Miranda Lambert’s first No. 1 hit song, “The House That Built Me,” has tugged on the heartstrings of listeners for over a decade.
“The House That Built Me,” from Miranda Lambert’s third studio album Revolution, was the fastest-rising single of her career. It topped the Billboard charts in June 2010 and remained there for four consecutive weeks. Now, over ten years later, the song continues to evoke an emotional reaction in listeners.
In a recent appearance on the Tamron Hall Show, Miranda was asked just what it is about that song that resonates with so many people and brings many listeners to tears. Miranda reflects:
“That song just feels like everybody’s song.”
She shares about a good friend and longtime bandmate, Scotty Ray, who passed away last year. Miranda recalls the “most pointed thing” that Scotty said when he first heard “The House That Built Me.” He said:
“I didn’t have that house, and I wish I did.”
Miranda continues that she thought that having the “dogs in the backyard and their handprints on the stairs” was everybody’s story, but she’s since realized:
“Every person in the room either wishes they had that or did. And I feel like that’s where the emotion comes up, and that’s when you know you’ve done your job.”
The official music video for “The House That Built Me” has nearly 100 million views – further evidence of just how many lives the song has touched.
“The House That Built Me” was originally supposed to be recorded by Blake Shelton.
A lesser-known fact about “The House That Built Me” is that it was originally planned to be recorded by country music icon Blake Shelton. However, Miranda, who was dating Blake at the time, had such an emotional response to the song, that she immediately wanted to record it herself.
The song was written by Nashville songwriters Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin and underwent many revisions over several years before it got sent to a producer who began to pitch it to recording artists.
Miranda recalled her initial reaction to the song:
“It was beautiful. I mean, I just started bawling from the second I heard it. [Blake] was like, ‘If you have a reaction to this song like that, then you need to cut it.'”
Watch the clip of Miranda Lambert on the Tamron Hall Show below!