Twenty-three nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Choosin’ Texas” — co-written by Ella Langley and Miranda Lambert, among others — recently surpassed Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which previously held the record at 22 weeks. The origin story, though, involves a marsupial, a traffic stop, and a rumor Langley had heard long enough ago that she used a songwriting retreat to finally ask Lambert whether it was true.
From Animal Control to Creative Gold
The most improbable writers’ room in recent Nashville memory started with one question about a kangaroo.
The retreat brought together Langley, Lambert, Luke Dick, and Joybeth Taylor. Langley had heard Lambert once owned a kangaroo. Lambert confirmed it, according to Langley’s account as reported by People, then went further — recounting being pulled over while traveling with both a kangaroo and a dog in her vehicle. Exact details of the animals’ positions differ across retellings, so the animal logistics are best taken as reported rather than verified. The premise Langley described: Lambert was stopped while traveling with both animals, Texas plates on the car.
The Fast Facts:
- Four co-writers: Ella Langley, Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick, Joybeth Taylor
- Written during a songwriting retreat, completed rapidly — Langley has variously described the session as lasting roughly 30 to 45 minutes
- The kangaroo never appears in the lyrics
- Chart milestone: 23 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, surpassing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” at 22 weeks, per Billboard
What a Record Looks Like When It Starts With a Punchline
Strip a bizarre story down to its emotional core and you get a hook — that’s the job.
Lambert mentioning her Texas license plates was all Langley needed. “She’s from Texas, I can tell” became the song’s central hook, according to Langley’s account as reported by Audacy. The kangaroo vanished. The Texas identity stayed. That’s songwriting doing what it does best: the source material doesn’t have to survive into the final product. It just has to unlock the door.
A song written in under an hour, sparked by a traffic stop involving exotic animals, now holds a chart record that stood in Mariah Carey’s name. That’s not luck — that’s specificity doing what spectacle never can. For women shaping the sound of contemporary country, it’s one hell of a blueprint.
