William Michael Morgan Celebrates Record-Breaking No.1, ‘I Met A Girl’
Part of what drew Morgan to the song was the immense about of imagery the trio of writers used when writing the track.
It was brisk, sunny day in Nashville, TN on Monday (Jan. 30) and members of the country music industry gathered within the warm walls of SOUTH on Demonbreun to celebrate William Michael Morgan’s year-long ascension to the top of the country radio charts with his debut single “I Met A Girl.”
The song was co-written by Shane McAnally, Sam Hunt and Old Dominion’s Trevor Rosen nearly four years ago and appears on Hunt’s acoustic Between The Pines mixtape. But the country-rap hybrid that Hunt is best known for also made for a traditional country tune when Morgan and his producers took the reins.
“When a song is a good song, it can be cut in different ways and at the heart of it, it’s either good or it’s not,” Rosen told Sounds Like Nashville and other media during a press conference. “I think it’s really cool that it was a cool song the way Sam did it and it was also a great song the way William Michael did it.”
Part of what drew Morgan to the song was the immense amount of imagery the trio of writers used when writing the track.
“I don’t really remember how it all came together. I would be surprised if any of us came in and said ‘let’s write a song called ‘I Met A Girl,’’ shared McAnally. “It doesn’t sound like something we would’ve started with, but the chorus and the flow and the way that’s laid out feels very much like something we would start with and then probably would’ve written something that just… you know, when you have something with that many colors and that many sort of pieces, it’s kind of nice to land on something simple like ‘I Met A Girl.’ It really gives you room to color up the verses with tilt-a-whirl, blue jeans, pearls and things like that. And those rhyme with girl.”
“And that’s something that I fell in love with the song,” Morgan interjected. “Obviously I wasn’t a writer on it, but that was one of the things that I fell in love with was the pictures that you guys put in there, like the crossing the street, baby blues, fixing her dress, biting her lip. And that’s really what kind of caught my attention as far as wanting to cut the song and put the song out as a single, really. It’s really why I kind of love it.”
After the press conference, Morgan, McAnally and Rosen made their way into the celebration which was complete with speeches aplenty and plaque presentations for the song that took an unprecedented 58 weeks at country radio to hit the top spot. Among the guests in the packed crowd was Morgan’s fiancée Jen Wayne (of Runaway June) as well as his nearly 10-month old daughter Presley, whom he thanked during his speech.
“I also want to thank my beautiful fiancée over there, Miss Jennifer Wayne. It’s been a crazy ride and she’s been there for a good part of it, so thank you so much,” said the Mississippi native to the crowd. “I want to thank my little girl for being here. Presley, where’s she at? I want y’all to meet her. This is her first time here in Nashville. She’s the reason that I keep on going and I keep on chasing this crazy dream of mine because I don’t worry about me no more, I worry about putting a roof over her head. So thank you guys so much.”
“I Met A Girl” was the first single for William Michael Morgan and appears on his debut record, Vinyl, available now.
