Mine Would Be You

Album: Based on a True Story... (2013)
Charted: 28
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Songfacts®:

  • This heartfelt song finds the narrator questioning a lover what her most memorable moments were, with the tag line to each being, "Mine would be you." The final verse reveals that he is reminiscing about a past lost love. Shelton commented to Roughstock regarding this Deric Ruttan, Connie Harrington and Jessi Alexander penned tune: "This is an incredibly well written and sexy song with a sad twist at the end. It's just such a cool song, one of the best songs that I've ever had a chance to record. It's just one of those songs that somebody plays at the Bluebird and the room stops and everybody has chills."
  • Shelton sings on this song about having a girl's name tattooed on his arm. The Nashville star told CMT News that in reality he would never actually tattoo his wife Miranda Lambert's name on his arm as he thought it to be bad luck. Shelton explained: "It seems like anytime somebody gets a name - unless it's their child or something - that always seems like a bad idea."

    "But I will say that she and I did get our tattoos together," he added. "So that counts a little bit. We actually went together, and that was kind of a date. That's kind of what a date's like for Miranda and me."

    The couple divorced in 2015, proving Shelton right about tattooing Lambert's name.
  • Writing songs from a male point of view was a relatively new exercise for Jessi Alexander. Connie Harrington and her had first attempted a guy's perspective with "I Drive Your Truck," when they'd teamed up with Jimmy Yeary. She told Radio.com that the success of that song gave them a boost: "It was so exciting that Connie and I had written all these years, and couldn't get arrested, and with 'I Drive Your Truck' it was like we found the secret," said Alexander. "'Oh, we need a guy in the room.' It was exhilarating."

    So for the writing session that would eventually produce this song they brought in Deric Ruttan, who works with Harrington at her THiS Music publishing company. "Connie always has a wealth of great ideas," Alexander explained. "I remember her just saying, 'mine would be you,' and Deric and I just looked at each other and said, 'whoa whoa whoa.'"

    After that promising start the trio "plowed through" a series of images and ideas. "'Mine would be you,' OK. Well, my favorite 'blank.' We would just go back and forth. My favorite sundae, my favorite game, my favorite drink, whatever … mine would be you," Alexander said. "It got deeper and deeper, pretty much as a positive love song in a gritty way, that first day."

    For their next session a fortnight later, the threesome met at Alexander's house. "And that," Alexander said, "is when the song took the twist to that negative last verse. I think having that perspective, getting away from the song, then coming back that evening, and having some wine, we started to go there. And it felt so right, to kind of complete the story."
  • Connie Harrington brought along to the songwriting session a little high-string guitar, which she had borrowed. Deric Ruttan recalled to The Tennessean:

    "As I remember it, she picked it up and after she tuned it, she kind of played just some random chords, and I was like, 'Man, that's cool.' And I pick my guitar up and I play what's the verse progression in 'Mine Would Be You.' And so just organically it kind of started to come together ... When it serves the song, I'm a big advocate of getting to the hook as quick as you can. And so that's what kind of drove the short verses in that song and sticking the title on the end."

Comments: 2

  • Sandy Mcdonald from Magna, UtahWhat a beautiful song! Who is the woman singing in the background with Blake?
    Love, love, LOVE this song!!!
  • Katrina from VirginiaThis truly is a brilliant song. Emotional and kind of gut-wrenching. Beautiful where the hurt still brings up happy memories. Blake sings it perfectly. Funny how people can really love someone but still not be together...
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