Originally, Kelly Clarkson wrote the melody and lyrics for “Because of You” back when she was 16 to cope up with her emotional distress that she experienced as here parent’s got divorced. Clarkson mentioned that even she has overcome her pain, still she can relate to the ache of the song.

Years have passed and she met Hodges and Moody, Clarkson asked them if they are willing to write songs with her. She requested for assistance to polish her song “Because of You” for the Breakaway album, but mentioned that she would accept if they loathed the song and desired to make a new one with her. Rather, both Hodges and Moody were amazed with the song and together with Clarkson, they polished it to the final form.

Clarkson mentioned that she presented “Because of You” for the first album, Thankful, but the label did not go for it. She also said that she asked for the song to appear on the 2nd album but her label still did not desire releasing the song. “Because of You” won her the ASCAP songwriters award for the “Song of the Year”.

Similar to the 3 past singles from Breakaway, this song hit the top 10 US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at 7th spot in October 2005. Again, it was a number 1 single for Kelly Clarkson on Top 40 Mainstream chart which spent 6 weeks at top. The song possessed permanence on the charts as well as it had assisted Breakaway reenter the top 10 US Billboard 200 album chart throughout Christmas holiday season and through New Year.

This song has reached number 4 in Australia, where it was 58 on ARIA in the final of 2006 singles chart. The single arrived at number 7 in UK and 2 on Nielsen BDS Airplay Hits Chart in the country of Canada. In Germany, it hit top 5 and gathered a gold certification which let it stayed for months on German single charts.

During 2007, Clarkson revert the song to a duet with country singer Reba McEntire for the album Reba: Duets. As MCA Nashville released this in summer of 2007, its recognition has made Clarkson’s initial appearance on Billboard Hot Country charts wherein it peaked at the 2nd spot.

Throughout January 31, 2008, RIAA certified the single as platinum for having more than 1, 500, 000 singles in all kinds of formats sold in US. During summer of 2008, “Because of You” became the 2nd most played throughout the past 5 years on radio, TV, online and on live spots altogether in UK.

In 2009, it was the highest single from the American Idol album having sales of 7 million singles throughout the globe.

Similar to “Behind these Hazel Eyes, Clarkson wrote the action for the video on her own. Vadim Perelman directed the music video for this song. It is based on the real story of Clarkson’s disturbed childhood. Due to the video’s nature, she requested for permission from her parents before the filming was done. The young girl who is playing the young Clarkson in the video is Kennedy Noel. She is the daughter of Clarkson’s keyboardist and musical director, Jason Halbert. Noel showed at the 2006 Grammy Awards together with Clarkson as well as to accompany Clarkson in her “Because of You” performance on piano without formal piano training. She learned the song in just as short as two weeks.

The video begins at Clarkson’s home where she is having a fiery argument with her partner. There was an instance where he attempted to smash their family picture. Time freezes then her husband was immobilized, Clarkson was immune to this scene though. Looking all over her home, she saw her younger self. Together with her younger version, they reminisced the distressed childhood she went through. There were several painful memories that drove her mother to take pills and cried in front of her younger version.

The verge of collapse is noticed when Clarkson’s folks have a physical brawl with each other and throwing objects at one another. As her father set his bags and leaves, even she tried to make him stay, still his father departs. Her older version goes back to the present time and the time unfreezes, rather continue fighting, they make up. In the video, her daughter approached them and together they embraced each other.

On October 3, 2005 the music video for “Because of You” was officially seen on Total Request Live. The video won the “Best Female Video” at MTV Video Music Award and was also nominated for “Viewer’s Choice Award”. This marked the 2nd time that a female music artist gathered 2 consecutive awards for “Best Female Video”.