Kelly Clarkson recorded more than 50 songs for her controversial My December record. You know - the album that put her at odds with her record label, mainstream pop radio and early fans who thought early hit Miss Independent was edgy.

Houston-raised musician and songwriter Dwight Baker offered a few of his compositions for consideration, but he didn't expect much to happen.

"You know what I really was thinking? There's no way my songs are making this record," Baker says.

But once Clarkson heard Baker's tunes, she flipped. The original American Idol winner put lyrics to four of his songs - Hole, Judas, How I Feel and Can I Have a Kiss - and included them on My December.

"The poppiest track she chose of mine for that record was How I Feel," Baker says. "The rest of it was definitely some of my harder, left-of-center stuff."

My December, released in June, cast off the last remnants of Burleson native Clarkson's apple-cheeked Idol sheen, a process she began with 2004's appropriately titled Breakaway. It didn't veer too far from Breakaway's winning formula. Clarkson vented about life and love on both discs, setting her full-throttle vocals against a slick wall of wailing guitars and crashing drums. If anything, it's a more adventurous record. A jaded little pill with some jagged rock edges.

Clarkson also collaborated on several tunes with Jimmy Messer, formerly of Austin band Goudie, who toured with her as a guitarist for several years.

It was Messer who pitched Baker for the December project. Baker says Clarkson ended up recording a few more of his songs, "that no one's heard, that are great."

Baker grew up in Sharpstown and West University (where his mother still lives) and briefly attended the Berklee College of Music. He toured as a drummer for Mary Lou Lord and Beaumont outfit Podunk before working his way up to larger treks with Heart and Enrique Iglesias.

The gigs paid well and were challenging, but Baker was exhausted. And he was itching to concentrate more on production.

Baker now runs his own Matchbox Studios in Austin and spends time working with acts in New York and Los Angeles. Current projects include new tunes for Jesse McCartney and #1 Crush, a Woodlands-based girl group.

But Clarkson's album is his biggest score to date.

"You just kind of give her a bunch of la-la's with the melody, and she fits words into those," Baker says.

"It's hard to let go of that stuff. You hear it in your head (one) way. Other producers and Kelly have a different vision of it. It's different than the way I would have done it ... (but) that's part of the artistic vision, and I'm glad that they do their full take on it."

Clarkson's "full take" cost her dearly in the numbers game, much to the dismay of her label. But it likely would have been impossible to live up to her Breakaway's staggering success.

Breakaway solidified Clarkson's post-Idol fanbase and earned praise from critics and rockers. It sold 6 million copies and spawned a string of wildly popular radio anthems (Since U Been Gone, Behind These Hazel Eyes, Because of You, Walk Away).

December's reception so far has been uncharacteristically cold, largely due to the record's pre-release drama, which included public spats between Clarkson and label head Clive Davis about its sound.

She fired her manager and canceled a planned arena tour in favor of the current, smaller trek, which passes through the Verizon Wireless Theater Sunday.

Baker, for what it's worth, thinks the new record is "really cool" and, like most, thinks a little more love from Clarkson's label would have made it a success.

"If the label would have just said, 'Kelly's going to take an artistic direction, and we're going to support her 100 percent, and here's this wonderful record,' ... it would have just rolled out, the single would have done good," Baker says.

"It would have been no drama, no nothing."

joey.guerra@chron.com