Cole Swindell’s ‘Girl Dad’ Connects Three Generations in a New Life Chapter: ‘These Kinds of Songs Are Why I Love Country Music’
Categoria: Musica
Billboard's Makin' Tracks column looks at the writing and recording behind Cole Swindell's "Girl Dad."
Por Billboard | 30/07/2026
When Cole Swindell reached the top of Billboard ’s Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts in 2016 with “You Should be Here,” the title arguably became the biggest hit of his career. He’s had others that reigned for more than one week on each of those lists, but “You Should be There” – with four weeks atop Hot Country Songs and three weeks in the lead on Country Airplay – is the only title to spend multiple weeks at No. 1 on both. Additionally, it was the first of three Swindell singles certified triple-platinum by the RIAA. “You Should be Here” helped Swindell accept the death of his father, Bill Swindell. “Hearing that other people needed to hear that as much as I needed to write it,” Cole says, “that’s kind of when I knew that, ‘Hey, this is just part of my story. There’s nothing you can do about it.’” Ten years later, there’s a sequel. “Girl Dad” documents the major changes in Cole’s personal life as he checks in with his father; even though Bill isn’t present in the physical world, “Girl Dad” assumes Bill’s soul is able to witness his son’s forward motion, and to recognize his own role in it. “In 10 years, a lot of good things can happen,” Cole suggests. “Even though you’ve been through [some tough] things, you can use those to help other people, and I don’t think I would have been the person I was without going through that.” Cole has forged a level of professional success that his father never got to see, but he also married the former Courtney Little in California in 2024, and the couple welcomed a daughter, Rainey, last August. Around the beginning of the year, Cole hit the links, and while he was alone on the golf cart, he contemplated his status as a girl dad. Was there a song in that? He thought about how he might tell his father of the changes in his life, and the idea coalesced around the use of a comma. “I met a girl, Dad” would work as the starting point of a chorus; “We’re having a girl, Dad” would clinch it. Cole had written a number of songs with Michael Tyler (“Somewhere on a Beach,” “Mind on You”) and Ben Stennis (“’Til You Can’t,” “Holy Smokes”), and he felt they would be the right collaborators to finish “Girl Dad.” He texted Tyler, who needed to hear the whole pitch before he was on board. “I see the words ‘Girl Dad,’ and I’m just thinking, you know, ‘Maybe not a hit song,’” Tyler admits. But once Swindell shared the actual lines he had in mind for the chorus, Tyler was completely in on it. They wrote it on Jan. 7 at Stennis’ Young Guns Publishing office on Nashville’s Music Row. Swindell knew parts of their personal biographies, but it became even clearer when they were together that they were the right collaborators: Stennis was a girl dad who’d lost his father; Tyler’s dad had passed, and his wife was expecting a girl. Their first attempts on guitar fell flat, but Stennis turned on his virtual keyboard, using an Emotional Piano program that simulates a baby grand, and they found some c