Former 'American Idol' winner Kelly Clarkson to release first CD album on April 15

Billboard reports that former American Idol wiinner Kelly Clarkson will finally have her debut CD released on April 15. Entitled Thankful, the RCA release will hit the stores along with a new single with a surprising co-author.


The first single from Clarkson's LP will be "Miss Independent", which (according to Launch Yahoo!), is co-written by producer Rhett Lawrence and former teen bimbo-diva Christina Aguilera. The song was written for Aguilera's 2002 CD Stripped but not included in the final set. Two other songs on Thankful are co-written by Clarkson and one-time superstar producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds: the title track and "You Thought Wrong," which features a guest appearance by fellow Idol finalist Tamyra Gray.

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We hope we're wrong about this, but we're highly suspicious of the fact that (1) Aguilera is RCA's best-selling living artist, (2) the Aguilera song is an outtake, and (3) Kelly herself scooped up half a songwriting credit on the duet that is likely to be the follow-up single. Somehow we don't see Christina Aguilera or Kelly Clarkson laboring over words or music late at night.

These credits remind us more of the famous quote of Ken Darby, who wrote the early Elvis Presley hit "Love Me Tender" (based on the Civil War-era song "Aura Lee") but was forced to give up half the songwriting credit to Elvis. For the other half of the credit, he listed his wife, Vera Matson. When asked why he put his wife's name on the song, Darby supposedly answered, "Because she didn't write it either."