Can you believe it's been 15 years since Carrie Underwood took a Louisville slugger to both headlights of an unnamed ex's pretty little souped-up four-wheel drive and slashed a hole in all four tires?
The country superstar released "Before He Cheats" on Aug. 19, 2006 and it quickly became one of her most popular songs ever. It spent five weeks atop the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, crossed over onto the Top 40 Mainstream list and spent a whopping 64 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the sixth longest-charting single in the history of that category. Oh, and it won the Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song, and, of course, became an enduring breakup anthem for the ages.
But the song wasn't initially written with the American Idol winner in mind.
"At the time, Gretchen Wilson was going in to record," songwriter Chris Tompkins recalled to The Boot. "After her first record, everybody wanted to have a song on that second record, and I was trying to think of edgy stuff. I never would've thought that Carrie Underwood would record it!"
Initially, continued co-songwriter Josh Kear, "When we were writing it, we were actually trying to keep it humorous...but when Carrie got hold of it, she just did it so well and really made it her own. We expected it would be a little more lighthearted. But when we heard it, we thought, wow, she really drove it home! We couldn't be more grateful to Carrie for just wailin'!"
Same, man. Same.
In honor of the 15th anniversary of "Before He Cheats" and us scream-singing, "That I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped-up four-wheel drive," we're revisiting some of the best breakup songs ever. We're talking all those hits from Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd that let the musicians use their lyrics as a way to spill the tea on their love stories without really getting any teardrops on their guitars.
(Originally published Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 12:33 p.m. PT)