When I Was Your Man was released by Bruno Mars on his 2012 album Unorthodox Jukebox and issued as a single in 2013. Written as a spare piano ballad about regretting how a past relationship ended, it became one of his best known slow songs. Short acoustic covers of the chorus and key lines have since spread widely on soundboards and short video edits, where the instantly recognisable melody and regretful lyric let creators signal heartbreak in just a few seconds.