Songfacts®:

• This song about making peace at the end of a relationship is one of three songs on All I Ever Wanted that Clarkson wrote with OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder. The OneRepublic singer also penned a fourth song, "Save You" with Aimee Proal. Clarkson told The Daily Mail February 27, 2009 about her song-writing collaboration with Tedder: "Ryan really pushed me. He's an Oklahoma boy and I'm from Texas, so we hit it off straight away."
• This was released as the third single from American singer-songwriter Kelly Clarkson's fourth studio album All I Ever Wanted.
• A number of people have commented on the similarities between this song and another Ryan Tedder penned number, Beyoncé's "Halo." And even Clarkson herself has expressed her annoyance at how the two tunes sound so similar, especially the backing tracks. An annoyed Clarkson told Canada's CBC radio network: "Ryan and I met each other at the record label, before he was working with anyone else. He's from Oklahoma, I'm from Texas; we got along really well and had some of the same influences. We wrote about six songs together, four or five of them made the album. It was all fine and dandy. I'd never heard of a song called 'Halo' ... [Beyoncé's] album came out when my album was already being printed… No one's gonna be sittin' at home, thinkin' 'Man, Ryan Tedder gave Beyoncé and Kelly the same track to write to. No, they're just gonna be sayin' I ripped someone off. I called Ryan and said, 'I don't understand. Why would you do that?'"
  
  Tedder released a statement in response, in which he disagreed with Clarkson's assertions that this song and "Halo" are too similar and urged fans to listen to both tracks and decide for themselves. He wrote: "'Already Gone' is one of the best songs I've written or produced since [Leona Lewis'] 'Bleeding Love' and stands tall on its own merits apart from 'Halo.' They are two entirely different songs conceptually, melodically and lyrically, and I would never try to dupe an artist such as Kelly Clarkson or Beyoncé into recording over the same musical track. The idea is both hurtful and absurd. I think when people hear 'Already Gone,' they will hear what I hear - one of the greatest female vocalists on earth giving her most haunting and heartbreaking performances on a song she helped write. I challenge people to listen and form their own opinions."
• This was used as the exit music for the fifth season of So You Think You Can Dance.
• Joseph Kahn directed the music video, which was shot at The Carlu, a historic event space in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The clip shows a glamorous Clarkson lounging in an apartment and rehearsing with invisible orchestra members (Kahn pulled the invisibility trick for Garbage's "Cherry Lips").
  
  Kahn, who also directed the videos for Clarkson's "Walk Away," "Behind These Hazel Eyes," and "Never Again," was not happy with the outcome. He tweeted about the video: "I don't think I won a single battle," and later added, "That meatloaf is already cooked, and my hand hurts from everyone slapping my spices away."