What Hurts the Most

2003 song by Mark Wills

"What Hurts the Most" is a song written by American songwriter Jeffrey Steele and English songwriter Steve Robson. Originally recorded by country music artist Mark Wills in 2003 on his album And the Crowd Goes Wild, it was covered by Bellefire a year later. The first version to be released as a single was by pop singer Jo O'Meara in 2005, from the album Relentless. Later that year, country band Rascal Flatts covered the song as well, releasing it as the first single from the 2006 album Me and My Gang, topping the U. S. country and adult contemporary charts with it. German band Cascada later had international chart success with the song in 2007. It was also covered by Eden in 2008.

In 2006, country music trio Rascal Flatts released a cover of this song as a single from their album Me and My Gang, and it became their fifth number one single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It also peaked at number six on the all genre Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's first top 10 pop hit. In addition, the song reached number one on the Adult Contemporary charts. Rascal Flatts also performed the song live with Kelly Clarkson at the Academy of Country Music Awards in 2006. Rascal Flatts' recording earned two nominations for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards, in the categories of Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and Best Country Song. As of the chart dated January 30, 2010, the song topped the 2 million mark in paid downloads. This makes Rascal Flatts the first country group to top the 2 million mark with two songs. By April 2011, the song sold 2.28 million in the US.

The music video starts with a young girl crying over the loss of her boyfriend. She expresses anger for her father who she blames for making her boyfriend leave, resulting in his demise in a car accident. The girl's very hurt mother watches her daughter's anger for her father and cries as she feels helpless over this unfortunate situation. Over the course of the video, there are scenes of the band playing, flashbacks of the couple, and the girl trying to go about her life. A scene in which with the girl is vomiting in her bathroom and holding her stomach implies that she became pregnant right before her lover's death. The video ends with the girl running up to the boy's wooden cross memorial on the side of the road, to kneel down and say that she saw him, answering his question asked earlier in the video "What do you see?" when they were talking about the future, while a storm is brewing. The music video was directed by Shaun Silva in early 2006.

Rascal Flatts' version of the song is set in the key of F minor, with a vocal range of E♭3 C 5. The main chord pattern is Fm D♭ A♭ E♭.

In 2007, German Eurodance trio Cascada recorded a cover of "What Hurts the Most" for their second studio album, Perfect Day (2007). The cover was produced and recorded by band members Yanou and DJ Manian at Plazmatek Studio Cologne in Cologne, Germany. The song serves as the first single from Perfect Day (2007). It was first released in Sweden on November 21, 2007, in digital and physical formats, through Zooland Records. The song was later released in the United Kingdom as a digital single on December 3, 2007, and as a CD single a week later, through All Around the World. The releases featured remixes by several disc jockeys, including Darren Styles, Spencer & Hill and Flip & Fill. "What Hurts the Most" was solicited to mainstream radio stations on December 11, 2007, in the United States, following its digital and physical release within the two weeks before. In Germany, the cover was released as a CD and digital single on January 4, 2008, through Zeitgeist. In contrast to the original version, Cascada's cover of "What Hurts the Most" deviates from the country sound and replaces it with Europop electronic beats and elements typical of DJ Manian and Yanou productions. According to the digital music sheet published at Musicnotes. com by BPJ Administration, the song is composed in a key of F minor while carrying a tempo of 144 beats per minute. Horler's vocals range between a high register of A3 to a low register of C5.

Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy gave the song a three star rating, saying that "it's not as good as previous single 'Everytime We Touch' for sure, but its teasing, lucid intro, which bursts into the hand clap inducing, hip swiveling chorus after a flurry of robotic drum beats is certainly a good giggle." Kurt Kirton of About. com named it one of the album's standout tracks. Chuck Taylor of Billboard gave "What Hurts the Most" a positive review, writing that "this track is remixed into a frothy uptempo anthem, complete with requisite percussive thump and an exulted vocal (with 12 mixes in all) that leaves the lyric's potential heartbreak in the dust." Taylor ended his review, asking "Wouldn't it be wondrous if American programmers renewed their vow in 2008 to put variety on the airwaves—or do we really need a fifth entry in the top 10 from T Pain?"