Daughtry released “It's Not Over” in the United States on November 21, 2006. The RCA release was the band's debut single and the opening track on Daughtry, which arrived the same day. It introduced a group whose singer had come to national attention on American Idol and wanted to build a career in a rock band.
That band identity mattered to Chris Daughtry. In Billboard's January 20, 2007 issue, he described his elimination from the competition as an opportunity to form a group. “All I ever wanted to be was part of a successful rock band,” he said. He was also getting an education in the business around the music, learning about royalties and the number of people needed to make and promote an album.
One connection from the show carried directly into the songwriting. Fellow contestant Ace Young shared writing credit on “It's Not Over” with Chris, Gregg Wattenberg and Mark Wilkerson. Young told CNN's Larry King Live in January 2007 that he had written the chorus. The two singers had moved from competing on the same television series to contributing to the same record, with Young helping shape its central refrain.
Producer Howard Benson had first noticed Chris while watching American Idol with his family. But another song from the debut helped persuade him to take the job. In a March 2007 interview published by Pro Audio Review and preserved by Mix, Benson recalled hearing Chris perform “Home” at their initial meeting. He praised the self-written ballad's emotional directness and agreed to produce the record.
For “It's Not Over,” recorded at Bay 7 Studios in Valley Village, California, Benson made a practical choice about how to capture that voice. He used a Sony C-800G microphone, valued for its brightness, with a Quad-Eight preamp and light compression. He wanted the crisp upper frequencies in the recording from the start because he knew mixers would seek them out later. That attention to the vocal was part of preparing a rock recording for pop radio.
The lyric gives that voice a problem it can't simply overpower. Its narrator wants to repair the relationship while admitting how much it hurts. The chorus keeps pushing toward another chance, making determination and vulnerability part of the same appeal. Read that way, the title is an insistence that a damaged relationship can survive.
The single reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also topped the Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay charts and reached No. 5 on Mainstream Rock, taking the song across several radio formats. The band identity Chris wanted had a release reaching rock listeners and a broader pop audience.
At the 2008 Grammy Awards, “It's Not Over” earned nominations for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best Rock Song, the latter recognizing its four writers. Young told CosmoGirl in July 2008 that the songwriting nomination had been “the perfect setup” for writing much of his own album.
