Chris Young Explains Why He Chose Cassadee Pope for ‘Think of You’

In love and music, you just know. For Chris Young, he knew Cassadee Pope had to join him on his new single “Think of You” the moment he heard her sing. But he was hesitant to make the song a duet initially.

The “I’m Comin’ Over” singer tells Taste of Country that he and co-writers Corey Crowder and Josh Hoge heard this song as a duet at first, but then dismissed it. "It’s tough to get duets,” Young explains. “Even when you get a duet and you write it correctly it’s tough to get the right duet partner with the other person.”

“There’s not a lot of female voices in country music that you can really pull from, and even those that you could at the time, Miranda (Lambert) and Carrie (Underwood) had just done a duet together, there’s a lot of space taken up there.”

Then, Young played a songwriter round with Pope. She led off, and by the time she got to the first chorus, he was already planning how he’d ask her to join him on the uptempo, lost-love song. Some had suggested he pick a pop artist instead, but he knew The Voice singer was the one.

“I love how she sings, I love how she sounds. I was really glad she wanted to do it.”

Pope didn’t hesitate to say yes — she loved the song when she heard it. She had ideas of how she could approach it, but knew it wasn’t hers to own, so she’d listen to Young's input first. The result is two high-octane vocalists trading notes like prize fighters.

What fans won’t hear is the joking and goofing off between takes. “He’s classically trained, so he every once in awhile would go into his classically trained singing voice and it’s hilarious with that song,” Pope spills. “I would do the same. I would start singing in an opera voice or with a Russian accent.”

So, how does 'Opera Chris Young' sound? “It was really good. It would have been amazing on Broadway or something, but in the song it just sounded so out of place, so that made it even better."

“Think of You” is the second single from Young’s fifth studio album I’m Comin’ Over, released in November.

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