Songfacts®:

• This heartbreaking ballad was released as Carly Pearce's debut single on February 22, 2017. Penned by the singer with songwriter Emily Shackelton and producer busbee, it was born out of the end of a relationship.
  
  "I wrote this about a guy that really broke my heart, and never really thought it would take on this kind of life," Pearce told The Boot. "It reminded me so much that country music is about the song and about the lyric."
• It didn't take Pearce long to put into words what she wanted to say. "I wrote that song in 45 minutes. I cried after the write and felt like it finally shut the door on that situation," said the Kentucky native. "Just from a standpoint of production, it is genuinely who I am. It's got some of the bluegrass element vocally."
• So, does Carly Pearce still pine for the subject of the song? The answer is no. "This particular person that the song is about, we've both very much moved on," she told ABC Radio. "But I think even in relationships that I've had since then or things that I've gone through, that emotion, when you really love somebody, doesn't fade."
• A number of labels passed on the track until Big Machine signed Pearce in January 2017. "I really didn't think it would be the song that helped to break me in the industry - especially not in the summer," Pearce told Billboard magazine. "I had plenty of people pass on 'Every Little Thing.'"
• Emily Shackleton recalled to The Boot the songwriting session that produced this song:
  
  "It was my fourth or fifth co-write with busbee and Carly, and when I arrived they told me, 'We want to write a haunting ballad' - pretty much exactly opposite of what any publisher, A&R or pitch sheet will tell you to write - especially for an unsigned artist! But there was magic in the room for it, and it fell out quickly once Carly started talking about an ex and the memories not letting her go. The melody also fell out seamlessly, and felt strangely simple but just right.
  
  It all fit together like puzzle pieces. The song was probably written in under two hours."
• It was SiriusXM's J.R. Schumann who first shone the spotlight on Pearce when he added this song to the playlist of the network's The Highway channel. Pearce admitted to Billboard she was originally none too pleased with the radio executive's decision.
  
  "I remember that J.R. made me very angry the first time he told me that he was going to make me 'The Highway Find' with 'Every Little Thing,'" she recalled, "because I thought there was no way that a ballad about heartbreak was going to break me. I was trying to get him to play another song. I remember him asking me 'Are you ready for this song to change your life?' I just rolled my eyes."
• The song topped Billboard's Country airplay chart and was certified Gold by the RIAA on November 14, 2017. "If you think about it, a heartbreak ballad, coming out in the middle of summer, from a new female artist - it sounds like career suicide," Pearce reflected during a press conference before her party to celebrate the song reaching #1.
  
  "I've been to so many #1 parties over the past nine years," she added. "I've always thought, 'What would mine be like?' I don't think there's any song that could be more special [than "Every Little Thing"], because through and through, this song tells a story that I feel so deeply is part of my life."
• Carly Pearce wrote "Every Little Thing" with busbee and Emily Shackleton during a period when she was working as an Airbnb cleaner and had no record deal. Driving home afterwards, she sensed it represented the direction she wanted her music to take.