Months after writing a new song with Chappell Roan in 2023, Dan Nigro hit a wall. The Grammy-winning songwriter-producer had tried just about everything he could think of with the pop phenomenon—boosting the production, cleaning up the lyrics, tweaking the key—and yet the song lacked the special X factor they were looking for.
“We just kept getting so frustrated,” Nigro says Advertising sign. “We knew something about it was really special, but we couldn't figure it out. Was it the key? Were the lyrics that needed to feel more eerie?'
But once the duo found what they were looking for in the stratospheric chorus, the song morphed into Roan's runaway hit, “Good Luck, Babe!” Since the song's release in April, Roan (born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz) has become one of the most talked-about voices in mainstream pop music. The single marked her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, debuting at No. 77, and has climbed to No. 16 on the chart as of June 29, with three of her other songs – “Red Wine Supernova,” “Hot to Go! and “Pink Pony Club” — filling out the bottom half of the chart. Meanwhile, her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princessreaches a career high of No. 8 on the Billboard 200.
It should come as no surprise that a Nigro-penned track is enjoying such patchy success. In recent years, the songwriter has established himself as one of the most in-demand writers in the business, helping write hits for pop artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Caroline Polachek, Conan Gray and more. But in working with Roan, Nigro says he found something particularly exciting.
“When we made [her May 2020 single] “California,” which was the second song we wrote together, I had this feeling of being a part of something deeply special,” says Nigro. “It felt magical and deeply relatable… and really important, [because] he did it so that it felt important.”
Nigro breaks down the “intense” writing process of “Good Luck, Babe!”, his incredible success over the past two months, and why he knew early on that Chappell Roan was destined to be a “superstar.”
Tell me about the beginning of the process with “Good Luck, Babe!” — Where did the original idea for the piece come from and when did you start working on it?
Kayleigh, Justin [Tranter] and I actually started the idea in November 2022. We wrote an idea — it was just a verse and a chorus. The idea was originally called “Good Luck, Jane” – Kayleigh was really determined to have a name.
It's a song we fought over for a while. We did a demo and we both felt it wasn't right. We knew something was special about the song, but we couldn't say what we were doing wrong. So we worked on it for a day, left it, and then a few months later, he came in for something else and said, “What about this song we wrote? I feel like there's something there.”
Kayleigh's voice is insane on all of her songs, but she seems to be in rare form on “Good Luck, Babe!”, where she almost expresses her entire vocal range in one song.
Absolutely. When we opened it up again, we really narrowed down the chorus and decided that some of the words had to be in full voice. And all of a sudden, we listened again and said, “Okay! I think we got it!' Once we finally got it, it was such a relief. This song was so intense, and it was definitely one of the hardest songs to get right.
Kayleigh and I are not the kind of people who go into the studio and write a song in a day. We take our time with it, comb through the lyrics, and then forget about it for a month and come back to it with fresh ears. A lot of times when you're working on a song, in the middle of working on it, you tend to get really excited about it, and then you look back later and you're like, “Oh, that wasn't as good as we thought it was.” Fortunately, the Kayleigh is so good at having that insight and knowing [when] to take a step back and think about it. She is so incredible in having that self-awareness. She's also an incredible singer — which is great, but because she often sounds really good singing any song, telling the difference between being really good and being amazing can be difficult.
I know Kayleigh has said that this song was “a good one to write” and that many tracks with what you describe here.
For sure. It's funny though: For me, it wasn't really that big of a deal I am writing. I feel like it was the production and the process that was really hard. Actually the songwriting was quite fluid. I remember one day came and I said, “Well, now we need a bridge.” She wrote the bridge by herself in about two minutes. She said, “Put the chords before the chorus,” I snapped it and she just got on the mic and did it. I was trying to keep playing more of the chords because he kept singing and I was like, “No, we've got to go on!” Was amazing.
You mentioned that the original version of the song you wrote with Justin had really different lyrics lyrically — what would you say fundamentally changed between that first draft and the final version?
I don't remember exactly what the lyrics were to begin with, just because it's been so long since we wrote them. But I remember we wanted the words to be more effortless. We wanted to make sure it had that casual, cool, relaxed feel. The lyrics were a little more pointed, a little more elegant. We loosened it up, and then he sat on the couch at one point, and he said, “I just want to have a line in there so that my arms extend out of a sunroof.” It was so funny.
At what point in this process, if at all, did you think, “Good luck, Baby!” was it going to be a hit?
When a song is hard to get right, especially on the production side, I'm so aware of it that I can never see it super clearly. Also, “Good luck, baby!” it's so dramatic — I tend to keep my productions pretty minimal for the most part. But “Good luck, baby!” it's such an epic production — there's like 100 string parts! When I add so much production, I tend to feel like I'm doing too many things. So, I don't think there was a point in that process where I was like, “Oh, this is going to be a success.”
I remember she texted me the day the song came out, just excited about the song. Then her manager texted me and said, “She feels special, she's different right now.” That, to me, is the crazy thing about being able to see the numbers in real time: You have absolutely no way of knowing, and then within 12 hours, people can tell you, “Oh, yeah, he really likes public. “
It seems clear that “Good luck, baby!” It really cemented this cultural moment for Kayleigh: The song has climbed into the top 20 of the Hot 100, “Red Wine Supernova,” “Hot to Go!” and “Pink Pony Club” have all entered the Hot 100, and The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess continues to climb the Billboard 200, reaching the top 10.
It's crazy to watch. I feel like… I don't want to say 'destiny', that's the wrong word to use. Everything happened for a reason. This song was made during the making of Rise and fall, and to me, it felt like it could have easily been recorded on the disc. I'd like to think that because it was released in a different era, it had a different meaning and was a different vessel for the album. Whereas, if he came out with the album, then the record wouldn't be what he's doing right now.
Why do you think this moment is happening now, rather than with the album release last September?
All I can say is that three or four days after meeting her, I was convinced she was a superstar. I was so fascinated by the way she thought about music and I couldn't believe I was a part of it, because it felt magical and also deeply relatable. When we did “Pink Pony Club,” that was the record where I felt like we were making something actively powerful. It was that feeling where you feel like you're making a song that people need. I always felt something like this would happen for her. the question was exactly when it would happen.
The fact that she's so amazing live means people can finally see in real time just how good she is. This is followed by word of mouth, and it's great to see her having such old school success. I've said to so many people, “That's the way things used to be — you'd have to see the artist live and see them be good at what they do and then spread the word.” She is so good at what she does that the system works again! It really is that simple.
This is an important point — while a lot has happened in the last two months, this was not an “overnight” success. Chappell was growing steadily before “Good Luck, Babe!” blew up.
I totally agree, it's by no means an “overnight” success – even since the record came out nine months ago, every day, the numbers have been steadily increasing by a percentage each week. It just took so long to get to the point where enough people were talking about it every day for it to become exponential.
You've had great success working with pop stars like Olivia Rodrigo, Conan Gray and Caroline Polacheck — is there anything different about working with Chappell than your other collaborators? Or what things are similar in the way you work with all these artists?
If I'm honest, I always feel weird when I'm asked to compare people. I think the important thing is that she's incredibly articulate about what she wants from a song, and we have a great relationship when it comes to making music. We write songs together, but we also produce them together, and she's in the room for a bunch of them. There is a very good language between us when it comes to making music. I can understand what he's looking for, and if I don't get something right when I'm producing, he can intervene. She is so good at explaining exactly what she wants and it makes our working relationship flow really well.
A version of this story originally appeared in the June 22, 2024, issue of Advertising sign.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/dan-nigro-chappell-roan-good-luck-babe-hot-100-interview-1235719249/
