Absolutely (Story of a Girl) — Nine Days
"This is the story of a girl, who cried a river and drowned the whole world" — the hook that owned the radio in summer 2000, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Singer John Hampson wrote it about his then-girlfriend (later his wife) after an argument before a concert. The follow-ups never matched it, but the hook never left.
Nine Days formed in 1994 on Long Island, New York (St. James, Suffolk County), founded by singer-guitarists John Hampson and Brian Desveaux. The band spent years grinding out local shows and self-released records—the invisible work that most bands do forever. In 2000, a major label finally called: 550 Music/Epic released The Madding Crowd — their major-label debut after a string of self-released records — and inside it was a song that would define their entire existence.
John Hampson wrote "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" in August 1998 about his then-girlfriend Teresa Savino (who would later become his wife). The spark came during an argument before a concert: he saw her laughing across the room and felt the paradox snap into focus—as much as she frustrated him, he absolutely loved her when she smiled. The hook was elemental: "this is the story of a girl, who cried a river and drowned the whole world." When the song exploded in summer 2000, it was everywhere. It hit No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 2000, claimed No. 1 on Mainstream Top 40 in August, and finished the year as the 35th-best-performing US single of 2000.
The fade came swiftly. The follow-up single, "If I Am," only scraped No. 68 on the charts. The next album, So Happily Unsatisfied, was repeatedly delayed by 550 Music until Nine Days was dropped from the label—the record leaked online and didn't get a proper release until 2006. But "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" survived intact — one of the defining one-hit wonders of the millennium's turn.
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