It’s The Nineties: Number Ones from Lionel Cartwright, Tracy Byrd, Bryan White, Brooks & Dunn.

By Jonny Brick

1991 Lionel Cartwright – Leap of Faith

Cartwright wrote sitcom themes before having hits of his own. This self-written, plainly sung song encourages the listener to take a risk on love with him, ‘if you could just believe…the first step’s always the hardest one to take’.

Country music is often on the edge of contemporary Christian music, as this chart-topper shows.

1993 Tracy Byrd – Holdin’ Heaven

The third single from Byrd’s debut album, which was marketed as much for the singer’s looks as for his music, this meet-cute gets the heart pumping and the feet moving, with Byrd putting some gusto into his gratitude for having a dance with a lady: ‘I’m face to face with an angel’, ‘I been waitin’ all night just to have one dance with you’, ‘I thank my lucky stars above’.

One dance might not be enough, given that everything about her is ‘so perfectly right’ and ‘all my dreams are coming true’.

1996 Bryan White – So Much for Pretending

This melodic toe-tapper is at odds with a lyric where White laments the lack of ‘a happy ever after’ because, as he sings, ‘I kept my heart hidden’. Doubtless it encouraged plenty of listeners to act on their romantic impulses.

The vocabulary is excellent, making room for ‘intrigued’ and ‘demonstration’.

1998 Brooks & Dunn – How Long Gone

Ronnie Dunn plays the role of a man asking his lady how long she will be away from him. ‘How am I supposed to make any plans?’ he sings over a fiddle, hitting a falsetto note on the word ‘please’.

As with the Bryan White song, its melody is catchy and its arrangement is jaunty.