It’s The Nineties: Number Ones from Patty Loveless, John Anderson, Vince Gill, George Strait
By Jonny Brick
1990 Patty Loveless – Chains
This is not the Goffin & King song that The Beatles covered, but one written by (check out these names) Hal Bynum, who wrote Lucille for Kenny Rogers, and Bud Reneau. The fifth single taken from Patty’s breakthrough album Honky Tonk Angel, it was the ninth biggest song in country music in 1990, and the video uses the chain-link fence that was very popular in contemporary pop music promos.
As she would do on Blame It On Your Heart, Patty strings together some adjectives to complain about ‘these love-takin’, heartbreakin’, cold, hard, lonely-makin’ chains’. Her narrator is in complaining mood in contrast to the major-key arrangement: ‘I hunger for your love, it never gives me any slack’, ‘you call me and you kiss me and my heart begins to sink’, ‘you got me where you want me’. I think she secretly likes the chains.
Produced by Tony Brown, get this for a legend-packed session: bass was by Leland Sklar, percussion by Eddie Bayers and keys by Matt Rollins; guitars were picked by Mac McAnally and Albert Lee (a Brit!); fiddle and mandolin came from Mark O’Connor; while backing vocalists across the album include Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill (on whom more shortly), Claire Lynch and Harry Stinson, who is now a Fabulous Superlative in Marty Stuart’s band.
1992 John Anderson – Straight Tequila Night
Mo Pitney has included a cover version of Anderson’s song Seminole Wind on his new album with John Meyer. Pitney was born in 1993, which means Anderson’s other smash hit taken from the album of that name is older than he is. Yes, now the early 1990s is part of ancient history.
Written by Debbie Hupp and Kent Robbins, and produced by the reliable James Stroud, this song sees Anderson croon advice to a fella who is looking to chat up a woman who is ‘sippin’ white wine’. There’s a reference to ‘K13’, the selection on the jukebox he ought to put on to get her to dance, but he ought to check she’s not drinking tequila, which makes her reminisce about her ex.
‘Just remember her heart’s on the mend’ is useful advice, which Anderson sings over dobro played by Sonny Garish. The acoustic guitar part is played by Mark Casstevens, who contributed to a quite astonishing 98 other number ones, several of which were by Garth Brooks, in whose G Men Casstevens played.
1994 Vince Gill – Tryin’ To Get Over You
As history recedes into the past, country fans will be more and more grateful for Vince Gill, the guy from Oklahoma who would never do rock’n’roll or pop because he came up as a bluegrass and Western Swing guy. He can, however, be enlisted as an Eagle, playing classic solos to stadium-sized crowds. Charlie Worsham calls him the North Star for a reason, and this number one is yet another of those reasons.
Gill was on a hot streak at the time; this was the fifth single and fourth number one from the album I Still Believe In You. ‘I’ve been spending time alone,’ his heartbroken narrator complains over an MOR arrangement heavy on acoustic guitar and the rim of a snare drum. He continues that ‘all my friends try to fix me up’ but ‘I’ve all but given up cos life don’t mean nothin’ without you’, and that ‘it’ll take dyin’ to get it done’.
Written three years before Gill divorced his wife Janis, this sentiment could have been sung in the 1950s or the 1970s by George Jones, who was also very familiar with heartache. Jones, however, wouldn’t have written the song himself or played his own guitar solo, too.
1995 George Strait – You Can’t Make a Heart Love Somebody
The opening track of his album Lead On, this ballad became Strait’s 27th number one smash, and it sits snugly on Disc Two of his 50 Number Ones compilation. Three years to the week later, Strait would hit the top again with the jaunty Round About Way.
This one was written by Steve Clark and Johnny MacRae. The latter was born in 1929 and wrote songs cut by Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn and the band then known as the Dixie Chicks. Here, the listener learns ‘you can lead a heart to love but you can’t make it fall’ over a gentle arrangement played by some of Nashville’s A Team, which is befitting of country’s monarch.
We open ‘at a table for two, with candlelight and wine’, with Strait’s narrator prepared to propose to his beloved. But his hopes are dashed when she turns him down: ‘I’ve begged and pleaded with my heart,’ she tells him, but that is ‘the only part’ of her that doesn’t love him. She really ought to have told him sooner, but that doesn’t cancel out the melancholy nature of this terrific heartbreaker.
Chad J Country will be playing one of Jonny’s selections each week in his Wednesday show
Follow Jonny through The Nineties episode by episode.
For more country music evangelism, go to countrywol.com where you can read Monday essays, Friday reviews and Sunday Hymn Sheets. Follow Jonny’s Country Music Calendar at the Country Way of Life Facebook page (facebook.com/acountrywayoflife).
Any Given Songday and Stuck at Two, the pair of series which celebrate the centenary of the Grand Ole Opry, can be found at CountryWOL.com
