Composer Yoon Sang recently revealed the reason as to why he gave IU the quite melancholic song “The Story That Only I Didn’t Know About,” and that was because of IU’s melancholy face.
In a recent airing of “Yoo Hee Yeol’s Sketchbook,” composer Yoon Sang appeared as a guest and the post performance conversation eventually moved to the subject of IU’s “The Story That Only I Didn’t Know About.” Yoon Sang explained that he had previously seen IU on a variety show before she became the nation’s little sister thanks to the success of “Good Day.” His memory of that meeting is what eventually lead him to compose the song, saying that “I composed ‘The Story That Only I Didn’t Know About’ after seeing her melancholy face while being unable to mingle with the other guests.” Yoon Sang has previously composed songs for BoA (“The Show Must Go On”), Gain (“Irreversible,” “Truth”) and of course IU.
I still remember being quite surprised when this song was eventually released. Coming off the success of “Good Day,” I expected more of the same for her next set of songs as well. By that I mean something that definitely leans more towards the spirited and peppy. But instead we got an extremely somber ballad that you might expect to hear from more veteran ballad singers like Lee Soo Young. Yet I would argue “The Story That Only I Didn’t Know About” was a song that seemed much better suited to IU’s voice compared to something like “Good Day” or “You & I,” Which are still great songs but lets not forget IU made her start singing ballads. It definitely left a deeper impression on me than IU’s more popular songs.