There's a super random connection between the Click Five and Nickelback
In 2005, power-pop band the Click Five released their infectious hit single “Just The Girl.” Yeah, you know it. You may have even caught them on tour with Jesse McCartney or Ashlee Simpson that year (And if you didn't, you wish you did, right?) or even snagged a copy of their chart-topping debut album, Greetings From The Imrie House.
Shockingly, at the peak of the band’s success, lead singer Eric Dill made a departure from the group to focus on a solo endeavor. He began working on songs for his release and scored a publishing deal with Sony. One of the demos for his first album was a song he wrote called “No Surprise.”
And, surprise, the song “No Surprise” actually became a huge commercial success, charting at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and receiving massive radio play. But not as an Eric Dill song: The track was actually given to Daughtry (thank you, American Idol) and served as the lead single on their second studio album Leave This Town in 2009.
Before Daughtry got ahold of the track, it was in even more unlikely hands: Chad Kroeger, the lead singer of Nickelback. Kroeger was in the studio with Daughtry when he came across Dill's song and re-imagined it with a heavier sound for the rock band.
“Chad was at Atlantic Records looking for a label imprint, and he didn’t like anything they had, but he liked my demo,” Dill tells Indianapolis Monthly. “I had some pictures. He liked the pictures and was like, ‘Hey, send him up to Vancouver.’ So I worked with [Chad] for a week and we made the song better. We added a bridge, which I really liked. Then he showed it to Chris Daughtry, and he liked it and had it as his first single off his second record.”
The BMI Repertoire credits the track to Eric Dill, Chad Kroeger, Chris Daughtry and Rune Westberg.
Take a listen to Eric's original demo version:
And the re-worked version from Daughtry:
Besides some added instrumentals, echoed intro, and a few lyric changes the versions really aren't that different.
A collab between an ex-Click Five member and the lead singer of Nickelback. Who would've thought?
