"Moments" is a song by English-Irish boy band One Direction from their debut studio album, Up All Night (2011). It was written by Ed Sheeran, and Si Hulbert, the song's producer. In 2011, as One Direction member Harry Styles told Sheeran that the boy band did not have enough songs for their album, Sheeran offered "Moments" as a track that Sheeran "was never going to use".

The song is a mid-tempo pop ballad about a love lost to distance or, as fans have speculated, death. Instrumentation includes a lightly strummed guitar and intermediate piano lines. The ballad received generally positive reviews from music critics, who noted the song's memorability and complimented its composition. Upon the release of Up All Night, "Moments" charted in lower regions on the singles charts of Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom due to strong digital download sales. One Direction performed the song on all three of their major concert tours: Up All Night Tour (2011–12), Take Me Home Tour (2013) and Where We Are Tour (2014).

After being formed and finishing third in the seventh series of The X Factor in 2010, One Direction were signed to Syco Music. Recording for their debut studio album, Up All Night, began in January 2011. In February 2011, the boy band and other contestants from the series participated in the X Factor Live Tour. After the tour concluded in April 2011, the group continued working on their debut album. "Moments" was written by Ed Sheeran and Si Hulbert, and produced by Hulbert. In an April 2012 interview with news.com.au, Sheeran said that he wrote the track "years ago." In 2011, Sheeran met One Direction's Harry Styles at his "guitarist's friend's house". The group were putting their debut studio album together at the time. Sheeran had a CD with him of 40 songs that he was going to give to publishers. As the boy band did not have enough songs for their album, Sheeran told Styles, "Here's a CD. If you want one of these songs, have it." The song ended up on the deluxe edition of the album. Sheeran acknowledged that he was happy with the outcome, "It was a song I was never going to use. To have it on a multi-platinum selling album is quite nice." During the album's UK launch in late 2011, member Louis Tomlinson referred to the song as his favourite track on the album. Niall Horan also commented, "getting to write and record with Sheeran on our album was an honour."

...
Wikipedia