We take you behind the scenes and explore the making of one of our favorite tunes with The Song Remembers When…
Thomas Rhett scored his third number one in March of 2015 with the song “Make Me Wanna.” He wrote the song with Jon Pardi’s producer Bart Butler and Ray Stevens’ bass player Larry McCoy.
Now, Thomas said that his grandma used to love watching the movies Airplane! and Grease with him. He said that she’d always try to teach him the dances from the ’50s and ’60s. And, the night before his writing session with Bart and Larry, he watched Airplane! again, and the scene in the movie where they play the Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive” really stuck with him.
Thomas walked into the writing room the next day, and he asked the guys if they knew who the Bee Gees were. He said that he wanted to write something with a “Stayin’ Alive” type melody with a country-sounding lyric. Well, they started working on it. Larry said that he had an idea that had been laying around called “Make Me Wanna.”
Well, they wanted it to have that old disco dance feel and that’s why the song has such a funky groove to it. The writers said that the whole energy that day was amazing because Thomas said that movie made him feel so good! They knew they had something special – something that you could crank the windows down and have a good time with!
“Make Me Wanna” was released in August of 2014 as the fifth single from Thomas Rhett’s debut album It Goes Like This, and it reached the top of the chart the following March. And, Billboard named it their Best Country Song of 2014. And, it’s this week’s The Song Remembers When – Thomas Rhett’s “Make Me Wanna.”
