Clarkson explained this song's meaning in
Entertainment Weekly, September 2, 2005: "'
Hazel Eyes' is about the dipstick who completely screwed up and now is unhappy and you're happy. And then you're just shouting praises at the fact that he's miserable in 'Since U Been Gone.'"
"Since U Been Gone" was the first single from Kelly Clarkson's second album,
Breakaway, released in 2004 two years after she became the first
American Idol winner. The show was her launching pad, but when this song became a big hit, it proved she could fly on her own. The next singles, "Behind These Hazel Eyes" and "
Because Of You," were also huge, each placing in the Top 10. Other
Idol winners (Carrie Underwood excepted) didn't do nearly as well with their second albums.
Clarkson became the first American Idol alum to win a Grammy when in 2006 "Since U Been Gone" took Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Breakaway won Best Pop Vocal Album. She performed "Because Of You" on the show, later explaining that earlier in the day, her doctor's office told her tests revealed "cancerous results." She was wreck, but all that pathos channeled into her performance and brought the house down. The next day, she found out the office gave her the wrong test results - she was fine.
The Prince-speak title "Since U Been Gone" sets it apart from the many songs called "Since You've Been Gone."
The Outfield,
Aretha Franklin and Clyde McPhatter all had hits with that title.
The music video was directed by Alex De Rakoff and shows Clarkson trashing her ex-boyfriend's apartment. At the end of the video, we see Clarkson leaving undetected as the guy walks in with his new girl.
The guy is played by Greg Hill, who also played her love interest in the "
Miss Independent" video.
This was written and produced by Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald and Max Martin, which explains the big, juicy chorus. Martin had been making hits since the mid-'90s ("
Show Me Love" by Robyn, "
Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)" by Backstreet Boys), but Dr. Luke was new to the game - "Since U Been Gone" was his first hit as a writer/producer. He and Martin also wrote (with Kelly) "Behind These Hazel Eyes," and in 2009 delivered another hit for Clarkson, "My Life Would Suck Without You."
Dr. Luke recalled the genesis of the song to Billboard magazine: "That was a conscious move by Max and myself, because we were listening to alternative and indie music and talking about some song-I don't remember what it was. I said, 'Ah, I love this song,' and Max was like, 'If they would just write a damn pop chorus on it!' It was driving him nuts, because that indie song was sort of on six, going to seven, going to eight, the chorus comes... and it goes back down to five. It drove him crazy. And when he said that, it was like, light bulb. 'Why don't we do that, but put a big chorus on it?' It worked."
Dr. Luke and Max Martin wrote the song with Pink in mind, but she turned it down. They then reached out to Hilary Duff but she rejected the song because she couldn't reach its higher notes. Clive Davis, the chief creative officer at Clarkson's label, Sony, then convinced the producers to give the song to Clarkson.
It was a tough sell to Martin and Luke, who were certain that they had written a rock hit. "They weren't prepared for the casting idea," Davis recalled to Billboard magazine. "Max was looking to move on from what he had done with Backstreet Boys, and I really spent time convincing them that an American Idol winner could bring all the feeling and passion that was required to the song."
Clive Davis claimed in his memoir, The Soundtrack of My Life, that Clarkson burst into "hysterical sobbing" in his office when he demanded that this song be included on her album.
"Not true at all," Clarkson responded. "His stories and songs are mixed up. I did want more guitars added to the original demo and Clive did not. Max, Luke and I still fought for the bigger sound and we prevailed and I couldn't be more proud of the life of that song. I resent him dampening that song in any way."
Clarkson performed this song on her first Saturday Night Live appearance when she was the musical guest on a 2005 episode hosted by Jason Bateman.
"Since U Been Gone" was used in the 2020 movie Unpregnant and also in episodes of Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County ("Since You Been Gone" - 2005), Supergirl ("Manhunter" - 2016), RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars ("Rudemption Lip-Sync Smackdown" - 2021) and Uncoupled ("Chapter 4" - 2022).
Ester Dean and Skylar Astin perform the song during the audition sequences of the 2012 musical comedy film, Pitch Perfect.
