Songfacts®:

• This ballad was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda for the hip-hop musical Hamilton, about the life of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. It takes place in the second act as Hamilton and his wife Eliza grieve over their son's death.
• Kelly Clarkson covered the song for The Hamilton Mixtape. Miranda explained to iHeartRadio the choice of the songstress to croon this tragic ballad:
  
  "I wish I could claim the credit for this incredible idea, but actually the credit goes to Craig Kallman of Atlantic. We were brainstorming songs that had been included on the mixtape, and songs that hadn't, and he said, 'Quiet Uptown?' And I said, 'Yeah, I don't know. Is that kind of a third rail?' That occurs in our show at a moment that is so painful and so traumatic. You don't want to have someone who can't get their talent around all of it. It's so easy for it become cheese-ball, and that song means a lot to a lot of people. So, when he thought of Kelly Clarkson I went, 'Oh, that's perfect.'
  
  I mean, Kelly as a singer has encapsulated, she's created music that, it's the music we turn to in times of anguish and in times of joy. I can think of so many break-ups of friends I have weathered with 'Since U Been Gone,' 'My Life Would Suck Without You.' She writes those anthems that you think of them in terms of when you heard them in your own life. So for her to sing 'Quiet Uptown,' which is about the worst pain a human can endure, the loss of a child, it's heartbreaking, and she does it full justice."
• Kelly Clarkson revealed on the Today show that she was nearing the end of her second pregnancy when she was asked to get involved in the project. "I was emailed the song at like, one in the morning, and I was pregnant with my little boy, and I had not seen Hamilton, so really I'm just like, a couple weeks from having my boy, and the song is about a boy dying!" she recalled. "I typed back, I was like, 'Are you serious right now? I'm so worried about a miscarriage!' But it was so beautiful."