fact, Kelly and I had already recorded a song, 'A Lot Like You,' for the duet project, and he said, 'You've got to do this one together,' so we did." Musically, the song is different from the original version. Thom Jhurek of Allmusic described the duet version as "a big, overblown power ballad" which incorporates "guitars compressed to the breaking point, sweeping strings, and enormous crashing cymbals." The use of violin was also incorporated into the duet, giving it a melodramatic quality that was deemed "unnecessary" by Nancy Dunham of Blogcritics. The song was officially sent to radio stations on May 15, 2007, as the lead single from the album. It was added to country radio playlists on May 28, 2007. Critical reception The song received mixed reviews from critics. Lana Cooper of PopMatters loved the duet and deemed it as "the most unique track on the album." She also felt that McEntire and Clarkson complemented each other in the song, writing "The double-feature cover of Clarkson's hit showcases two women with exceptional and distinctive voices playing to one another's strengths." The same opinion was echoed by Nancy Dunham of Blogcritics who believed that "the two use just the right amount of vocal passion to make the ardent lyrics come alive, but stay out of the cheese zone." Scott Sexton of About.com lauded the duet version of the song, writing "As of now anything Reba touches turns to gold, but with this hit alone she has a great shot at platinum." Kevin John Coyne of Country Universe praised McEntire's beautiful singing although he said that she did not bring "anything new" to the song. He also added that the song "had the potential to be reworked into an interesting mother/daughter confrontation" but he was disappointed because McEntire did not change the viewpoints of the song. He graded the production of the song as "C−", writing "The end result is the song doesn't make any sense, and is just confusing to listen to." Thom Jurek of Allmusic criticized the instrumentation of the song, saying "This could have been a Meat Loaf reject from Bat Out of Hell II." Gayle Thompson of The Boot ranked "Because of You" at number ten in her list of "Top 20 Reba McEntire songs." She also included both McEntire and Clarkson at number six for their duet of "Because of You" in her list of "Cross