Lyrically, "Daughters" is an admonition to fathers (and to a lesser extent, mothers) to nurture their daughters in their childhood, because the relationship will affect their future relationships with men as adults.[2] He uses his own troubled lover to illustrate his belief.
Mayer has at various times told different, and sometimes conflicting, stories as to the inspiration for the song, ranging from MTV'sReal World (in a Sirius Morning Mash Up Show interview in May 2007) to an unnamed ex-girlfriend.
In 2010, on VH1'sStorytellers, Mayer stated that he wrote the song about an ex-girlfriend who had trust issues because of her absent father, which led to the decline and eventual split of their relationship.
Mayer had been resistant on releasing the song as a single,[3] and was still skeptical despite the Grammy win, which he mentioned in his speech upon receiving the award.[4] On several occasions, Mayer had pushed to release the songs "Come Back to Bed" and "Something's Missing" as singles, as they were more the kind of music he was leaning towards making.[citation needed] However, the label decided that "Daughters" would be more well received by radio.
In 2005, Mayer converted the song into an all-out blues song with his groupJohn Mayer Trio on the live album,Try!, stripping away the acoustic elements the song had become known for,[5] although not similar version to the "Electric Guitar Mix" of the song as included on the single's re-release[clarification needed].
The music video is agrayscale video of Mayer playing the guitar and singing the song in a dark studio, intercut between scenes of a girl (i.e., a "daughter"). The video clip, directed byMario Sorrenti, features the Australian supermodelGemma Ward.
"Daughters" was played at the end of the7th Heaven episode "The Fine Art of Parenting". It was also in the first episode ofThe Secret Life of the American Teenager.
Mayer performed the song himself in the 2015 buddy comedy filmGet Hard.
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