Wrong Ones
by Post Malone (featuring Tim McGraw)

Album: F-1 Trillion (2024)
Charted: 23
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Songfacts®:

  • If there's one thing Post Malone and Tim McGraw have figured out, it's that the siren call of the "wrong ones" is as irresistible as it is familiar. Their duet on this opener of Malone's sixth album, F-1 Trillion, is essentially a musical meditation on temptation and the never-ending search for that elusive true love.
  • Both Malone and McGraw were happily ensconced in long-term relationships and weren't exactly prowling for action at the local honky-tonk. McGraw, married to country singer Faith Hill since 1996, and Malone, private but known to be settled with his partner and their child, are both singing in character here, each lamenting the lure of the proverbial "bad choice" with an air of self-aware indulgence.
  • F-1 Trillion marks Post Malone's inaugural foray into country music. The album features a veritable parade of country's greatest hits, with guest appearances by many of the genre's heavy hitters. Each collaboration feels like it's been meticulously tailored to the strengths of its featured artist, and in McGraw's case, the bridge sneaks in nods to several of his own well-trodden hits, as if to say, "Yes, we know what you're here for."

    Take the lyrics, "Straight outta Louisian', I'm a bad boy, real good man" - a neat callback to McGraw's 2002 hit "Real Good Man."

    Then we swagger into "top of the world," a knowing wink to his 2015 track of the same name. And then, of course, there's the line "Please don't take the girl," referencing McGraw's first #1 single, "Don't Take The Girl" from 1994.
  • Malone had a hand in writing this twangy curtain-raiser alongside F-1 Trillion producers Louis Bell and Charlie Handsome, as well as Luke Combs, one of Combs' regular songwriting partners James McNair, and Ernest, the wordsmith behind hits for Morgan Wallen, Kane Brown, and Jelly Roll.

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