Heard of the statement that the stone that builders rejected shall soon become the cornerstone? I like to relate this to the Charlie Puth – ‘See You Again’ turn of events. Meanwhile 10th March 2025 marked the track’s 10th year anniversary, since release.
Tagged as one of the most euphoric, poetic yet heart string pulling tracks of our generation, ‘See You Again’ landed in 2015 as the closing song on the Fast & Furious franchise premiered its 7th part. It went on to bring a cultural reset, achieving feats such as being the most watched Hip-hop music video on YouTube, having racked in 3Billion views, it overtook PSY’s groovy “Gangham Style”. It remained the most viewed on the platform till August 2017. To-date it has 6.6 billion views, plus 44.7 million likes.
However, according to Charlie Puth, Atlantic Records (the label responsible for the film’s soundtrack) only wanted him on the track as writer. Joining efforts with DJ Frank E, Puth wrote the song under 10 minutes.
With the major blockbuster level Fast & Furious had reached, in mind, the label had other ideas for its soundtrack in terms of who they wanted to sing its powerful song’s chorus. They sought out big-name artists such as Chris Brown, Sam Smith, Jason Derulo and Adele, all of whom recorded versions of the song at some point. That’s cuz Charlie, at the time wasn’t famous or a house hold name.
On his end, Charlie wasn’t minding giving away the track to Sam Smith whom he felt would bring his signature emotional depth to the song. While appearing on The Howard Stern Show, the ‘Attention’ crooner revealed that he later had a change of heart and decided he wanted to sing the song himself. The tough task at hand now was him convincing Atlantic Records that he was good enough, for they thought him not to be ‘cool enough’ (‘big’ enough) in terms of prominence. Also, the song had been created as a tribute to actor Paul Walker, who tragically passed away in a car accident (in November 2013) before Furious 7 was completed, so the label had to get a person to do the song justice, making its execution even more critical, given its emotional weight, so it needed a voice that could capture both the sorrow and the resilience of the moment.
Speaking to Billboard, Charlie revealed that while on a conference call and the executives were explaining to him why they couldn’t have him singing the song, and that they were going to give it away to some other artist, he jazzed them that he was taking back his song and wished them luck with the movie, and then hung up. He told Billboard:
“I’ll never forget I ended up calling them from around this big conference table on the phone, and they were explaining the reasons why it was going to be sung by this artist and blah, blah blah, I’m not going to name any names, but… I said, ‘That’s great. Your movie comes out in a week and I’m not gonna give you the song.’ And I hung up the phone and when I said that miraculously I was in the music video.”
Speak of standing up for yourself! Like the saying goes, and the rest is history. ‘See You Again’ went on to get released, with Charlie Puth and Wiz Khalifa. By strong-arming his way onto the song, Puth helped launch his career in a big way, as it was only his second single released on a major label and went on to top the Hot 100 chart for 12 weeks. Among its other milestones is that it held the record for most streamed song in a single day on Spotify, until ‘Drag Me Down’ by One Direction happened. From multiple Grammy nominations, to Diamond certifications by RIAA, ‘See You Again’ remains one of Spotify’s most streamed songs, with over 2 billion streams.
Charlie started his career as a teenage YouTube musician from New Jersey, posting comedy videos and acoustic covers. A couple years on he was signed to Ellen DeGeneres’ eleveneleven label after the talk show host saw his cover video of Adele’s “Someone like You,” but “See You Again” is what helped elevate him to a mainstream level and eventually a label deal with Atlantic Records and publishing deal with Artist Publishing Group.
On the background of the song’s writing. Puth had been paired DJ Frank E by Atlantic. They had checked him into a “crappy” hotel because he was not famous, but being a bougie kid, he used some of his YouTube dimes and booked himself a 5-star Montage in Beverly Hills where he wrote ‘See You Again’. Recalling on his own experience of loss, Charlie had lost a friend (Vail Cerullo with whom he studied at Berklee School of Music) in 2012, in a motorcycle accident. This song was so personal to him, hence writing it from a deep and emotional POV, just as needed for a perfect send off for Paul Walker.
Charlie wasn’t the only one going through it. For which rapper to feature on the song, before a Wiz Khalifa decision could be reached, to bring rap prowess to the pop ballad that is ‘See You Again’, Atlantic and Universal Pictures had vetted names Eminem, Tyga and 50 Cent.
The video as directed by Marc Klasfeld was unwrapped on 6th April 2015. In it, Puth plays the piano while between two cars. Khalifa on the other hand walks down a highway. The visuals are interspersed with footage from the final movie scene showing Dominic Toretto (played by Vin Diesel) and Brian O’Conner (Cody Walker, filling in for his brother, Paul) driving together, pulled over in their cars and smiling at each other one last time before driving away on separate roads into the sunset.
Here’s to Charlie Puth and Wiz Khalifa for giving us the soundtrack to when we remember those who have gone before us, as we recount on all memories and moments shared.