Avril Lavigne Drops Cover of Kelly Clarkson's 'Breakaway' — Which She Wrote — for 'Let Go' 20th Anniversary

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of her debut album Let Go, Lavigne released a remastered version of the album on Friday

Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson
Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson. Photo: Michael Kovac/Getty; JC Olivera/Getty

Avril Lavigne is spreading her wings and learning how to fly!

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of her debut album Let Go, Lavigne released a remastered version of the album on Friday complete with a cover of Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" — which Lavigne, 37, co-wrote — and several other songs previously not included on its original track listing.

First recorded by Clarkson, 40, and released in 2004 as a promotional single for The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, "Breakaway" reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was later included on the one-time American Idol star's sophomore album, also titled Breakaway.

Lavigne's Let Go (20th Anniversary Edition) take on the song sounds relatively similar to Clarkson's 2004 version, though the "Complicated" singer adds a heavier guitar pattern and slightly alters a lyric in the first verse from "Grew up in a small town / And when the rain would fall down" to "Grew up in a small town / And when the snow would fall down."

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Other tracks on Lavigne's Let Go re-release that weren't featured on the original U.S. version of the album include former Asian tour edition exclusives "Why" and "Get Over It," Sweet Home Alabama soundtrack cut "Falling Down," American Wedding soundtrack cut "I Don't Give," and the previously-unreleased "Make Up."

Let Go was first released on June 4, 2002, via Arista Records. The album charted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 at the time, spawned three U.S. top-10 hit singles "Complicated," "Sk8er Boi," and "I'm With You," and has since been certified seven-times Platinum by the RIAA.

In a video posted to The Kelly Clarkson Show's Instagram account in March, Lavigne spoke about writing "Breakaway" and how it ended up in Clarkson's hands. "OK so I wrote this song, recorded it for my first album," she said. "I did not use it, it went to Kelly, and she slayed. She did an incredible job with it."

"I wrote this song at a very young age, I was leaving my small town, went to the city and took a chance, I took a leap of faith on my career — it was like, a very scary thing," Lavigne explained, adding, "Leaving my world behind and taking a chance, was what this song was written about."

Avril Lavigne
Avril Lavigne. Robert Mora/Getty

Speaking to The Guardian earlier this week for an interview about the 20th anniversary of Let Go, Lavigne opened up about entering the music industry as a teenager.

"I was getting out of high school and I just wanted to rock out," she told the outlet. "I didn't even know what Hollywood was or what record deals were."

"I was very clear on what I wanted to do and what I didn't want to do. I wanted to be angsty and to sound more like a band," Lavigne — whose seventh album Love Sux dropped earlier this year — said of her artistry at the time. "I didn't want to be all bubblegum pop. I wanted to turn my emotions into lyrics. I was honestly just very, very pure."

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