Thomas Rhett releases his new seventh studio album, About a womanon Friday (August 23). The album features many songs written by Thomas, but one that isn’t his. It’s an interpolation song that pays tribute to one of the greatest pop songs of our time: Whitney Houston’s 1987 hit, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”

An interpolation (also called a replayed sample) uses a melody—or parts of a melody (often with altered lyrics)—from a previously recorded song, but re-records the melody rather than sampling it directly.

In an interview last week, Rhett told us he had to include a unique song on this project. He said, “‘Don’t Wanna Dance’ was one of the few songs I didn’t write for this project. Ryan Hurd actually wrote that song. I was driving down the street on Music Row and the MP3 just said ‘Whitney.’ And I was like, I have no idea what that means, so I played it back and listened to it, and when I finally got to the chorus, I was like, ‘Holy shit.'”

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Thomas co-wrote an interpolation song: the 2023 Jo Dee Messina/Cole Swindell single “She Had Me At Heads Carolina,” which was a huge hit and won an ACM Award.

He told us, “I swore I would never do another interpolation song after ‘Heads Carolina’ came out and everyone and their mothers started doing interpolation songs, but when I heard that, I thought, ‘I just can’t not try that.’ So I went and put my vocals on the demo and went into the studio and recorded it.”

When people heard his version, his opinion changed a little. He said, “I played it for everyone and they put their hands up at the chorus. It’s one of the most famous choruses in all of human history, which was daunting, but at the same time, I think this one is going to be so epic.”

Rhett admitted that he isn’t a bigger Whitney Houston fan than most of us who grew up with the song. He said, “Probably just like the rest of the world. I have a lot of respect for her voice and a lot of respect for the entertainment. I was never a big Whitney fan that was on an album, but of course I have a lot of respect, and that’s pretty much the greatest song of all time.”

Thomas’ song will be released with the release of his album on Friday (23.8.).

Whitney’s 1987 version:

Nancy Brooks has worked in the country music industry for nearly 30 years. She has interviewed just about every country star you can imagine. In the late 1990s, she began working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you’d imagine. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories come from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many of today’s music superstars, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times over the years.