Maroon 5 Guitarist Says "Payphone" Is a Hit Because Love Isn't a Fairy Tale

A&M Records/OctoneMaroon 5's new album Overexposed debuted at #2 on the Billboard album chart, and the first single, "Payphone," is currently #2 on the Hot 100.  "Payphone" was a smash hit right from the start; it broke the record for the most downloads ever in one week for a song by a group.  And despite the band's long history of hits, Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine says they don't take that sort of success for granted. 

"We've been around for long enough that we've seen peaks and valleys of a career," James tells ABC News Radio.  "No matter [how] hard you work on a song, or as much as you think going into a release that something's really gonna resonate with people, you never know until you actually put it out into the world.  So, every time it happens, it's amazing."

He adds, "You know, as many successes as we've had, it's always surprising when that happens, and it's always such a great feeling."

As for why he thinks "Payphone" is resonating with people, James says all you have to do is look at the lyrics, which feature Adam Levine singing, "If happy-ever-afters did exist/I would still be holding you like this/All those fairy tales are full of it/One more stupid love song, I'll be sick."  In other words, the song isn't some idealized look at love, like so many other pop hits.

"It is realistic in its sort of cynical view of the way things could be," James tells ABC News Radio.  "I think that's important to address -- the more realistic aspects of the dynamics between men and women."  He notes, "It isn't fairy tales all the time, and maybe this person in the song is bitter, but I think that reflects more of the reality than most songs do."  

Maroon 5 will play their only scheduled U.S. date this summer on July 21 in Stateline, Nevada.  The rest of the summer will find them touring in South America, Mexico, Australia and Asia.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio