Nobody Is Happy About Kelly Clarkson’s “Already Gone”

noah | July 27, 2009 9:45 am

Kelly Clarkson’s third single from All I Ever Wanted is the weepy ballad “Already Gone,” and the inaugural American Idol has already shown off a superior rework of the track on late-night TV. Could that rearrangement be the result of the recorded version of “Gone,” written by OneRepublic caterwauler / inexplicably in-demand songsmith Ryan Tedder, sounding a lot like another pop song of the current moment—Beyoncé’s “Halo”? Which, what do you know, was also written by Tedder! How about that! Clarkson chatted with the CBC about the similarities between “Halo” and “Already Gone,” and boy is she peeved. And really, who can blame her?

“Ryan and I met each other at the record label, before he was working with anyone else,” Clarkson begins, gritting her teeth. “He’s from Oklahoma, I’m from Texas; we got along really well and had some of the same influences. We wrote about six songs together, four or five of them made the album. It was all fine and dandy. I’d never heard of a song called Halo. Her album came out when my album was already being printed. No-one’s gonna be sittin’ at home, thinking ‘Man, Ryan Tedder gave Beyoncé and Kelly the same track to write to.’ No, they’re just gonna be saying I ripped someone off. I called Ryan and said, ‘I don’t understand. Why would you do that?’” The palpably frustrated Clarkson claims she “fought and fought” to try and prevent her label from releasing Already Gone as her third single, out of respect for Beyonce. “In the end, they’re releasing it without my consent,” she sighs. “It sucks, but it’s one of those things I have no control over. I already made my album. At this point, the record company can do whatever they want with it. It’s kind of a shitty situation, but.… You know, you learn.”

I suppose it’s too much to hope that labels will “learn” to stop using the hacktastic Tedder as a go-to guy for songwriting, but we can always dream. (A better lesson would be one that resulted in Kelly fleeing the stable of Sony Music labels ASAP, ahem.) In any event, over the weekend the video for the track made its way online—and guess what, there’s some controversy about that as well!

The clip was directed by Joseph Kahn, who during the shooting of the clip complained via Twitter, “I don’t think I won a single battle”; after the video leaked over the weekend, he gave a cryptic statement about whether or not his vision would be fully realized, saying, “That meatloaf is already cooked, and my hand hurts from everyone slapping my spices away.” I guess not everything can be as crowning an artistic achievement as the clip for the Pussycat Dolls’ “When I Grow Up.” Kelly Clarkson – Already Gone [YouTube] American idyll [CBC via MJ] Joseph Kahn [Twitter]