Right To Be Wrong

Album: Mind, Body & Soul (2004)
Charted: 29
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is about giving yourself the freedom to make mistakes, because learning from them is key to personal growth. British artist Joss Stone wrote it in collaboration with Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Desmond Child and R&B legend Betty Wright. In a 2020 interview with Songwriting Magazine, Stone discussed working on the song with Wright: "We'd sit in a room and we'd gossip like girls do. I might be like, 'I want to try things out, but people won't let me,' and then she'd say, 'Hmm... well honey, you've got a right to be wrong, it's okay to try things,' and so she came up with the title, and then it begins. It's just conversation. For me, a song is just conversation in a melody."
  • A range of soul, jazz, and blues icons played on "Right To Be Wrong," including "Let's Straighten It Out" singer Latimore on piano, Thomas "Bones" Malone of The Blues Brothers on flugelhorn, and American bandleader Cindy Blackman Santana on drums. Betty Wright also produced and sang backing vocals on the ballad.
  • Directed by Liz Friedlander, the music video for "Right To Be Wrong" follows Stone as she's filmed on camera in various settings, including in an intimate recording studio and at a glamorous photo shoot. Interspersed with these clips are shots of an enigmatic figure processing the resulting film footage of the soul singer. As the video reaches its final moments, it's revealed this mysterious person is, in fact, Stone.
  • Stone sang a deeply soulful rendition of this song with a gospel choir at the Brit Awards in 2005. That same evening, she teamed up with former Take That member Robbie Williams on a performance of "Angels," which had been voted by the public as the best British song of the last 25 years. Stone also won two awards at the ceremony: British Female Solo Artist and British Urban Act.
  • In 2005, Stone performed this song as part of her guest appearance on the NBC drama American Dreams. During the episode "Starting Over," Stone sang an acoustic version of "Right To Be Wrong" at The Lair, a fictional coffee house based on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Other artists to cameo at The Lair include Alanis Morisette, Gavin DeGraw, and Blake Shelton.
  • Mexican superstar Alejandra Guzman covered this song in Spanish on her 2004 album Lipstick. The cover, "Tengo Derecho a Estar Mal," was produced by Desmond Child, who helped Stone write "Right To Be Wrong."
  • "Right To Be Wrong" was the second single released from Mind Body & Soul after "You Had Me." It reached #29 in the UK. Stone's sophomore album, meanwhile, reached #1 in the UK and #11 in the US. Mind Body & Soul was also nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the Grammy Awards in 2005, but lost to the posthumous Ray Charles collection Genius Loves Company.

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