“Jar of Hearts” is the debut single by American singer Christina Perri. The song was released onto iTunes September 27, 2010, a week after its debut on So You Think You Can Dance. The song was included on Perri’s debut EP, The Ocean Way Sessions (2010), and appeared on Perri’s debut studio album, Lovestrong (2011). The song was co-written by Perri, Drew Lawrence, and Barrett Yeretsian. Perri drew inspiration for the song from a real-life experience with a love interest who wanted to rekindle a broken relationship. After its debut, the song was released onto iTunes where it later rose to the top 20 spot in one week.
After teaching herself to play six chords on the guitar, Perri wrote “The Perfect Man” about the same person “Jar of Hearts” describes. Perri’s best friend, Keltie Colleen (a Rockette), passed it on to one of the show’s choreographers, Stacey Tookey, who later choreographed a contemporary dance routine for All-Star Kathryn McCormick and contestant Billy Bell. Perri wrote the song in December 2009, only to begin working with her production and management team in February 2010. While recording for an EP, “Jar of Hearts” was additionally going to be recorded with a full band; however, Perri later decided against it stating that “I imagined people dancing to it. It was all a big ‘just in case.'”
Perri was unsigned at the time of the song release, leading to discussion between critics who favoured the song. The song charted on multiple charts in both the United States and Canada at numbers 17 and 21 respectively. The song sold a total of 47,500 downloads in its opening week. In 2011, it was released in the UK and peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart, spending 31 weeks in the top 40 and 48 weeks in the top 75. It was later certified triple platinum after selling and streaming 1,800,000 units. It was the 11th best-selling single of 2011 in the UK.
The music video for the song was directed by Jay Martin. A “Behind the scenes…” look was given into the recording of the music video on August 25, 2010. In the video, Perri states “I really hope that the video connects me to the song and entertains all of the fans of So You Think You Can Dance because it’s because of them that this even happened. I really hope that they love it. I hope that they love the dance…and that they just feel like we did this song justice with this video.” So You Think You Can Dance contestants Allison Holker and Kathryn McCormick appear as dancers in the music video, performing choreography by Stacey Tookey.
The music video premiered on September 13, 2010, on Perri’s YouTube channel. The video begins with Perri singing on a stoop while black petals fall from the sky. As Perri begins walking, a smoke reflection is shown over her chest, showing that her “jar” is empty – her heart is missing. As the song continues, Perri walks through different scenarios of hearts being collected, all by the same man, whose “jar” is being filled. This includes an intimate moment in a car and another in a phone booth, both of which leave the women whose hearts are stolen (through their mouths) with empty jars. They fall unconscious away from the collector, a young man with dark hair. Towards the end of the video, Perri is watching as the collector, the love-interest, collects more hearts while dancing with different women. The video ends with Perri stealing a heart from him, leaving his “jar” empty. He falls to the ground, and she appears to recuperate with her heart newly intact.
