[Verse 1] April first, eighty-three - heaven cracked a joke That landed like a safety blitz nobody saw Miami made him, hurricanes showed him how to roar Twenty-one across his back, the sermon and the law [Pre-Chorus] Built like the consequence of cutting through his lane They schemed around him like he was the weather [Chorus] The hardest hit Was the one that took him from us The hardest hit Forty-three candles he'll never blow Born on the fool's day But nobody's laughing now The hardest hit Was losing twenty-one [Verse 2] His baby girl still finding how to stand When someone came through a door with death in both hands November took the man but couldn't take the flinch Every safety since has felt him - every single inch [Pre-Chorus] The number hangs where shoulders used to crash Washington kept what the ground could never hold [Chorus] The hardest hit Was the one that took him from us The hardest hit Forty-three candles he'll never blow Born on the fool's day But nobody's laughing now The hardest hit Was losing twenty-one [Bridge] Jackie's nineteen now Does she feel the weight her last name holds? Every April first the candles light For the fire that refused to grow cold Some fathers leave a fortune Some fathers leave a fight He left a highlight reel And a hole shaped like the night [Final Chorus] The hardest hit Was the one that took him from us The hardest hit Forty-three candles that'll never glow Born on the fool's day But the whole world remembers now The hardest hit Was losing you Was losing you, twenty-one [Outro] Happy birthday, twenty-one Happy birthday
