Because of You (Kelly Clarkson song)
Encyclopedia
"Because of You" is a ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

 written by pop rock
Pop rock
Pop rock is a music genre which mixes a catchy pop style and light lyrics in its guitar-based rock songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from a slower and mellower form of rock music to a subgenre of pop music...

 singer Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Brianne Clarkson is an American pop rock singer-songwriter and actress. Clarkson came into prominence after becoming the winner of the inaugural season of the television series American Idol in 2002 and would later become the runner-up in the television special World Idol in 2003.In 2003,...

 with David Hodges
David Hodges
David Hodges is a songwriter, producer, composer, keyboardist and vocalist from Little Rock, Arkansas. He is best known for his work with the band Evanescence, which he left in 2002. He has also been part of the bands Trading Yesterday, The Age of Information, Avox, and David Hodges solo...

 and Ben Moody
Ben Moody
Benjamin Robert Moody is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actor. He is best known as co-founder, lead guitarist, and songwriter of Grammy Award-winning rock band Evanescence from 1995 to October 2003...

, and produced by Hodges and Moody, both formerly of Evanescence
Evanescence
Evanescence is an American rock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer/pianist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. After recording private albums, the band released their first full-length album, Fallen, on Wind-up Records in 2003. Fallen sold more than 17 million copies worldwide...

. It is the fourth single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 (third in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

) from Clarkson's second album, Breakaway (2004). With this single, Clarkson made ​​the only winner in the history of American Idol to have a fourth single from the same album in the Top 10 on Hot 100, totaling eight Top 10 singles on chart.

In 2007, Clarkson reprised the song in a duet with country music artist Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire
Reba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...

 for her album Reba: Duets
Reba: Duets
Reba: Duets is the twenty fourth studio album by American country music artist, Reba McEntire. The album was released September 18, 2007 on MCA Nashville Records and September 24, 2007 on Humphead Records in the UK, and was produced by Tony Brown, Dann Huff, McEntire, and Justin Timberlake.Reba:...

. When MCA Nashville released the duet in the summer of 2007, its popularity produced Clarkson's very first appearance on the Billboard Hot Country
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 charts, where it reached a peak of #2.

On January 31, 2008, the RIAA certified the single platinum, with over 1,500,000 singles in all formats sold in the US.

By the summer of 2008, "Because of You" had become the song second most played over all of the last five years on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

, radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

, the internet, and live venues combined, in the UK.

As of 2009, it is the biggest single from an American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...

album, with sales of seven million singles worldwide. In December 2009, Billboard ranked it as the 7th most successful pop song of the decade.

Content

Writing inspiration

Clarkson originally wrote the lyrics and melody for "Because of You" when she was sixteen years old to cope with the emotional distress she was experiencing as a result of her parents' divorce. Clarkson has stated that although she has grown to overcome her pain, she can still relate to the pain of "Because of You".

Years later, when she met Moody and Hodges, Clarkson asked if they could write songs with her. She asked them to help her polish "Because of You" for the album Breakaway, but said that she would understand if they disliked the song and wanted to write a new song with her. Instead, both Moody and Hodges were impressed with the song, and along with Clarkson, Ben Moody wrote music, after he met with Clarkson at a hotel room where she recorded the lyrics and melody on a cassette tape. Clarkson said that she had offered "Because of You" for her first album, Thankful
Thankful (Kelly Clarkson album)
-Sales and chart performance:Release of the album was preceded by the single "Miss Independent", which become a top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit and a #1 top 40 smash. In thanks to the success of the single, as well as buzz from her American Idol win , the album sold well in the United States...

, and that the label did not like it. She said when she requested that it appear on her second album, her label still did not want to release the song. "Because of You" won Clarkson an ASCAP songwriters award for "Song of the Year".

Music video

As she had with "Behind These Hazel Eyes
Behind These Hazel Eyes
"Behind These Hazel Eyes" is the third single from Breakaway, the second album by pop singer Kelly Clarkson.-Song information:...

", Clarkson wrote the treatment for the video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 herself; it was directed by Vadim Perelman
Vadim Perelman
Vadim Perelman is a Ukrainian-American film director. Perelman made his feature film directorial debut in 2003 with House of Sand and Fog, following a successful career as a commercial director. The film, nominated for three Academy Awards, also marks his first screenplay credit...

. The video is based on a true story of Clarkson's troubled childhood (because of the nature of the video, she asked her parents for permission before it was filmed). The young girl in the video (playing the younger Clarkson) is Kennedy Noel, the daughter of Clarkson's musical director and keyboardist, Jason Halbert. Noel appeared at the 2006 Grammy Awards with Clarkson and accompanied Clarkson's performance of "Because of You" on the piano with no formal piano training, learning the song in under two weeks. Noel also appeared in a concert use video during Clarkson's Hazel Eyes Tour. She is an actress who has appeared in several television shows and print ads. The father is played by Marc Raducci, and the mother is played by Kimberly Patterson. Both Patterson and Raducci are LA based actors.

The video starts at the Clarkson household. There, she and her partner are engaged in a heated argument, and at one point he threatens to smash a picture of the family. Time freezes still and her husband becomes immobile; Clarkson, however, is immune to this. Looking around her house, she sees her younger self. Hand in hand, the younger and older versions of Clarkson relive her troubled childhood as various painful memories are seen, such as the younger Clarkson making a picture for her father, who tosses it into the sink, and Clarkson's mother making an unappreciated dinner for her father. These events drive her mother to the point of taking pills and crying in front of the younger Clarkson.

The breaking point is finally seen when Clarkson's parents have a physical fight and throw objects at each other. Soon after, Clarkson's father packs his bags and leaves; although the younger Clarkson tries to get him to stay, he pulls away. The older Clarkson runs back in time to the present. There, time unfreezes and instead of fighting with her husband, they make up. They then see that their daughter in the video had seen them fight, and they embrace her and each other. Meanwhile, Clarkson is shown singing on the front porch, her mother's bed and a room full of mirrors.

The "Because of You" music video was officially released on Total Request Live
Total Request Live
Total Request Live is a television series on MTV that featured popular music videos. TRL was MTV's prime outlet for music videos as the network continues to concentrate on reality-based programming. In addition to music videos, TRL featured daily guests...

on October 3, 2005. It debuted at the top of the countdown on October 4, eventually became Clarkson's third retired video, and spent twenty-seven out of fifty days at number one. After debuting on MuchMusic
MuchMusic
MuchMusic is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media. MuchMusic is dedicated to music-related programs, pop and youth culture.-History:...

's Countdown at number twenty-nine, it ascended to number one. On June 18, 2006, the video garnered Clarkson a MuchMusic
MuchMusic
MuchMusic is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media. MuchMusic is dedicated to music-related programs, pop and youth culture.-History:...

 Video Award for "People's Choice Favorite International Artist". The video also won the MTV Video Music Award for "Best Female Video
MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video is one of the original general awards that has been handed out every year since the first annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. In 2007, however, the award was briefly renamed Female Artist of the Year, and it awarded the artist's whole body of work...

", and was nominated for the "Viewer's Choice Award
MTV Video Music Award - Viewer's Choice
The MTV Video Music Award for Viewer's Choice was first awarded at the first annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. The Viewer's Choice award nominees were the originally the same as the Video of the Year nominees, something which continued until 1994...

", which it lost to Fall Out Boy
Fall Out Boy
Fall Out Boy is an American rock band from Wilmette, Illinois, formed in 2001. The band consists of vocalist, guitarist and composer Patrick Stump, bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz, guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer Andy Hurley. The band released five studio albums from 2003–2008...

's "Dance, Dance
Dance, Dance
"Dance, Dance" is a song by American rock band Fall Out Boy and the second single from their third studio album, From Under the Cork Tree. Released in late 2005, in the United States it reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 2006, becoming the band's second consecutive top 10 hit single....

". This marked the second time any female artist won two consecutive awards for "Best Female Video" (Beyoncé won in 2003 and 2004); it made Clarkson the fourth person to win two years in a row for a gender category (Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...

 was the first, Beyoncé was second, Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys
Alicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano...

 was third).

Release history

Region Date Label Format Catalog
United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

August 28, 2005 RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...

United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

November 18, 2005
Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

November 27, 2005
Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

December 17, 2005

Charts

Like the three previous singles from Breakaway, "Because of You" became a top ten U.S. Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 hit, peaking at number seven in week November 19, 2005. It was another number-one single for Clarkson on the Top 40 Mainstream chart, spending six weeks at the top.

"Because of You" reached number four in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, where it was number fifty-eight on the ARIA
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...

 end of 2006 singles chart. The single reached number seven in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and number two on the Nielsen BDS Airplay Hits Chart in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It hit the top five in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and received a gold certification.

"Because of You" became Kelly Clarkson's most successful single outside the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

In January 2006, "Because of You" entered the Dutch Top 40
Dutch Top 40
The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting...

 at number 28. In its fifth week it hit 1st place, making this single her first number-one hit in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. It stayed on the number-one spot for one more week. The single stayed in the Top 40 for a total of 16 weeks.
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
Chart (2005–06) Peak
position

Year-end

End of year chart (2006) Position
German Singles Chart 19

Sales

Country Certification Sales
United States - RIAA Platinum 1,465,000
Australia - ARIA
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...

Gold 35,000
Brazil - ABPD Platinum 100,000
Germany - IFPI
IFPI
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a not-for-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland...

Gold 150,000

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single-releases of "Because of You".
U.S. digital maxi singles
  • Released: November 1, 2005
  1. "Because of You (Jason Nevins Radio Mix)" - 3:56
  2. "Because of You (Jason Nevins Club Mix)" - 6:21
  3. "Because of You (Jason Nevins Club With Breakdown)" - 6:20
  4. "Because of You (Jason Nevins Dub)" - 7:50
  5. "Because of You (Jason Nevins Club Mix Instrumental)" - 6:21
  6. "Because of You (Jason Nevins Radio Mix Instrumental)" - 3:56
  7. "Because of You (Jason Nevins Acoustic Without Strings)" - 3:49
  8. "Because of You (Jason Nevins Acoustic)" - 3:49
  9. "Because of You (Jason Nevins Acapella)" - 3:52

  • Released: March 21, 2006
  1. "Because of You (Bermudez & Griffin Radio Mix)" - 4:04
  2. "Because of You (Bermudez & Griffin Club Mix)" - 7:35
  3. "Because of You (Bermudez & Griffin Ultimix)" - 5:23
  4. "Because of You (Bermudez & Griffin Tribe-a-Pella)" - 5:24
  5. "Because of You (Bermudez & Griffin Club Mix Instrumental)" - 7:35
  6. "Because of You (Bermudez & Griffin Ultimix Instrumental)" - 5:23
  7. "Because of You (Bermudez & Griffin Bonus Beats)" - 3:36
  8. "Because of You (Bermudez & Griffin Radio Mix Instrumental)" - 4:04


Australian Maxi CD single
  1. "Because of You" - 3:40
  2. "Because of You" (Napster live) - 3:30
  3. "Because of You (Jason Nevins Radio edit)" - 3:57


UK Maxi CD single
  1. "Because of You" - 3:40
  2. "Since U Been Gone" (Napster live) - 3:21
  3. "Because of You (Jason Nevins Radio edit)" - 3:57


UK CD single
  1. "Because of You" - 3:40
  2. "Because of You" (Napster live) - 3:30


Unofficial Remixes
  1. "Ander Standing Club Mix"


US Promo CD
  1. "Because of You" - 3:41
  2. "Because of You" (Video) - 3:40

Reba McEntire & Kelly Clarkson version

In early 2007, Clarkson re-recorded the song with country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 singer Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire
Reba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...

 as the lead-off single to McEntire's album Duets
Reba: Duets
Reba: Duets is the twenty fourth studio album by American country music artist, Reba McEntire. The album was released September 18, 2007 on MCA Nashville Records and September 24, 2007 on Humphead Records in the UK, and was produced by Tony Brown, Dann Huff, McEntire, and Justin Timberlake.Reba:...

, which was released in September 2007. Clarkson and McEntire performed the song at the 2007 Academy of Country Music
Academy of Country Music
The Academy of Country Music was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Whereas the Country Music Association, founded in 1958, was based in Nashville, the Academy sought to promote country music in the western states. Among those involved in the...

 Awards on May 15, 2007, the same day the song was to be released to U.S. radio. On the Billboard Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 chart dated for the week of June 2, 2007, the duet version debuted at #42. The single peaked at #2, becoming her first single, since 2004's "He Gets That From Me", to reach the Top Ten. Their duet snagged a nomination for Musical Event of The Year at the 2007 CMA Awards. This song has been nominated for Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals
Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals
The Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to quality country music collaborations for artists who do not normally perform together...

 at the 50th annual Grammy Awards. This song has been nominated for 3 CMT Music Awards including "Video of The Year" and "Tearjerker video of the Year". It has also been nominated for an ACM Award for "Vocal Event of The Year".

This version is included on the tracklist to Now That's What I Call Country
Now That's What I Call Country
Now That's What I Call Country is a country music compilation album released on August 26, 2008. The album is the first in the Now! series to be composed exclusively of country music tracks...

.

Music video

The music video, directed by Roman White, debuted on June 20, 2007. It depicts McEntire and Clarkson as 1930s Hollywood lounge singers. McEntire's character encounters Clarkson's character attempting to conceal a bruise inflicted by her abusive partner. McEntire leaves the dressing room when Clarkson's boyfriend is fighting with her. When the two singers are singing, Clarkson's character witnesses her boyfriend flirting with another woman, which prompts her to smash a vase in the dressing room out of anger. In their dressing room after the performance, Clarkson's character's boyfriend enters to take her out for the rest of the evening. Though apprehensive, Clarkson's character leaves on his arm before looking back uncertainly at McEntire's character. McEntire's character uncomfortably fiddles with a hairbrush as she watches them leave.

Charts

> > >
Chart (2007) Peak
position
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