"Good Luck Babe!" by Chappell Roan // 7" vinyl + "Read and Make Out" bonus track

- March 17, 2025

Chappell Roan's breakthrough single "Good Luck Babe!" is a poignant and sarcastic farewell to the girl she once loved that couldn't love her back. In an email she sent to fans prior to the song's release, Chappell said that "Good Luck Babe!" is a song "about wishing good luck to someone who is denying fate". In the song's chorus she sings, "You'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling".

It was released in April 2024 as the first song in the next chapter of her career. At that point her debut album, The Rise and Fall of the Midwest Princess, had started to gain massive popularity around six months after its release. She was experiencing one of the biggest overnight success stories the music industry has ever seen, completely taking over pop music with her unique sound, powerhouse vocals, and captivating live performances. Of course, I say "overnight success" lightly, as Chappell has been working for nearly a decade to get to the level she is at now. This was the first song she released in the midst of this whirlwind breakthrough moment of her career.

The song was originally to be titled "Good Luck, Jane!", but after a lot of back-and-forth with her collaborators, she ultimately decided to name it "Good Luck Babe!" instead. The title reflects the double meaning that this song holds in such a powerful way. As much as this song is a biting and witty dig at her ex, it also takes the listener on a journey of her own self-discovery as well. In an interview with Konbini, Chappell said, "I wrote it because I fell in love with this girl and she started dating this fucking loser of a guy and I was like, 'Ok, bitch! Good luck with that!'"

She continued: "And then it turned into like, 'Oh I think this is a story about me.' Especially the bridge. Like only dating men prior to the past couple years. It would have been horrible to wake up in the middle of the night and being, 'Oh my God, what have I done?' And thinking about that girl that I fell in love with. It's just a huge statement of 'I told you so'."

She co-wrote this song with her core collaborator and producer Dan Nigro, as well as Justin Tranter. I love the full-blown 80's vibe they embraced in the production of "Good Luck Babe!", it perfectly captures the energy of this song. They started writing parts of it in 2022 while making The Rise and Fall of the Midwest Princess, with the intention of making a bold, anthemic pop song, but it ultimately went through many iterations before it was eventually released in 2024. The lyrics for this song did come very quickly though, Chappell specifically wrote the iconic bridge in just a few minutes. "I knew exactly what I wanted. I wrote it in three minutes. I felt so much anger. I was so upset. It all came out and I didn’t add anything when I wrote it all, done. It was a perfect storm," she told Rolling Stone. The emotion and the hurt in her voice is evident when listening to this song, with all of it finally reaching a climax during the bridge.

"When you wake up next to him in the middle of the night," Chappell sings in the bridge, "with your head in your hands, you're nothing more than his wife, and when you think about me all of those years ago, you're standing face to face with 'I told you so'".

It's one of the very best vocal performances I have ever heard from Chappell thus far, it's just so incredible and sharply written. The power in her voice when she hits the high note during the final "I told you so" of the bridge really solidifies that statement. It is empowering and defiant, as so much of her music is.

A special 7" vinyl edition of "Good Luck Babe!" was also released to accompany its launch. It was initially released as a webstore exclusive in April 2024, but toward the end of the year this vinyl was also sold at various online retailers and indie record stores. I purchased mine on Record Store Day Black Friday in 2024, I was so excited to see one of my favorite local record stores had it in stock! I also purchased a limited edition repress of "Pink Pony Club" as well (which I will definitely be writing a separate post about soon!) These were the first two records I added to my collection of Chappell's music, and it's clear that my collection will only continue to expand in the years to come.

This vinyl is pressed on a vibrant red opaque disc, with an alternate photo from the single's photoshoot on both sides of the center label. These photos were taken of her red carpet look from the UMG Grammy Awards After-party in 2024. Fittingly, "Good Luck Babe!" earned Chappell several Grammy nominations the following year, marking a significant full-circle moment in her career.

The styling for the cover is very campy and over the top, which has come to be very reflective of Chappell's theatrical persona. I absolutely love the direction she and her stylist, Genesis Webb, take with her fashion, it adds so much depth to the aesthetics and world-building of her music. The striking imagery of Chappell wearing prostetic makeup was partially inspired by the 2006 fantasy film Penelope, which is about a girl who was cursed with the pig snout when she was born. Her stylist, Genesis, also said in an interview with Vulture that they drew inspiration from films like Gummo and The Tales of Hoffmann as well as vintage designs by Galliano and Mugler.

Side B of this vinyl also features an unreleased demo of a song called "Read & Make Out". The song is full of longing and escapism from the pressures of the fast-paced world. Yearning for connection and simplicity, she sings, "I wanna read and make out and learn magic tricks, I might disappear just for kicks", she sings.

It reminds me of all the Laurel Canyon greats, like Joni Mitchell or The Mama & The Papas, to name a few. The introspective songwriting and melodic storytelling that made up so much of that music scene in the 1960's and 1970's is prevalent on this song. The blend of folk, rock and pop aesthetics is such a great sound for Chappell that I would love to hear her continue to explore more in the future. I also hear so much of Lana Del Rey's influence on this song too, particularly her Ultraviolence album seems to have been a source of inspiration for this song with the dreamy, atmospheric production and melancholic emotions that are explored. I also hear the echoes of "The greatest" by Lana as well, which shares many of the same themes of wanting to leave behind a world that feels disconnected and overwhelming, especially in the context of their experience with fame.

"Can we stay in my fantasy? In my jewelry box, where I never leave? In your deck of cards, I'm the queen of hearts", she sings in the chorus.

I hope one day that this song gets a wider release because it's truly one of the best she has ever made and I loved hearing it for the first time on this format. Her stunning vocals beautifully convey a longing for solace in familiarity and the quiet closeness of intimacy, making it deeply moving.

A lyric that always stands out to me when I listen to this song is during the bridge, it may be one of my favorite lyrics she has ever written. "This feels like my favorite book on the very last page, where I never look and I pretend it'll never end, so I close it up and I start again," she sings.

As of early 2025, "Good Luck Babe!" is a stand-alone single and "Read & Make Out" has not been released officially on streaming yet. I'm very excited to see if these songs are eventually apart of her forthcoming sophomore album. If it is, I'm also looking forward to hearing the way the demo of "Read & Make Out" changes and evolves during that time. The production and vocals are both unrefined on this version, but that adds so much to the emotion and vulnerability of the song.