Thomas Rhett’s Take On A Pop Dance Smash
Thomas Rhett releases his new seventh studio album, About A Woman, on Friday (August 23). The album has many songs written by Thomas, but one that was not. It’s an interpolation song that pays tribute to one of the biggest pop songs of our time: Whitney Houston’s 1987 smash, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”
An interpolation (also called a replayed sample) refers to using a melody— or portions of a melody (often with modified lyrics)— from a previously recorded song but re-recording the melody instead of directly sampling it.
In an interview last week, Rhett told us of having to include a unique song on this project. He said, “‘Don’t Wanna Dance’ was one of the only songs that I didn’t write for this project. Ryan Hurd actually wrote that song; I was driving down the road on Music Row, and on the MP3, it just said ‘Whitney.’ And I was like; I have no idea what that means, so I played it, and I’m listening, and I finally get to the chorus, and I’m like, ‘Holy crap.'”
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Thomas was a co-writer of an interpolation song: Jo Dee Messina / Cole Swindell interpolation, “She Had Me At Heads Carolina” from 2023, which was a huge hit and an ACM Award winner.
He told us, “I swore that I was never gonna do another interpolation song after ‘Heads Carolina’ came out, and everybody and their moms started doing interpolation songs, but when I heard this, I was like, ‘I can’t not try it.’ So I went in and put my voice on the demo, went in and recorded it in the studio.”
When people heard his version, his mind started to change a bit. He said, “I played it for everyone, and they put their hands up on the chorus. It’s one of the most recognizable choruses in all of human history, which was daunting, but at the same time, I think that one is going to be so epic.”
Rhett admitted that he wasn’t a bigger Whitney Houston fan than most of us that grew up the song. He said, “Probably, just like the rest of the world. I have mad respect for her voice and mad respect for the entertainment. I was never a big album-cut Whitney fan, but obviously, I have mad respect, and that is like the biggest song of all time.”
Thomas’s song will be out when his album is released on Friday (8/23).
Whitney’s 1987 version:
