Songfacts®:

• What act released a #1 album in 2013 but were broken up by the time it was issued? That would be The Civil Wars, whose eponymous second album debuted at #1 in August 2013, after the duo - Joy Williams and John Paul White - had fractured. Their split wasn't made official until 2014, but Williams and White never worked together again, and White wouldn't do any interviews to promote it, leaving that task to Williams. Regarding "I Had Me a Girl," she explained:
  
  "This song always conjures up an image of a glass of whiskey and a lit cigarette. It's a little brooding. A little dangerous. It smolders. It has swagger and grit. It's full of innuendo and Southern Gothic tones. I love the feel of this track, and the way this song came together on the record. 'I Had Me a Girl' is one of those musical moments that makes me wish I knew how to play electric guitar. Or any guitar, for that matter."
• Working with the Southern production company 1504 Pictures, Williams and her Civil Wars partner John Paul White released a behind-the-scenes video for the album. "There were moments when John Paul would pick up a guitar and he and Joy would transport to a different place," director Mark Slagle of 1504 Pictures said. "You can see it when John Paul plays 'I Had Me A Girl' in the control room and Joy starts moving with the melody. There was definitely a creative push and pull, but watching them grow a song from nothing, giving and taking, was incredibly inspiring."
• Rick Rubin, a man of many genres (he's worked with Slayer, Johnny Cash and Run-D.M.C.), produced this song along with Civl Wars mainstay producer Charlie Peacock.