"Range Rover" is the name of two songs by American singer and songwriters

Devin Dawson Devin Dawson Durrett (born January 30, 1989) is an American country music singer and songwriter. He became known after filming a mashup of Taylor Swift songs with his fellow friend Louisa Wendorff on her YouTube channel, which gained popularity ...

and

Ben Rector Benjamin Evans Rector (born November 6, 1986) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer based in Nashville, Tennessee. He is an independent artist, and releases music under his own label OK Kid Recordings. Rector's career has with ...

. The original draft was co-written by Dawson, Rector, and songwriter Mark Trussell, and two singles were released: Dawson's version in 2020, and Rector's version in 2021. The song was conceived during a songwriting session between the three. Trussell made a joke about his rising success leading to his wife wanting to buy an all-white

Range Rover The Land Rover Range Rover, generally shortened to Range Rover, is a Sport utility vehicle, 4x4 Luxury car, luxury SUV produced by Land Rover, a marque and sub-brand of Jaguar Land Rover, owned by Tata Motors. The Range Rover line was launched ...

, prompting Rector to suggest writing a song similar to "

Gold Digger A gold digger is a person, typically a woman, who engages in a type of transactional sexual relationship for money rather than love. If it turns into marriage, it is a type of marriage of convenience. Etymology and usage The term "gold di ...

" by

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer and record producer. One of the most prominent figures in hip-hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After ...

; a man who is looking for a woman who is interested in more than just the money and status. Dawson's version features instrumentation that emphasize the

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

genre, and Rector's version features

Steve Winwood Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a guitarist, keyboard player, and vocalist prominent for his dis ...

on the

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

. Both versions also have minor lyric differences. The song was composed to be unique and out of their comfort zones. Dawson released his song as a single from his

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

(EP) ''The Pink Slip'' on October 2, 2020, followed by the full EP release on January 15, 2021, under

Warner Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

and

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

. Rector, after shelving the song temporarily and reworking it, released it as a single through OK Kid Recordings. Both would later release live versions; Dawson's was a recorded performance without an audience due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, and Rector's was performed as an

a capella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

with Stephen Day and

Jordy Searcy Jordy Searcy is an American singer-songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. He began pursuing music by age 14 and saw early national success from a competitive run on The Voice (American TV series) season 7, season 7 of NBCs ''The Voice (Ameri ...

Background

"Range Rover" was co-written by

, and Mark Trussell. Rector had performed with Trussell in the past, and Trussell had recently began collaborating with

. Dawson was also a big fan of Rector's work, and an original songwriting collaboration helped shaped the music on Dawson's debut album ''

Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person, team or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, that is unlikely to succeed but has a fighting chance, unlike the underdog who is exp ...

''. The three had songwriting sessions a few times in the past, and began their session by catching up with each other's lives. Trussell had found rising success in his recently released music and began having radio appearances, and the two joked about how he would need to buy his wife a new car; Trussell mentioned in return that his wife wanted to buy an all-white

. Rector and Dawson joked about how they didn't believe she was "the stereotypical trophy wife" that was interested in only the money and status of the relationship. Rector saw potential in writing a song about true love beyond money. He pitched the idea as "'

' by

Kanye Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer and record producer. One of the most prominent figures in hip-hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After ...

, but it’s 'Range Rover.'" The other two were skeptical at first, but after considering and drafting other song ideas Rector convinced them to return to the concept.

Composition

The songs discuss the perspective of a man who had broken up with someone who was in a shallow relationship: although she was perfect to everyone else, he was not fond of her ulterior motives, how she was only interested in the material possession and the status. Dawson explained it as "She was looking for the Range Rover, and I'm just looking for a girl who's down to ride in my beat-up truck with the windows down and just having a good time listening to country music". Rector recalled the songwriting process going smoothly, as if "riding a wave." They recorded a demo that day with Rector performing the vocals. The original demo that featured Rector's additions were changed by Dawson to emphasize more of the country genre: instead of "

Civic Civic is something related to a city or municipality. It also can refer to multiple other things: Civic or CIVIC can also refer to: General *Honda Civic, a car produced by the Honda Motor Co. *Civics, the science of comparative government * Civic ...

" and "two-seater", Dawson's variation mentioned " pickup" and " bench-seater". Rector's original lyrics mentioned musician

because Rector was wearing a Steve Winwood shirt the day of recording; Dawson replaced the name with country musician

Keith Whitley Jackie Keith Whitley (July 1, 1954 – May 9, 1989) was an American country music and bluegrass singer and songwriter. During his career, he released only two albums, but charted 12 singles on the ''Billboard'' country charts, and seven more af ...

. The three of them being a fan of unique chord progressions, they used a selection of chords not typically used in country songs. The song was recorded at a studio in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. An hour into the recording session Dawson felt the song was too

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

-forward, so he introduced Trussell on electric guitar, resulting in everyone performing to match the energy. Both Dawson and Rector felt it was not a song typical of their other work; Dawson considered the song comedic, something he doesn't usually do in his work, and Rector felt the song was too outside his scope of storytelling, since most songs are from his perspective and "people obviously know that I’m married and have kids".

Release

From Devin Dawson

Dawson released his version of "Range Rover" as a single from his upcoming

(EP) ''The Pink Slip'' on October 2, 2020. The full EP released January 15, 2021, under

and

. Dawson released a music video for the single on November 13, 2020, including performances from his wife Leah Sykes Durrett as his girlfriend and Rector as a

real estate agent Real estate agents and real estate brokers are people who represent sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and age ...

. It was directed by Tyler Conrad, a videographer and friend of Dawson. A live performance of "Range Rover" was done as part of ''The Pink Slip EP Live'', via a recording with no audience present due to the restrictions amidst the

. According to Dawson, "This was the first time my band and I had played these songs since we finished recording them earlier that year and was the first time I had really sang in months." ''The Pink Slip EP Live'' released April 23, 2021.

From Ben Rector

The song was completed prior to the

, but Rector shelved his version for some time. When he returned to the song he began reworking the song with producer John Fields, using his original penned lyrics. An attempt to introduce

West coast hip-hop West Coast hip-hop is a regional genre of Hip-hop, hip-hop music that encompasses any artists or music that originated in the West Coast of the United States. West Coast hip-hop began to dominate from a radio play and sales standpoint during th ...

instrumentation failed, and considering their options, Fields suggested they have Winwood featured on the tack; the song was originally intended to be included on Rector's next studio album following ''

Magic Magic or magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces ** ''Magick'' (with ''-ck'') can specifically refer to ceremonial magic * Magic (illusion), also known as sta ...

'', and many established artists were featured. Although Rector was skeptical he would not do it since he usually does not feature on other songs, Winwood accepted immediately. Winwood played the

on the song, per his request. As he continued reworking his next album, which would be '' The Joy of Music'', it had "taken a pretty specific shape with some themes" according to Rector. Knowing that he wanted to release the song but felt it wouldn't belong on ''The Joy of Music'', he opted to release the song as a single. Rector's version of "Range Rover" released on May 21, 2021, through OK Kid Recordings; it was his first release of 2021. A lyric video was released the same day, depicting a road trip. Rector performed a promotional live tour for ''The Joy of Music'', and on the setlist was an

version of "Range Rover", performed by Rector,

, and Stephen Day. "Range Rover (A Capella)" was included in a live recording, ''Live From Atlanta'', released on July 31, 2023. The song was also played at

The Old Friends Acoustic Tour The Old Friends Acoustic Tour is a 2020, 2023, and 2024 concert tour from American singer-songwriter Ben Rector. The original tour, featuring Cody Fry, was slated to perform throughout the first half of 2020, but enforced COVID-19 lockdowns, lock ...

in 2023.

References

External links

Official music video from Devin Dawson's

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

account:
"Range Rover"
Official lyric video from Ben Rector's YouTube account:
"Range Rover"
{{Portal bar, Music 2021 songs 2020 songs Songs written by Ben Rector Ben Rector songs Devin Dawson songs A cappella songs