In 2016, Keith Urban had a big hit with “Blue Ain’t Your Color”. The song is written by Steven Lee Olsen, Hillary Lindsey, and Clint Lagerberg. Although Urban didn’t write “Blue Ain’t Your Color”, he channeled one of his musical heroes, namely Don Williams.
“[‘Blue Ain’t Your Color’] is a very, very stark, minimalistic way of recording, which really comes from those records that Don and [producer] Garth Fundis did,” Urban says. “And to go back now and listen to some of those — which I do pretty often, just to be reminded of how little you need on certain tracks.”
Videos by American Songwriter
The song was originally written for Olsen to record on his own. But as soon as Urban heard “Blue Ain’t Your Color”, he knew he wanted to include it on Ripcord.
“It was just immediate,” Urban tells The Boot. Urban goes on to call Olsen a “killer singer.” It’s what ultimately led Urban to fall in love with the song.
“It was just an immediate reaction I had to that song,” he adds. “I loved the lyric, the sentiment, the melody, everything about it. It was beautiful.”
What Keith Urban Says About Recording “Blue Ain’t Your Color” for ‘Ripcord’
“Blue Ain’t Your Color” says, “Blue looks good on the sky / Looks good on that neon buzzing on the wall / But, darling, it don’t match your eyes / I’m telling you / You don’t need that guy / It’s so black and white / He’s stealing your thunder / Baby, blue ain’t your color.”
Urban writes a lot of his own songs. Still, he only wrote five on Ripcard, although the feeling of Williams permeates not just on “Blue Ain’t Your Color”, but on all of the record. His love of Williams goes back to his own father, who passed away in 2015. Urban recalls listening to a lot of Williams when Urban was growing up, one of his father’s favorite singer-songwriters.
“Don also had that attitude, too, like, the song is the picture,” Urban says. “And the record is the frame. You’ve got to find the right frame, not too much and not too little, to make the picture really work. So for the songs that don’t need much, like ‘Blue Ain’t Your Color,’ my dad’s record collection obviously has informed that a lot.”
Fortunately, “Blue Ain’t Your Color” came out exactly as Urban hoped.
“It doesn’t always work,” he concedes. “I’ve taken songs in the studio that I’ve loved, and I just couldn’t make them feel authentic, much to my frustration. Because I can love the song, but it doesn’t fit me. ‘Blue’ was immediate love.”
Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images