Harry Styles Said ‘Adore You’ Is Like Van Morrison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ or David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’

Harry Styles released his second studio album, Fine Line, in 2019. One of the album’s biggest hits is “Adore You.” Styles modeled it on some of his idol’s poppier tunes.

Harry Styles said ‘Adore You’ is like Van Morrison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ or David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’

After Styles released Fine Line, he spoke about its secrets with Rolling Stone. He said “Adore You” is sort of like some of his idols’ poppier songs.

“‘Adore You’ is the poppiest song on the album,” he told Rolling stone. “This time I really felt so much less afraid to write fun pop songs. It had to do with the whole thing of being on tour and feeling accepted.

“I listen to stuff like Harry Nilsson and Paul Simon and Van Morrison, and I think, well, Van Morrison has ‘Brown Eyed Girl‘ and Nilsson has ‘Coconut.’ Bowie has ‘Let’s Dance.‘ The fun stuff is important.”

Some One Directioners might find it hard to believe that Styles was afraid to write a pop song. However, he had mostly stepped away from all that when he started his solo career. Since then, Styles has started following his true musical idols.

The director of ‘Adore You’s music video says it perfectly captured Styles’ optimism

“Adore You” became a hit for Styles, and hits deserve great music videos. In the video above, Harry sings his love song to a fish he finds in a dreary grey fish port on the small island of Eroda (Adore backward). Dave Meyers wrote the fun-loving story and directed the video. He told Decider that it perfectly captures Styles’ optimism.

“It’s the first idea that popped to mind after the first listen to the song, and the first idea I pitched to Harry,” Meyers said. “It was a story that underscored my understanding of what Harry stood for and felt it was necessary to tell it as a narrative to convey his optimism.”

“It was very odd shooting with no fish,” Meyers admitted. “But was quite rewarding later seeing it dropped in and making empathic sense to the story we were after.”

How well did ‘Adore You’ do on the charts?

In April 2020, “Adore You” reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s Pop Songs radio airplay chart. The tune was also a critical and commercial success at its release. “Adore You” also peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Upon hearing the single and seeing its video, Rolling Stone pointed out its similarities with Styles’ idol, Harry Nilsson’s work.

“Harry Styles seems to be cribbing from another famous Harry in his new video for ‘Adore You’: Harry Nilsson,” they wrote. “The cheeky, weird and magical video echoes, in part, Nilsson’s equally storybook-esque concept album-film, early Seventies masterpiece The Point!“

So, Styles’ idols definitely helped him make “Adore You.” Let’s hope they continue to inspire him.