"Wanted" has sort of become a trademark for Hunter Hayes, the song most people think of when they hear the young stars name.
    At only 21 Hayes has written many songs and his veteran co-writers say there honestly isn't a bad one in the bunch.

I'll write with hunter as long as he wants to write. He's as good as it gets. He is so talented and dedicated to making the song great and brings all that energy and buzz to that" says Nashville songwriter Troy Verges.

    There was just something special about this love song
    Hunter says for him it's because the emotions were real. "I had a love letter I needed to write. I wanted to write a song to a girl and present it to her as a demo and tell her this is how I feel and what I want you to know and what I think you should know" says Hayes.

    The song ended up doing much bigger things than anyone could have imagined. It crossed genre lines, sold tens of thousands of copies and charted at number one.

    While it may have been personal for Hayes, for Verges the song wasn't written about a specific person, but like the rest of the world, he related to the feeling. "For me there is another story, not a specific person I was thinking of. I was just thinking this is just a general emotion everyone wants to feel wanted" says Verges.

    Verges says he remembers Hayes coming into the session with confidence. Bringing the concept of wanted to the table. "He came in that day to write, sat down at the piano and had that riff that is the intro of the song kinda going" says Verges.

    The lyrics started to flow rather effortlessly, but the two did have one minor lyrical disagreement.

"There was one point when we were writing the first verse and the lyric was "like everything that is green girl i need you" and I was like I don't know, I don't get it man. But he is so good, confident and knows how he wants to say it. It worked great and even built my trust in being a co writer with him even more" says Verges.

    After two short hours they were done. Hayes says he remembers being shocked that it came together so quickly. "It was one of first songs I looked at lyrics and said are we sure we got this right. We literally wrote it so fast it was kinda like blurry and you go back and say did I miss anything" says Hayes.

    Hayes says the love letter, turned hit song, was never given to the mystery girl that inspired it.
    But she did later find out that the song we hear on the radio, was once inspired by her.
  
"We make jokes about it. I had something to say and that is when you write your best songs, ya know" says Hayes.
   
Story Behind The Song: Wanted