With the runaway success of “you look like you love me,” you’d assume Ella Langley was a shoo-in for subsequent Riley Green duets, especially since the two were on tour together at the time.
But it turns out, Riley kind of made her audition for the part on “Don’t Mind If I Do.”
“I think I got her to come in the day I wrote it and just kinda hum to see what key I needed to write it in, ’cause I wrote it as a duet,” he explains. “And when I was in the studio recording it, I just called her to come by to put a vocal on it so I could play it for whoever I was gonna pitch it to as far as the female.”
Of course, Riley changed his mind as soon as he heard Ella sing.
“She just crushed it,” he recalls. “I remember sittin’ there and she was like in a sweatsuit. She came by from the house and sang it and … I couldn’t imagine anybody doing it better than she did.”
Of course, “Don’t Mind If I Do” went on to become Riley’s sixth #1 in December.
“It was cool for her to be on the song, [and] also having her out with all the success on the other song,” he reflects. “And also lyrically, it kinda feels like the song after ‘you like you love me.’ So it’s kinda cool to have that accidentally work out.”
“Don’t Mind If I Do” picked up the music event of the year trophy at Sunday’s 61st Academy of Country Music Awards, after “you look like you love me” won the same award the year prior.
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