"Better Man" is a song by the Americancountry music groupLittle Big Town. It was released on October 20, 2016, as the lead single from the group's eighth studio album,The Breaker (2017). The song was written byTaylor Swift, who initially intended to include it on her fourth studio album,Red (2012), but it did not make the final track listing. In 2016, Swift pitched the song to Little Big Town, believing the group'svocal harmonies suited it. Produced byJay Joyce, "Better Man" is a countryballad about wishing that an ex-lover had been a more deserving partner.
Taylor Swift (left) wrote "Better Man" for her 2012 albumRed but left it out of the cut. She offered the track toLittle Big Town (right) in 2016 because of the group'svocal harmonies.
Taylor Swift wrote "Better Man" intending to include it in her fourth studio album,Red (2012).[2] She left it out of the final track listing because she wrote "too many songs [she] loved" during that time period, having to exclude some tracks out. According to her, she decided to include "All Too Well" in place of "Better Man".[3]
Swift's original demo of "Better Man" recorded in 2012 forRed leaked on October 12th, 2021. One month before the release ofRed (Taylor's Version).[4] Though it didn't make the cut forRed when it was originally released, she always hoped that the song would materialize. One day, she thought of thecountry music groupLittle Big Town, and she believed theirvocal harmonies suited the song;[3] she and the group had been friends since her high-school days inNashville, Tennessee.[5] Swift sent an email to Little Big Town's Phillip Sweet informing him of the song,[6] and he played it to the other members, who were fond of the lyrics, finding them powerful.[6]
The group originally kept Swift's identity anonymous when telling their label of the song, saying that it was offered to them by a "young girl from Nashville". It was only two weeks after "Better Man" was released that both the group and Swift confirmed that she was the songwriter.[7][8] It was the first time Swift had pitched her song to other artists, and Little Big Town initially kept her identity anonymous for fears that it would influence their fans' perceptions of the track, and because Swift wanted "Better Man" to stand on its own merits as an artistic work.[9] "Better Man" was released forstreaming and download on October 20, 2016, viaCapitol Nashville,[10] as the lead single from the group's albumThe Breaker (2017).[11]
Produced byJay Joyce,[12] "Better Man" a countryballad[3][13] that is 4 minutes and 21 seconds long.[10] Itspop-oriented,[14] acoustic guitar-driven arrangement incorporates adrumloop, pinging guitar effects,[12] and occasionalkeyboard tones.[15] The song is in a slow tempo of 72beats per minute, written with a4 4 time signature. It is in the key ofF major, with a chord pattern of F-C-B♭-B♭2-B♭. Karen Fairchild's lead vocal spans from F3 to B♭4.[16] For Swift's recording, she takes the pitch down to the originally planned key ofE major, with the E–B–A–A2–A chord progression and vocals from E3 to A4, and is 36 seconds longer by an extended final chorus.
The lyrics are about a painful breakup that leaves Fairchild's narrator ruminating on an ex-partner, assuming that their broken relationship would have turned out great if the ex-partner were not a terrible man.[5][17] Although the narrator admits that the relationship had its good moments, she expresses her emotional scars ("I just wish I could forget when it was magic") and resorts to escaping the relationship due to the ex-partner's abusive nature.[15][18] According to Little Big Town, the track could resonate with many people who had to face tough decisions about moving on from difficult situations, "no matter how hard that is, you just know down in your heart that it's time to do that."[19]
An accompanying music video was directed by Becky Fluke and Reid Long and premiered on November 1, 2016.[20][21] Set in a rural household, the video depicts three generations of single parents whose partners ultimately leave them. The cycle is presumably broken at the end, when Philip Sweet's character has a baby girl and makes an effort to be a better role model.[22]
Little Big Town performed "Better Man" live for the first time at the50th Annual Country Music Association Awards on November 2, 2016.[23] In 2018, they sang the track again at the60th Annual Grammy Awards on January 27[24] and at the Grammys on the Hill on April 18.[25] The group included it in the set list of two of their tours: Breakers Tour in 2018[26] and Take Me Home Tour in 2024.[27]
Kevin John Coyne ofCountry Universe rated the song "A", saying that "It's a concept that is grounded in so much truth that I'm amazed I've never heard it approached this way before" and "The writers do a great job of capturing both why [the song's narrator] stayed so long and why she had to leave, and all of the conflicting feelings that go along with that."[28]Taste of Country writer Billy Dukes also praised the song, saying that "This song isn't as jarring as some of the quartet's most recent hits. In fact, the mistreatment of women is only vaguely alluded to — there's no one line that burns the hair off the back of your neck. Jay Joyce's arrangement is soft but not stark. It's among his more mainstream productions. Still, it's clear Fairchild's protagonist is reeling from a love that went very, very wrong."[29]Taste of Country ranked it the 42nd best country song of the 2010s.[30]
The song sold 6,000 copies on its first day of release, enough to allow the song to enter theBillboardHot Country Songs chart at No. 41.[31][32] It sold 20,000 the following week, and rose to No. 20 in the chart.[32][33] In its third week it sold a further 47,000 copies and climbed further to No. 6.[34] On the Hot Country Songs chart dated February 11, 2017, "Better Man" reached number one, earning the group their third leader. It spent two weeks at No. 1 before being dethroned by "Body Like A Back Road" bySam Hunt.[35] The song was certified platinum in the United States by theRIAA on August 23, 2017.[36] The song has sold 772,000 copies in the United States as of February 2018.[37]
On February 15, 2017,Chase Bryant recorded a cover version of the song, which changed the grammatical narrative from second person to first. Bryant's rendition was described favorably by bothBillboard andRolling Stone for the change in the song's perspective, as well as the harmonies provided byRunaway June.[58][59]
Perone, James E. (2017).The Words and Music of Taylor Swift. The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection.ABC-Clio.ISBN978-1-44-085294-7.
Somville, Damien; Benoit, Marine (2025).Taylor Swift All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track. Black Dog & Leventhal /Hachette Book Group.ISBN978-0-7624-8929-9.
