How Kip Moore Turned The Song That Got Away From a Decade Ago Into a New, Re-Recorded Single

The country star also discusses his new collaboration with Ashley McBryde.

What’s old is new again for Kip Moore’s latest radio single, “Crazy One More Time (Revisited),” which comes out today (Jan. 21) and goes to radio on Monday.

“Crazy One More Time”  originally appeared on Moore’s 2012 MCA Nashville debut, Up All Night. The country star released four singles from the album, including “Somethin’ ‘Bout A Truck,” which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, and “Hey Pretty Girl,” which reached No. 2.

“To tell the truth, after ‘Pretty Girl,’ we were going to put out ‘Crazy One More Time’ [as a single],” Moore tells Billboard of the track he wrote with Chris Lindsey and Aimee Mayo. “But that would have been our fifth single from the album. I had been touring around that whole record for three years and I already had [second album] Wild Ones written. I wanted to put out something new.

“I look back on that in hindsight and maybe that wasn’t the smartest thing,” Moore continues, “because with the fans, it was an overwhelming — I would say 95% of fans that came through my VIP or meet-and-greet line, they said it was their favorite song.”

In 2020, just months into the initial COVID-19 lockdown and with ample time on his hands, Moore invited session drummer Matt Bubel, who has played on most of Moore’s albums, to tinker around with creating new music. Through those sessions, “Crazy One More Time” made its way into the conversation once again.

“We’d order a bunch of food, make cocktails, and make music,” Moore says. “About three weeks into it, he said, ‘You know, the biggest shame is that “Crazy One More Time” was never released as a single.’ I looked at him and said, ‘You’re about the millionth person who has told me that, from radio programmers to the fans to my band members.’”

Moore had found the original files for “Crazy One More Time,” which he recorded in 2010. “We did it all to analog, and it had that good warmth to it,” Moore recalls. “I played it for him, he loved it, and then we talked about how we could dynamically make it better. With the original version, I felt like it stays linear through the whole thing.”

They re-cut the track, adding a sturdy piano intro, bringing edgier percussion and building the bridge into an anthemic moment.

“I wanted to take the listener through peaks and valleys,” Moore says, adding that he also re-recorded his lead vocal on the song. “I’m a better singer now. There’s no other way to say it, in terms of what I’m capable of doing.”

When Moore revealed the re-recorded track to members of his management team and his label home, they were thrilled. “Frankly, it was sort of the song that got away,” Katie Dean, MCA Nashville senior vp, promotion, tells Billboard. “It sort of lingered in both radio’s mind and most of the MCA staff has been with Kip since the beginning, so we’ve talked about that song for years. When Kip was working on this album, he texted us and told us he was re-cutting ‘Crazy One More Time,’ so immediately we were all so excited. The thought that he was going to re-cut it and that we could potentially work it as a radio single was incredible. He put a new take on it.”

According to Moore and Dean, the early reception from radio programmers has been promising. “I’ve gotten a lot of unsolicited texts from programmers I hadn’t talked to in a long time saying how excited they are that it’s coming out. I’ve been getting texts saying that radio needs a song like this,” Moore says.

Dean adds, “It’s a new song to many people, but for people who have been around and supported Kip throughout his career, people like [KRTY’s] Nate Deaton, and like Gregg Swedberg at K102 Minneapolis, everyone is excited to work it to radio. There has been some early airplay and we have a strong stable of commitments, so we feel really good about this song being as reactive as we anticipate it being with listeners when it gets heard.”

Moore says the newly-recorded version of “Crazy One More Time” will be on an upcoming album, which he expects to release this summer.

“It’s going to flow perfectly with the rest of this new record. I have my next recording session next week,” Moore says. “It’s no secret that there is a lot of rock music in what I do. ‘Crazy One More Time,’ the new version, really displays that, and I’ve always been able to straddle that line of country elements with a lot of rock arrangements… This album feels like a visual piece, like you’re watching a movie from start to finish.”

The upcoming album will also feature Moore’s first recorded vocal collaboration — a duet with Ashley McBryde called “One Heartbeat.”

“It happened organically,” Moore recalls. “I’ve been pushed to do collaborations on records because of the trend of what it’s doing, but I’ve always said it will happen when it happens.”

McBryde and Moore were on tour together in Alaska, and while hanging out backstage, the conversation turned to new music.

“She asked if I had written anything that I really love recently, and I started playing ‘One Heartbeat.’ When I finished the first chorus, she grabbed the headstock of the guitar and stopped me. She said, ‘What is that, and can I sing on it with you?’ I said, ‘Hell, yeah,’ and brought her in to sing on it. She’s the best. She’s one of my favorite people on the planet, and she felt like a sister after we did that tour together.”