“She Had Me At Heads Carolina” by Cole Swindell
“She Had Me At Heads Carolina” is a creative take on the traditional I-fell-in-love-with-a-girl-at-a-bar trope. In this case, the vocalist is indeed smitten initially by the subject’s looks. But what really captivates his heart is when, this being karaoke night, she steps up on stage and sings “Head Carolina, Tails California”, a classic country song from the 1990s. In other words, said tune is also a favorite of the vocalist’s.
So when he sees that this girl he has fallen for has a preference for it also, then that coincidence, if you will, really convinces him that the two of them may be soulmates. And this is on top of the fact that, according to him, their eyes met while she was performing the tune.
As implied by the bridge, where Cole does proceed to strike up a conversation with this lady, apparently they don’t get romantically involved. They however engage in an all-night conversation. But now the situation is such that whenever he hears “Heads Carolina, Tails California”, an image of her and the way she charmed the entire bar while performing it pops into his mind.
Credits for “She Had Me At Heads Carolina”
This song is the rewrite of a track country singer Jo Dee Messina dropped in 1996 entitled “Heads Carolina, Tails California”. As such the writers of that piece, Tim Nichols and Mark D. Sanders, are also credited as authors of “She Had Me at Heads Carolina”. Besides these names, the following also receive writing credits for the song:
- Cole Swindell
- Ashley Gorley
- Jesse Frasure
- Thomas Rhett
“She Had Me at Heeds Carolina” was produced by Zach Crowell, and the label backing the track is Warner Music Nashville.
Cole recounted that the writing of this track was an experience which put unprecedented pressure on him. And that was because in order to get it out in time, he had to quickly obtain permission from the songs original writers, as noted above. And in the process, he also secured the blessing of Jo Messina, whom Swindell is a big fan of.
Release Date
This song, which is from the album “Stereotype”, was officially released on 8 April 2022. “Stereotype” (which is the fourth studio album of Swindell’s career) was preceded by the following singles:
- “Never Say Never”
- “Single Saturday Night”
Cole Swindell is a country singer from Georgia whose discography dates back to 2013. He can be considered one of the biggest names in his genre, as his singles regularly perform well chart-wise, in addition to semi-commonly being certified.
