Maroon 5 [ tickets ] singer Adam Levine was struggling for years to finish writing the high-energy dance number "Makes Me Wonder"--until he visited Sin City. What happens in the Las Vegas is supposed to stay there, but Maroon 5 fans can share his experiences in the city through the now-finished "Makes Me Wonder," the first single from the forthcoming album "It Won't Be Soon Before Long."

"We just didn't have all the parts together," Levine said during a recent teleconference about "Makes Me Wonder." "We actually were missing the chorus part until the very end. Yes, it was this great song, but it didn't have a chorus. I have a bad attention span when it comes to music, absolutely. It's my fatal flaw and my greatest gift. So I didn't really know what to do with it.

"And then we went to Vegas and I met a girl and wrote a chorus. It was amazing. All of a sudden, I had a girlfriend and I had a great song. That song was sitting around for four years and it was one of the first demos we made for our record that's coming out, so it's got the oldest and newest feelings, my emotions in it."

The result goes further than Levine getting the girl and the song; "Makes Me Wonder" made the largest jump to No. 1 in the history of The Billboard Hot 100, moving from No. 64 to No. 1. The move was fueled by digital sales of 243,500 downloads and a No. 1 debut on the Hot Digital Songs chart. (Kelly Clarkson held the previous record for the largest jump to No. 1 on the Hot 100 when she moved from No. 52 to No. 1 with "A Moment Like This" in October 2002.)

Levine said the single's success eased some of the anxiety he had about the dreaded sophomore slump; "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" is the follow up to 2002's "Songs About Jane."

"It's the history of all leaps," Levine joked before adding that the song's performance on the chart gave him a sense of security.

"There's always some degree of fear when you've taken a hiatus [and] you're coming back, but that certainly put most of those fears at bay."

Fear comes into play for Levine when thinking about Maroon 5's upcoming live shows, as well; the group will embark on a club tour this spring as it eases its way back into arenas and summer sheds.

"Times are tough and we don't know whether anyone will show," Levine said in jest. "Actually, we're just doing a little sneak peek, kind of warm-up gig, I guess you could call it, and just wanted to have it be a little mellow kind of exclusive thing for fans and press and family and friends and things like that."

"It Won't Be Soon Before Long" is set for release May 22, nearly five years after "Songs About Jane" hit stores. Levine said it's a common misconception that the band took a load of time off before working on the album. The truth is, it took at least a year for "Songs About Jane" to catch on and that led to three and a half years on the road, he explained.

"And, pretty immediately after we got home, we started working on the new record, and the record took about a year to make. We couldn't have anticipated the success of the first one and, obviously, when that happens, it gets more intense and longer and the cycle gets a bit bigger."

He theorized that "Songs About Jane" didn't catch on because there weren't a lot of bands out there that sounded like Maroon 5--which includes James Valentine (guitar), Jesse Carmichael (keyboards), Mickey Madden (bass) and Matt Flynn (drums)--when the album came out.

"We had to build up a following by touring for the first year. And then, slowly but surely, radio stations would start adding it. When they saw that it worked, other radio stations would start adding it. When they saw that it worked, other radio stations would start adding it. So it was just an organic process, as opposed to a big-blitz process," he said.

"The cool thing is, we weren't bitter or upset that people weren't picking up on it right off the bat. The only true currency I think at this point for a band is fans when you go and play live. Everything else is such a wild card and it's such a fickle universe, that you don't really know what's going to happen."

Levine said he hopes fans will continue to respect Maroon 5's honest and forthright lyrics with "It Won't Be Soon Before Long."

"Hopefully, that connection is still there. I think that we were equally honest with ourselves with this music. So, as far as I'm concerned, as long as we continue to be sincere in everything that we do, our fans will be onboard."