Songfacts®:

• This retro confessional has been around for a while - Monroe started the tune when she was 17 and was helped by singer-songwriter Lori McKenna and frequent Taylor Smith collaborator Liz Rose. The song finds Monroe addressing more than just a hangover, though. "Obviously, the first thing you think about a "Morning After" is when you've drank too much, and most of us have been through," she told Billboard magazine. "But, it could also be about heartbreak in general. Anytime you go through one, and you wake up the morning after, it hurts. I think you just keep going through the morning after, as it never stops coming."
• When Monroe is singing one of her songs she sees "it like a movie" in her head. She explained to The Boot: "That's why a lot of times I close my eyes when I'm singing. I've had people tell me before, 'Open your eyes.' I do, but sometimes when I'm so deep in a song, like 'Morning After,' when I'm singing it, it almost physically hurts because I feel it so much and I see the same scene in my head every time. So if you see be closing my eyes, it's because I'm living it."