How Thomas Rhett’s ‘Beautiful as You’ Was Shaped by a ‘Ridiculous’ Mistake
Thomas Rhett says that his Top 20 single "Beautiful as You" is not nearly as catchy without a souped-up mistake someone made as he was singing his vocals.
It may even be your favorite part of the song. "I love happy accidents like that," he tells Taste of Country Nights.
- "Beautiful as You" is the lead single from Rhett's new album, About a Woman.
- The 14 songs were all inspired by his wife, Lauren.
- "Boots" is his daughters' favorite song. They get a little grossed out listening to an album-closing ballad called "I Could Spend Forever Loving You."
Related: Thomas Rhett Reveals His Wife Lauren's Three Favorite Songs of His
It happens as the chorus begins: "What's someone as beautiful as you / Doin' riding around with someone like me," he sings, but between the two lines there's a four-note riff that almost sounds like another vocal, but not quite. It turns out that it was another vocal.
"It was while we were writing the song," he shares. "Someone in the background ... while I was tracking goes, 'Oh, yeah-eah-eah.' Like, being ridiculous and stupid.
You could hear it in the background of the track and we couldn't figure out where it was coming from ... My producer just did some weird stuff to it and sort of turned it into this hook."
Listen to see if you can pick out the original vocal line-turned-playful-ear-worm.
"Without it, the song is not even a song anymore," Rhett adds.
You'll find similar focused nonchalance across the rest of the project. There's just a joyful, light spirt to the songs, and it may begin with the album title. He was stuck on what to name it until someone challenged him with, "What's it about?"
It's "about a woman," he said. His seventh studio album was born.
Billy Dukes is a Senior Editor and Executive Producer of Video Content at Taste of Country. He specializes in country music interviews, trend analysis and the Secret History of Country Music. Additionally, Billy covers Yellowstone, 1923 and related television shows through the Dutton Rules podcast. To date, he's written more than 13,000 articles for Taste of Country and produced over 3,000 videos for the Taste of Country YouTube channel.
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