Lyrically, the music pays homage to the reminiscences of a cherished one who has since passed. It divided critics, with many panning its manufacturing however others calling it "sweet"; it was listed as one of the worst songs of 2019 by Spin journal. The song is harmonically based mostly on "Canon in D Main" by German composer Johann Pachelbel. It was written by Maroon 5's lead singer Adam Levine, Stefan Johnson, Jordan Johnson, Michael Pollack, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Jon Bellion, and Vincent Ford. Levine and the manufacturing staff the Monsters and the Strangerz produced the tune. The one peaked at number two on the US Billboard Sizzling one hundred chart and at number one on the worldwide music charts. It's Maroon 5's ultimate single with bassist Mickey Madden, who announced his departure from the band in 2020, following his arrest for alleged home violence. The music is predicated on the loss of the band's supervisor and Levine's friend, Jordan Feldstein who died in December 2017, from pulmonary embolism.

American rappers Nipsey Hussle and YG (this remix is also included on the Jordi album, alongside the original version of "Recollections"). A 7-inch vinyl single was released on Report Store Day (October 24, 2020), which incorporates the tune, the Dillon Francis remix and a 20-page photograph & lyric booklet. The track was written by Adam Levine, Stefan Johnson, Jordan Johnson, Michael Pollack, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Jon Bellion and Vincent Ford, and produced by Levine and the Monsters and the Strangerz. The music is based on the harmonic sequence and melody of "Canon in D" by Johann Pachelbel. 5. The tune has a tempo of 91 beats per minute. Within the Guardian, Graeme Advantage was crucial of the monitor's "trite" lyrics, and dismissed it as "fun-free dreck". Pitchfork's Dani Blum discovered the guitar line "cloying" and the take on tragedy "pallid". Night Commonplace reviewer David Smyth referred to as the tune's use of "Canon in D Main" a "ghastly poaching".

Jason Friedman of Paste derided it for being as "viscerally annoying" because the band's 2016 single "Don't Wanna Know". Spin listed "Reminiscences" as one of the worst songs of 2019, describing it as "a replica of a replica of a replica, sticky with the residue of borrowed emotion however hollow of something resembling its personal". In additional enthusiastic opinions, Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone considered the music as "a candy, somber, genuinely felt ballad". Similarly, El Hunt of NME known as it a "sharp pop song" with "substance and heart". Maeve McDermott of USA At this time felt the track is "primed for end-of-summer season nostalgia" and in contrast Levine's vocals to Sting. Put up Malone's "Circles" to change into the band's 10th prime-five monitor and fifteenth prime-ten track. Grownup Contemporary chart, where it remained for 20 weeks. At the top of 2020, "Memories" ranked at number eight on the new 100 yr-finish chart. The official music video was released on October 8, 2019, on YouTube.

The video shows Adam Levine close to the digital camera singing in entrance of a darkish background. It ends with the phrases "For Jordi", which are a dedication to Feldstein. As of February 2024, the video has received over 1 billion views. An animated lyric video of the song was released on November 29, 2019, by the band's YouTube channel. Directed by Andrew S. Cohen and Ryan Kieffer and was created by the animated manufacturing studio Confidential Cartoon Studios. The lyric video starts in an attic with the Maroon 5 Memory Wave Routine box to include a variety of gadgets referencing the band's music movies for different songs: mural ("Three Little Birds"), Union Flag ("Moves Like Jagger" featuring Christina Aguilera and "Yet one more Evening"), the microphone ("Moves Like Jagger"), bow tie ("Sugar"), Memory Wave Routine toast glasses ("Sunday Morning" and "Sugar"), scorpion ("Wait"), black leather-based jacket ("Misery"), cherry blossom timber ("This Love" and "Will not Go House With out You"), blue turtle costume ("Don't Wanna Know" that includes Kendrick Lamar), the payphone ("Payphone" that includes Wiz Khalifa and "Wake up Call"), white boxing gloves ("Yet one more Night time") and a crimson lollipop and butterfly ("What Lovers Do" that includes SZA), along with a collection of containers.