As promised, Luke Combs dropped the highly anticipated “5 Leaf Clover” on St. Patrick’s Day.
The North Carolina native has truly shown out with his lead singles ahead of his upcoming album, Gettin’ Old, which is slated to drop next Friday, March 24th.
The album will also feature the longtime fan favorite, “Fast Car,” a cover that Luke Combs fans have been begging him to record since he performed the song in concert years ago.
Originally written and recorded by Tracy Chapman, it was released in 1988 as the lead single from her 1988 self-titled debut studio album. The Grammy-winning song has been regarded as one of the greatest songs of all time by a number of different publications.
With that being said, Combs joined Zane Lowe on New Music Daily on Apple Music 1 to discuss the cover, and why he finally decided to record it:
“That song’s just always been a huge part of my life, really. I’ve always loved it and I think it’s the more and more I hear it, especially the older and older I get, it just gets better and better every time. I loved it when I was five years old. And me and my dad used to listen to that album on a cassette tape in the truck.
So I loved that whole album, but that song stood out to me. And I would say it was like that song stood out above all the others even. But that’s probably the first “hit song” that I ever heard. I didn’t even know that that’s what that was, what that even meant at that time.
But for some reason, that song stood out even more than everything else on that album, which was really great, too.”
He went on to say that he didn’t try to change the arrangement very much at all, he wanted to stay true to the original:
“I think that was always the goal was just not to change it at all, really, in the sense of staying true to keeping it rooted in where it always was, I think was important. You know what I mean? Letting the riffs be kind of the star of the show. I mean, that’s how the original track is.
And I think the main differences in mine and the original is just the quality of equipment that it was recorded on, I think would be the main difference. I don’t think mine would sound markedly different. Obviously there’s some electric stuff going on that probably wasn’t there. The chorus feels a little bit bigger, just filled out drums and things of that nature. But I think it comes down a lot to the equipment.
That song was recorded in probably 1988, I would imagine. This one was recorded in 2022. So obviously there’s been huge leaps in all sorts of technology when it comes to audio engineering and recording music since then. So I would say that was probably the biggest difference.”
Combs also has a song on the album titled “My Song Will Never Die,” written by Eric Church.
He shared:
“That’s the first song I ever cut that I didn’t write. You know what I mean? So pretty wild. It was a pretty cool experience to be able to do that. The right song had never kind of come along. And that song was the first one that really I felt I like wanted to do. And obviously I’m a huge Eric Church fan. He wrote that song.
He wrote it with my producer, Jonathan. And I didn’t hear it from either of those guys. I got a random email from a publisher that was like, ‘Hey, I just really think you would like this song.’
It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, do this song.’ Because nobody really pitches me songs because I’ve never cut anything. But everybody knows I’m a huge Eric fan so sometimes people send me stuff that they’re able to get or hear.
And I loved it and I asked him.”
Needless to say, the anticipation for next Friday is through the roof.
Gettin’ Old Tracklist:
1. “Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old” (Luke Combs, Rob Snyder, Channing Wilson)
2. “Hannah Ford Road” (Luke Combs, Jamie Davis)
3. “Back 40 Back” (Luke Combs, Ray Fulcher, Jeff Hyde, Driver Williams)
4. “You Found Yours” (Luke Combs, Thomas Archer, Dan Isbell, James McNair)
5. “The Beer, The Band, And The Barstool” (Luke Combs, Rob Williford, Reid Isbell)
6. “Still” (Luke Combs, Jamie Davis, Ray Fulcher, Dan Isbell, Dustin Hunley)
7. “See Me Now” (Luke Combs, Kenton Bryant, Ray Fulcher, James McNair)
8. “Joe” (Luke Combs, Erik Dylan, James Slater)
9. “A Song Was Born” (Luke Combs, Casey Beathard, Dan Isbell, Reid Isbell)
10. “My Song Will Never Die” (Eric Church, Travis Meadows, Jonathan Singleton)
11. “Where The Wild Thigns Are” (Randy Montana, Dave Turnbull)
12. “Love You Anyway” (Luke Combs, Ray Fulcher, Dan Isbell)
13. “Take You With Me” (Luke Combs, James McNair, Rob Williford)
14. “Fast Car” (Tracy Chapman)
15. “Tattoo On A Sunburn” (Lukes Combs, Ray Fulcher, Ben Hayslip, Dan Isbell)
16. “5 Leaf Clover” (Luke Combs, Jessi Alexander, Chase McGill)
17. “Fox In The Henhouse” (Luke Combs, Jamie Davis, Dan Isbell, Dustin Hunley)
18. “The Part” (Luke Combs, Kenton Bryant, Ray Fulcher)