Michelle Branch has reimagined her 2002 hit “Goodbye to You” as a duet with Maren Morris, pairing the new version with a Laguna Beach-inspired music video starring reality star Kristin Cavallari.
Out now via BMG, the reworked track turns the song into a full duet rather than a straight re-recording, with the two Grammy winners trading its lines about change, independence and letting go. “Beyond thrilled to be joining Maren on her beautiful rendition of ‘Goodbye to You,’” Branch said. “Call me crazy, but I prefer her version to the original.” Morris, who has cited Branch as a formative influence, added: “Michelle was really encouraging to let me make it my own… Her songwriting has always been ahead of its time.” The pair first previewed the collaboration last month when Branch made a surprise appearance during Morris’ 10th-anniversary celebration of her debut album Hero at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.
The accompanying video leans hard into early-2000s nostalgia, recreating the prom scene from MTV’s Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County — the reality series that famously featured “Goodbye to You” in its first season, with cast members singing along in a limo. Cavallari, who rose to fame on the show, appears alongside Branch and Morris. “‘Goodbye to You’ is one of those songs that immediately takes me back to a very specific time in my life,” she said, calling the shoot “a fun, full-circle experience.”
The release is the second confirmed track from Everywhere and Back Again, Branch’s EP marking 25 years in music, due Nov. 6 via BMG. The project revisits songs from across her catalog through new recordings with guest collaborators; it launched earlier this year with a reworked “The Game of Love” reuniting Branch with New Radicals frontman Gregg Alexander. The EP arrives as Branch launches her Everywhere and Back Again Tour — a nearly 20-date fall run that sold out nationwide within a week, prompting a 17-date 2027 leg.
“Goodbye to You” originally appeared on Branch’s 2001 debut album The Spirit Room, which sold three million copies worldwide and was certified double-platinum in the U.S., establishing her among a new generation of young women writing and performing their own songs.
The song became her third top-40 hit, peaking at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2002. Branch went on to win a Grammy for her 2002 Carlos Santana collaboration “The Game of Love,” which reached No. 5 on the Hot 100, and topped the Hot Country Songs chart with “Leave the Pieces” as one half of the duo the Wreckers in 2006. Morris, a Grammy winner with a string of country and pop crossover hits, reached No. 5 on the Hot 100 with her Zedd and Grey collaboration “The Middle.”
Stream “Goodbye To You” below.
