It’s The Nineties: Number Ones from Dan Seals, Alan Jackson, Rhett Akins, Dixie Chicks

By Jonny Brick

1990 Dan Seals – Good Times

It’s Sam Cooke’s turn to inspire a country chart-topper, as Seals covers his 1964 pop hit. Seals is now the one who wants to ‘let the good times roll’, even though ‘time don’t mean that much to me’ while he’s having fun at whatever the 1990 equivalent of a record hop is.

The opening blasts of saxophone, which had its moment to shine around the turn of the decade, are followed by Hammond organ, proving that the poppier side of country would let in any instrument so long as it gave someone a hit.

1995 Alan Jackson – I Don’t Even Know Your Name

And here’s a man who had a hit with the song Good Time. This one’s a fun, fantastical number with a 12-bar structure and some fine guitar work from Brent Mason.

As he eats in a roadside diner, Jackson spots a waitress and drunkenly makes advances on her. The music slows down as the pair marry and the groom learns his bride has a front tooth missing. What a klutz Jackson is, but the couple are made for one another because it turns out the waitress doesn’t know his name either!

1996 Rhett Akins – Don’t Get Me Started

This one is a more straightforward love song. Thomas Rhett’s dad had one number one hit as a solo artist, a by-the-numbers power ballad perfect for loved-up couples.

There’s plenty of religious imagery: church bells, thunder, waters parting and angels singing. The solo part is doubled by fiddle and mandolin playing in unison, and the sing-song melody is very pleasant.

1998 Dixie Chicks – There’s Your Trouble

This song, the band’s first country number one, even made the UK top 40, encouraging the Chicks to become one of very few country hitmakers able to play sizeable venues in the 2000s.

Here, the trio chide a boy for ‘seeing double’ and not falling for the narrator instead. The words come out in a skipping rhythm, mocking how he is clearly ‘sinking’. The harmonies are joyous and the banjo and pedal steel support the strong fiddle. Unlike on Good Times by Dan Seals, there is no hint of saxophone.