Hurricane

Album: This One's for You (2017)
Charted: 31
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Asheville, North Carolina, singer Luke Combs sings on this story song about an ex lover who he couldn't get out of his mind. One day he was quietly nursing a drink at a bar when a certain girl rolled in.

    You roll in with your hair in the wind
    Baby, without warning
    I was doing alright
    But just your sight had my heart storming
    The moon went hiding, stars quit shining
    Rain was dropping, thunder n' lightning
    You wrecked my whole world when you came
    And hit me like a hurricane
  • The song was written in December 2014, just three months after Combs moved to Nashville. Taylor Phillips, also from North Carolina, agreed to write with the new kid in town. Phillips' fellow songwriter Thomas Archer agreed to join them, once he found Combs' music online and immediately fell in love with his voice.
  • The genesis of the song started with a descending riff that Archer played on acoustic guitar. "Luke said 'What was that?' and I played it again," recalled Archer to Billboard magazine "That's when he started flipping through his idea book and had 'Hurricane.'"

    The trio then set out to write the song, inspired by a story about a friend of one them who was struggling with a recent breakup. "It was one of those Nashville things," said Combs. "Everybody goes out to the same bars, and he didn't feel like he could go out to the bar because he didn't want to run into her."

    Combs, Philips and Archer finished a verse and a chorus that day. During a second writing session, they penned a second verse and the bridge. They also changed the hook from "eye of a hurricane" to "hit me like a hurricane," which went better. "'Eye of a hurricane' doesn't make any sense because that's the calm part of the storm," said Combs. "It's kind of counter-productive to where we were going with the title. When I go back and listen to it, I'm like, 'What were we thinking when we wrote that?"
  • Produced by Scott Moffatt formerly lead singer of the Nineties Canadian family band the Moffatts, the song nearly didn't get recorded thanks to a misunderstanding over the cost of mastering the This One's for You EP. "We recorded six tracks, and when they got done [Moffatt] was like, 'Hey man, we need to master these,' and I was like, 'What's that?'" Combs recalled to Rolling Stone. "I never mastered my first two [EPs], I just mixed them. I think the price was $200 per song, so I was like, 'I don't have $200 per song, and I'm not going to have it.'"

    Combs only had the money to master one track and he picked "Hurricane" as it was closest to completion. Released as a single, on iTunes, it sold 15,000 copies in the first week, enough to garner a #46 debut on the Hot Country Songs chart. Its success enabled Combs to record the rest of the EP and pay Moffatt.
  • Fun fact: Luke Combs went to the same high school as Chase Rice.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

70s Music Quiz 1

70s Music Quiz 1Music Quiz

The '70s gave us Muppets, disco and Van Halen, all which show up in this groovy quiz.

Al Jourgensen of Ministry

Al Jourgensen of MinistrySongwriter Interviews

In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.

The Punk Photography of Chris Stein

The Punk Photography of Chris SteinSong Writing

Chris Stein of Blondie shares photos and stories from his book about the New York City punk scene.

Mike Campbell

Mike CampbellSongwriter Interviews

Mike is lead guitarist with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and co-writer of classic songs like "Boys Of Summer," "Refugee" and "The Heart Of The Matter."

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s Edition

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s EditionMusic Quiz

You know the scenes - Tom Cruise in his own pants-off dance off, Molly Ringwald celebrating her birthday - but do you remember what song is playing?

Chris Squire of Yes

Chris Squire of YesSongwriter Interviews

One of the most dynamic bass player/songwriters of his time, Chris is the only member of Yes who has been with the band since they formed in 1968.