Fans of Gretchen Wilson have been waiting six years for new music. That wait ends today with the release of Wilson’s first single since 2018, “Little Miss Runner-Up.” Hear the rocking new track below.
Videos by American Songwriter
“Little Miss Runner-Up” is a sequel to Wilson’s 2005 hit single “Homewrecker.” Wilson co-wrote the hit with Rivers Rutherford and George Teren and released it as the fourth and final single from her 2004 debut album Here for the Party. The song went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, giving Wilson her fourth consecutive top-five hit from the album.
Wilson teamed up with Rutherford and Teren to write the follow-up song. “’Little Miss Runner-Up’ follows the same girl we all know and love to roll our eyes at,” Wilson said of the new song in a statement. “Can’t wait to see how this song looks in a country music video,” she added.
Gretchen Wilson Celebrates 20 Years of “Redneck Woman”
Gretchen Wilson released her debut single “Redneck Woman” on March 15, 2004. It went to No. 1 on the country chart and peaked at No. 22 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 survey. This year, Wilson has been celebrating the 20th anniversary of her debut chart-topper.
Earlier this year, Wilson sat down with Billboard to discuss the origin of the song and the uphill battle she fought to get it on the radio. “I remember sitting down and saying, ‘I can’t really relate to what I’m seeing on CMT, GAC, all the popular music video channels. This is not real life. That’s kind of the mindset we had that day,” she said of writing the song with John Rich. “It was about as honest as I could get.”
“Redneck Woman” brought Wilson her first No. 1 but country radio didn’t play it without a fight. “Radio was like, ‘Who is this white trash hillbilly chick coming at us with 13 cuss words in the first song?’” Wilson recalled. “My argument at the time—and I had a valid argument, even though it was 20 years ago before a lot of feminine movements had happened—my argument was, ‘I’m on the same label as Montgomery Gentry who just had a hit with ‘Hell Yeah’. So, is this just because I’m a female and I can’t say ‘Hell yeah’ in my song?’ So, that kind of got em,” she added.
However, it wasn’t Wilson’s strong argument that made the song a hit. Instead, it was the fans who wanted to hear the song. “It was really the fans who called their local radio stations. They called and basically said, ‘You will play this song or I’ll be switching to the other guy’s station,” she said.
Featured Image by Terry Wyatt/WireImage
