It’s fitting that Cole Swindell is a writer on “Roller Coaster“, one of Luke Bryan’s many No.1 singles, since it’s Bryan who influenced Swindell to move to Nashville and pursue a career in country music. Bryan also gave Swindell a job, selling merchandise for him on the road. In 2014, Bryan released “Roller Coaster”, a song Swindell wrote with Michael Carter. “Roller Coaster” appears on Bryan’s fourth studio album, Crash My Party.
A song about a summer romance, “Roller Coaster” says, “And we spent that week wide open / Upside down beside the ocean / I didn’t know where it was goin’ / Just tryin’ to keep my heart on the tracks / I should’ve known that kind of feelin’ / Would last longer than that week did / Blown away and barely breathin’ / Sunday came and it was over / Now she’s got me twisted / Like an old beach roller coaster.”
Videos by American Songwriter
When Swindell wrote “Roller Coaster”, he still didn’t have his own record deal, but he was having success as a songwriter. So the decision to let Bryan, or any artist, have one of his songs was a relatively easy one.
“I didn’t have a record deal at that point,” Swindell tells BMI. “I was making a living; I knew I wanted a record deal. But I wasn’t in a position to be holding a song back from Luke Bryan. … So it was kind of a no-brainer; I knew it would help get my name out, and I wanted people to know that I am a songwriter; that’s a big part of me.
What Luke Bryan Says About Recording “Roller Coaster”
From Bryan’s sophomore Doin’ My Thing album on, he has been a writer on a lot of his songs. Still, Bryan knows a good song when he hears it, which is why he chose to record “Roller Coaster”.
“The first time I heard it, it was one of the first songs that I knew would be on Crash My Party,” Bryan tells Billboard. “I listened to it, and it just floored me – the visuals of it. And obviously, the fact that I grew up going to the beach. And the guys who wrote it, Michael Carter and Cole Swindell, have been in my life for years. The fact that they wrote something so spectacular made me excited. It’s one thing to record one of my buddies’ songs. But when you feel like it’s going to be a great song and single, you’re very excited about that.”
“When Cole and Michael played it for me, I went to my producer Jeff Stevens and played it for him. … I think it’s an amazing song from top to bottom,” he adds.
Interestingly, Swindell also wrote “Beer In The Headlights” on Crash My Party, although it was not a single. Swindell and Carter wrote that song with Brandon Kinney.
Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for KP Entertainment