Carrie Underwood Shares How New Single ‘Drinking Alone’ Came Together
Carrie Underwood spills about the making of her latest single, "Drinking Alone," in a new interview, in which the singer reveals how the song came together.
The steamy R&B-infused country song started when Underwood met with David Garcia, who previously worked on Florida Georgia Line's smash hit "Meant to Be."
"It was what made me recognize very quickly that I wanted to work more with David,” Underwood tells Billboard of their first-ever collaboration. “We’re the same age. I mean, we kind of grew up at the same time and have a lot in common as far as personality, and he’s such a great music guy and track guy, and I feel like I’m better at melody and lyrics. We just kind of filled in each other’s gaps musically."
The goal of the pair's first session was to diversify Underwood's sonic palette and create a sound she had not previously explored. Garcia pitched a sound that he had been exploring, and then the track began to come together.
"We listened to a few other things but kept going back to that first idea. And then it kind of came very quickly," he relates.
Underwood introduced the title "Drinking Alone," which then caused one of the song's co-writers, Brett James, to turn the song's hook into "drinking alone together." Underwood improvised the "ooh, ooh, ooh" passage, which would later become the signature for the intro and close of the song.
"We were actually recording the demo," recalls James. "She just kind of sang that for fun, and we were like, ‘That’s it. That’s our answer.'"
While Underwood was unsure if "Drinking Alone" would become a single, the song was eventually selected as the fourth single from her Cry Pretty album. Underwood gave a show-stopping performance of the song at the 2019 CMA Awards on Nov. 13.
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