Hello Summer

Album: I Don't Believe We've Met (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, Danielle Bradbery sings of both the loveliness of the summer love experience and the downside of such a relationship coming with an expiration date.
  • The song was originally written by Thomas Rhett, his father Rhett Akins and the Cadillac Three's Jaren Johnston for one of Rhett's own albums, but it ended up being adjusted to fit a female voice.

    "He felt like the song could be re-written with a female perspective, and so I sat down with his dad Rhett [Akins], and he re-wrote some of the lyrics to fit my voice," Bradbery explained. "[Thomas Rhett's producer] Julian [Bunetta] agreed to produce it, and I'm so proud of how it turned out. It's one of the few I didn't co-write myself, but I feel it really speaks to the same emotional theme of the record and pushes the boundaries sonically into new territory for me."
  • Speaking to Billboard about the story of the song, Thomas Rhett recalled that it originated with a Jaren Johnston guitar groove. Rhett had always wanted to have a summer song, so they penned the lyrics "about that summer crush that we've all had, finding a beach towel and someone that you want to hang out with, and spend nothing but three months with that person, and then you have to go back where you came from, and then that summer love comes to an end."
  • A remixed duet version featuring Thomas Rhett, was released as I Don't Believe We've Met's third single on August 3, 2018. The reworked track is titled "Goodbye Summer" and instead of welcoming the season, the pair are bidding it farewell. Rhett's contribution weaves in a male perspective regarding this homage to summer romances.
  • The video for "Goodbye Summer" was filmed in October 2018 in Rosemary Beach, Florida, a favorite vacation spot of both Bradbery and Rhett. The director, Shaun Silva, said:

    "Few things brand our hearts and minds the way a summer romance does. This song and this video tell that classic love story... Our time may be limited, but the way we live in that moment is reckless and beautiful. It's one of the few things we go into knowing what the end result must be, but for some reason we let go, give in, love… and in the end, we hurt but we don't regret."
  • Rosemary Beach was struck by Category 4 Hurricane Michael shortly after filming of the video had wrapped. Bradbery partnered with the Rosemary Beach Foundation to help with relief efforts for the affected area.

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