Lovers Do" arrived at a moment when neo-soul and R&B-influenced pop was experiencing a significant mainstream resurgence. Artists like Frank Ocean, Khalid, and SZA herself were redefining what mainstream R&B sounded like, and Maroon 5's embrace of this aesthetic placed them in conversation with a broader cultural conversation about vulnerability, intimacy, and the complexities of modern romantic relationships. The song's mild, uncomplicated approach to these themes was received as accessible rather than challenging, which contributed directly to its widespread radio success.
Critics noted the song's comfort in conventional pop-R&B territory, with some observing that its restraint was both its commercial strength and its artistic limitation. The willingness to remain in a safe emotional register made it broadly palatable but distinguished it less sharply from the large volume of similar material on radio at the time. Nevertheless, its sincerity of feeling and the quality of its vocal performances earned it consistent positive assessments among mainstream listeners.
The title itself functions as both question and aspiration. The phrase "what lovers do" references an idealized repertoire of romantic behaviors, framing intimacy as something to be learned and experienced together rather than something already known. This framing positions the relationship as one at the threshold of becoming, and the song's emotional energy derives from the anticipation of crossing that threshold.
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