Bridget Kelly and Frank Ocean both earned new fans with their versions of “Thinking About You,” but who had the song first? The Roc Nation singer is setting the record straight on the ballad’s origin.
The Odd Future crooner decided to release his version of the song the day before Kelly released hers, titled “Thinking About Forever.” But Ocean originally penned it for Kelly’s EP Every Girl.
“We called Frank in to write a song for me and that was what came out of it,” she told Mina SayWhat on SiriusXM. “Of course it’s an amazing record, so everyone fell in love with it right away, myself included. I think at some point in the process of us putting the EP together, he just decided he was gonna put his version out.”
While she may be disappointed with the move, she doesn’t hold it against him. “He wrote the record. He had his vocals so he can pretty much do whatever he wants,” she explained. “I think the unfortunate thing is that everyone then saw it as Frank’s record so when mine came out, it was kinda like, wait a minute, she’s covering Frank Ocean’s song. And it was like, not really. Your boy actually demoed my song.”
Ocean recently released a radio edit of his song, which may appear on his upcoming Def Jam debut. “Now that push has come to shove, we’re just gonna let the song have a life of its own,” said Kelly. “Frank Ocean is incredibly talented, but at the same time, he’s gonna do what he wants to do.”