all american girl (song)

"All-American Girl" is a song composed by country pop singer Carrie Underwood, Ashley Gorley and Kelley Lovelace. It is the second single from Underwood's second studio album, Carnival Ride, released in the United States on December 17, 2007. (See 2007 in country music). "All-American Girl" is the second single for which Underwood shares a writing credit, the first being "So Small", which preceded it. The song is a mid-tempo country-pop song, with a soaring chorus. Underwood stated in an issue of Entertainment Weekly that the high note during the bridge in the song is the highest note she has ever hit (E5, or the E an octave above middle E). The song centers around a "beautiful, wonderful, perfect all-American girl." The first verse tells the story of a father hoping for a baby boy to continue his legacy, but "when the nurse came in with a little pink blanket, all those big dreams changed". The baby girl now has her father "wrapped around her finger", and his heart belongs to that "all-American girl." The second verse then shifts to 16 years later when the girl is now a teenager who falls head-over-heels for the "senior football star." Just like the girl's father, she becomes the center of the boy's world. The final bridge tells of when the girl and boy get married and are expecting "one of their own". When she asks the boy what he's hoping for he replies with "one just like you": an "all-American girl." Underwood said the song is in part her autobiography. The music video, which premiered January 23, 2008, was again directed by Roman White. The video features several different scenes of Underwood in different outfits portraying what an All-American girl could be behind different backgrounds through a green screen. Throughout the video she appeared as an American Olympic swimmer, an artist/painter, a nurse, a photographer, a cowgirl, a waitress, a ballerina, a clothing designer, a chef, a cheerleader, a veterinarian, a beauty queen, a mother, a football player, a police officer, a teacher, a graduate, a college student (wearing a sweatshirt from her sorority Sigma Sigma Sigma), a bride, a flight attendant, a news anchor, an astronaut, a firefighter, a soldier, a surgeon, a welder, a scientific chemist, a car thief and the President of the United States. In one scene, as a reference to Underwood's video for "Before He Cheats", she wears the same black leather jacket and sunglasses while holding a baseball bat, with the same smashed red pickup truck in the background (whenever the newswoman is shown, along the bottom screen can be seen a scrolling news track, practically putting out an APB on Underwood for having destroyed the truck). Scenes also have her performing in a green zip-up hoodie and jeans, in an orange room.