Lead single “Never Again” made it to #8, but none of the album’s other singles charted. Worldwide, though, it sold one tenth as many copies as Breakaway. The show struck gold again with Carrie Underwood, but Breakaway was the moment that Kelly Clarkson transcended her origins and emerged as a generational pop figure. By that point, it was clear that an American Idol victory was no guarantee of pop success. Clarkson was right “Because Of You” was a hit, though not quite as big a hit as “Since U Been Gone” or “Behind These Hazel Eyes.” (“Because Of You” peaked at #7 it’s a 9.) Thanks to those hits and a few more, Breakaway went platinum six times over. Kelly Clarkson’s blog post is long gone I got that paragraph from John Seabrook’s great 2015 book The Song Machine. But I continued to fight for the song, and the label relented. This was devastating coming from a man who I, as a young girl, considered a musical hero and was so honored to work with. I cried after I played him a song I had written about my life called “Because Of You.” I cried because he hated it and told me verbatim that I was “a shitty writer who should be grateful for the gifts that he bestows upon me.” He continued on about how the song didn’t rhyme and how I should just shut up and sing. Clarkson said that this wasn’t true, and she continued:īut yes, I did cry in his office once. Clive wrote that Clarkson cried in his office when she told him that she didn’t want “Since U Been Gone” and “Behind These Hazel Eyes” on her album. After Clive wrote about his clashes with Clarkson in his memoir, Clarkson shot back in a post on her website. When she brought the song to Clive Davis, he hated it. Clarkson co-wrote that song with Evanescence guys Ben Moody and David Hodges, and it meant a lot to her. Kelly Clarkson went in a less overtly pop direction on “Because Of You,” a stormy and angry ballad directed at her absent father. Together, Martin and Luke wrote “Since U Been Gone,” and they also got together with Clarkson to write “Behind These Hazel Eyes,” another post-breakup rager that became a hit. So Clive pressured Kelly Clarkson to work with Max Martin, a proven hitmaker, and his new protege Dr. Clive Davis liked the way that the album was shaping up, but he didn’t think it had the monster hits that it needed. On her 2005 sophomore LP Breakaway, Clarkson figured out a sound that was more singer-songwritery, more connected to guitar-rock. It became a problem.Ĭlarkson did reasonably well with her R&B-leaning 2003 debut Thankful, but there was room for improvement. Kelly Clarkson wanted to write her own songs. As a result of that Idol win, Clarkson was put under the tutelage of Clive Davis, a music-industry legend whose ideas on how to make and sell pop music did not align with Clarkson’s artistic ambitions. After she won the first season of American Idol and reached #1 with her coronation song “ A Moment Like This,” Clarkson had her own ideas about what she wanted to sing. Kelly Clarkson didn’t want to record “Since U Been Gone,” either. Maybe more songs should sound almost exactly like “Since U Been Gone.” And while “My Life Would Suck” never ascends to the same heights as “Since U Been Gone,” it’s still close enough to kick serious ass. “My Life Would Suck Without You” inverts the lyrical standpoint of “Since U Been Gone” to the point where one song could be the post-reconciliation sequel to the other. The two songs have the same instrumentation, the same structure, the same basic feel. Luke, the writers and producers of “Since U Been Gone,” are also the parties primarily responsible for “My Life Would Suck Without You,” and they weren’t shy about repeating themselves. “My Life Would Suck Without You” is a distant echo of “Since U Been Gone.” Max Martin and Dr. Kelly Clarkson didn’t write “Since U Been Gone,” but nobody else could’ve sung the song like that. “Since U Been Gone” belongs to no genre, and that means that it belongs to everybody. Anytime “Since U Been Gone” plays, the atmosphere around the speaker charges. To be fair, most songs are not “Since U Been Gone.” Most songs are nowhere near to being “Since U Been Gone.” “Since U Been Gone” is a pop-music miracle, a runaway emotional steamroller. All sorts of ugly, intense behind-the-scenes issues went into the creation of “My Life Would Suck Without You.” Musically, though, the song only has one real problem: It’s not “Since U Been Gone.” Clarkson had big problems with one of her collaborators on the track, and she only recorded it because her label gave her no other options. Kelly Clarkson didn’t want to record “My Life Would Suck Without You,” the song that became her second #1 hit. In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.
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