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Throwback to Scotty McCreery’s Debut Single “I Love You This Big” That Made Us All Gush

by
  • Riley is a Senior Country Music Journalist for Country Thang Daily, known for her engaging storytelling and insightful coverage of the genre.
  • Before joining Country Thang Daily, Riley developed her expertise at Billboard and People magazine, focusing on feature stories and music reviews.
  • Riley has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Belmont University, with a minor in Cultural Studies.

In 2011, Scotty McCreery won the tenth season of American Idol, and he had “I Love You This Big” as his coronation single.

The sweeping ballad was then immediately released after the show’s finale as the first single off his debut album Clear as Day. It quickly entered the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart at No. 32, making it the highest debut of any new country singer since Nielsen’s launch in 1990 – it then peaked at No. 15.

Meanwhile, on the Billboard Hot 100, “I Love You This Big” debuted and peaked at No. 11.

Scotty McCreery Is A Young Boy In Love in His Debut Single

Written by Brett James, Ester Dean, Jay “Saint” Smith, and Lil’ Ronnie Jackson, “I Love You This Big” tells the tale of a young boy who fell in love with a woman. He swears he may be young and may look a little silly, but he knows his feelings are real.

“I love you this big. Eyes have never seen this big. No one’s ever dreamed this big. And I’ll spend the rest of my life. Explaining what words cannot describe. But I’ll try. I love you this big,” the song goes.

Brett James said that he wanted to make the song into something a 17-year-old could sing at the same time, something universal too. And so he did!

The country-tinged “Idol” champ admitted that “I love You This Big” was the perfect song for his American Idol moment “because it could relate to my family, or it could relate to my fans out there who got me through the whole American Idol journey,” he said.

RELATED: The Best Scotty McCreery Songs from His Decade-Long Career

“It will always be special to me because it’s my first song. Once I started singing it in front of crowds, it took on a new life. I would look up, and their arms would be spread open wide when I’d sing ‘I Love You This Big,'” McCreery added. “It was just a cool thing to see. It always puts a grin on my face when I look out there and see their arms open wide and see a husband and wife looking at each other with their arms opened wide.”

A music video was also released along with his debut single. “This is going to be kind of a nice little chill, summertime barbecue, kind of like a community thing on the Fourth of July,” McCreery explained.

It was shot in an area in Los Angeles called Angels Point, which Scotty McCreery finds to be such a cool location for the shoot as both Dodger Stadium and downtown Los Angeles can be seen from the location. And the most important part is that it had a little country feel to it that one would think it was shot in North Carolina.

You can watch the music video below.

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