RED RAGTOP

TIM MCGRAW

SONGWRITER: JASON SANDBRINK WHITE

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: TIM MCGRAW AND THE DANCEHALL DOCTORS

LABEL: CURB RECORDS

GENRE: COUNTRY

YEAR: 2002

 

               Samuel Timothy McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American singer, actor, and record producer. McGraw has released fifteen studio albums (eleven for Curb Records, three for Big Machine Records and one for Arista Nashville). 10 of those albums have reached number 1 on the Top Country Albums charts, with his 1994 breakthrough album Not a Moment Too Soon being the top country album of 1994. All of these albums have produced 65 singles, 25 of which have reached number 1 on the Hot Country Songs or Country Airplay charts. Three of these singles — "It's Your Love", "Just to See You Smile", and "Live Like You Were Dying" — were respectively the top country songs of 1997, 1998, and 2004 according to Billboard Year-End. He has also won three Grammy Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music awards, 11 Country Music Association (CMA) awards, 10 American Music Awards, and three People's Choice Awards. His Soul2Soul II Tour, which was done in partnership with his wife, Faith Hill, is one of the highest-grossing tours in country music history, and one of the top 5 among all genres of music. He has sold more than 80 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

      McGraw has ventured into acting, with supporting roles in The Blind Side (with Sandra Bullock), Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, Tomorrowland, and Four Christmases (with Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon), and The Shack, and lead roles in Flicka (2006) and Country Strong (2010). He was a minority owner of the Arena Football League's Nashville Kats.

        In acknowledgement of his grandfather's Italian heritage, McGraw was honored by the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) in 2004, receiving the NIAF Special Achievement Award in Music during the Foundation's 29th Anniversary Gala.

             He has been married to singer Faith Hill since 1996, and is a son of former MLB pitcher Tug McGraw.

           "Red Rag Top" is a song written by Jason White and recorded by American country music artist Tim McGraw. It was released in September 2002 as the first single from McGraw’s álbum Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors. The song peaked at number 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) chart in early 2003 and reached number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100.

I was twenty and she was eighteen

We were just about as wild as we were green

In the ways of the world

 

She picked me up in that red rag top

We were free of the folks and hiding from the cops

On a summer night

Runnin' all the red lights

 

We parked way out in a clearin' in a grove

And the night was as hot as a coal burnin' stove

We were cookin' with gas, knew it had to last

 

In the back of that red rag top

She said, "Please don't stop."

 

Well, the very first time her mother met me

Her green-eyed girl had been a mother-to-be for two weeks

 

I was out of a job and she was in school

And life was fast and the world was cruel

We were young and wild

We decided not to have a child

 

So we did what we did and we tried to forget

And we swore up and down there would be no regrets

In the morning light

But on the way home that night

 

On the back of that red rag top

She said, "Please don't stop

Lovin' me."

 

We took one more trip around the sun

But it was all make-believe in the end

No I can't say where she is today

I can't remember who I was back then

 

Well, you do what you do and you pay for your sins

And there's no such thing as what "might've been"

That's a waste of time

Drive you outta your mind

 

I was stopped at a red light just yesterday

Beside a young girl in a cabriolet

And her eyes were green

I was in an old scene

 

I was back in that red rag top

On the day she stopped

Loving me

I was back in that red rag top

On the day she stopped

Loving me.

I'M NO STRANGER TO THE RAIN

KEITH WHITLEY

SONGWRITERS: SONNY CURTIS & RON HELLARD

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES

LABEL: RCA VICTOR

GENRE: COUNTRY

YEAR: 1988

 

           Jackie Keith Whitley (July 1, 1954 – May 9, 1989) was an American country music singer. During his career, Whitley only recorded two albums but charted 12 singles on the Billboard country charts, and 7 more after his death.

            Born in Ashland, Kentucky, Whitley grew up in nearby Sandy Hook, Kentucky. Whitley began his career there in 1970, performing in Ralph Stanley's band. Establishing himself as a lead singer in bluegrass music, Whitley moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1983 and began his recording career there. His first Top 20 Country Hit single, "Miami, My Amy", was released in 1986. In 1988, his first three singles from his studio álbum Don't Close Your Eyes, the title song, "When You Say Nothing at All" and "I'm No Stranger to the Rain" were number one hits. Years of alcoholism severely compromised his health and he died of alcohol intoxication in 1989 at his Goodlettsville home at the age of 34. His later singles, "I Wonder Do You Think of Me", "It Ain't Nothin'", and "I'm Over You", were released after his death.

         Whitley was born to Faye Ferguson (editor of The Elliott County News) and Elmer Whitley (an electrician) in Ashland, Kentucky, but was raised 46 miles away in Sandy Hook, and attended Sandy Hook High School. He had two brothers, Randy and Dwight, and a sister, Mary. The Whitley family is of English and Scots-Irish descent and has lived in the Elliott County area since the 1840s.

           While Whitley was a teenager in Sandy Hook, he and his friends would pass the time drinking bootleg bourbon and racing their cars down mountain roads at dangerous speeds. Whitley was once in a car whose driver attempted to round a curve at 120 mph. The car wrecked, killing his friend and almost breaking Whitley's neck. In another incident, he drove his car off a 120-foot cliff into a frozen river, escaping with only a broken collar bone.

         Whitley lost his brother Randy in an October 1983 motorcycle accident, and his father Elmer. Most of his family moved to Texas, along with the musician Justin Fulcher.

             "I'm No Stranger to the Rain" is a song recorded by American country music artist Keith Whitley. It was released in January 1989 as the fifth and final single from his álbum Don't Close Your Eyes, and was the last single released during Whitley's lifetime. It peaked at number-one in both the United States and Canada. Joe Diffie covered the song on Whitley's 1995 tribute album. It was written by Sonny Curtis and Ron Hellard.

I'm no stranger to the rain

I'm a friend of thunder

Friend, is it any wonder lightning strikes me

I've fought with the devil

Got down on his level

But I never gave in, so he gave up on me

 

I'm no stranger to the rain

I can spot bad weather

And I'm good at finding shelter in a downpour

I've been sacrificed by brothers

Crucified by lovers

But through it all I withstood the pain

I'm no stranger to the rain

 

But when I get that foggy feeling

When I'm feeling down

If I don't keep my head up, I may drown

But it's hard to keep believing

I'll even come out even

While the rain beats your hope in the ground

And tonight it's really coming down

 

I'm no stranger to the rain

But there'll always be tomorrow

And I'll beg, steal, or borrow a little sunshine

And I'll put this cloud behind me

That's how the Man designed me

To ride the wind and dance in a hurricane

I'm no stranger to the rain

 

Oh, no, I'm no stranger to the rain

 

I'm no stranger to the rain

I'm a friend of thunder

Friend, is it any wonder lightning strikes me

But I'll put this cloud behind me

That's how the Man designed me

To ride the wind and dance in a hurricane

I'm no stranger to the rain

 

Oh, no, I'm no stranger to the rain.

NEVER LET HER GO

DAVID GATES

SONGWRITER: DAVID GATES

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: NEVER LET HER GO

LABEL: ELECTRA RECORDS

GENRE: SOFT ROCK

YEAR: 1975

 

              David Ashworth Gates (born December 11, 1940) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, musician and producer, frontman and co-lead singer (with Jimmy Griffin) of the group Bread, which reached the tops of the musical charts in Europe and North America on several occasions in the 1970s. The band was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

           Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Gates was surrounded by music from infancy, as the son of Clarence, a band director, and Wanda Gates (née Rollins), a piano teacher. He became proficient in piano, violin, bass and guitar by the time he enrolled in Tulsa's Will Rogers High School. Gates formed his first band, The Accents, with other high school musicians which included a piano player, Claude Russell Bridges, who later in life changed his name to Leon Russell. During a concert in 1957, the Accents backed Chuck Berry. In 1957, David Gates and the Accents released the 45 "Jo-Baby"/"Lovin' at Night" on Robbins record label. The A-side was written for his sweetheart, Jo Rita, whom he married in 1959 while enrolled at the University of Oklahoma studying law and pre-med. At Oklahoma he became a member of Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity.

             In 1961, he and his family moved to Los Angeles, where Gates continued writing songs, and he worked as a music copyist, as a studio musician, and as a producer for many artists – including Pat Boone. Success soon followed. His composition "Popsicles and Icicles" hit Nº. 3 on the US Hot 100 for The Murmaids in January 1964. The Monkees recorded another of his songs, "Saturday's Child". By the end of the 1960s, he had worked with many leading artists, including Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Merle Haggard, Duane Eddy and Brian Wilson. In 1965, Gates arranged the Glenn Yarbrough hit, "Baby the Rain Must Fall". In 1966, he produced two singles on A&M Records for Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band which were hits in the Los Angeles area.

           Never Let Her Go is the second solo album by David Gates of the American soft rock band Bread.

Everybody needs a someone

Waitin' to be there when things are

a-lookin' down

So if you feel a little lonely

Go out, find your one and only

Somewhere out there

Someone will care for you

and then...

Never Let Her Go

Never Let Her Go

 

You may wonder how you know love

When the moment comes that you've

been a-dreamin' of

Well true love takes a little longer

Your heart beats a little stronger

You'll know it's real

Inside you'll feel you're home at

last... then

Never Let Her Go

Never Let Her Go

 

So if you feel a little lonely

Go out, find your one and only

Open your heart

Give love a start and watch it

grow... and

Never Let Her Go

Never Let Her Go.

CLOSE ENOUGH TO PERFECT

ALABAMA

SONGWRITER: Carl Chambers

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: MOUNTAIN MUSIC

LABEL: RCA NASHVILLE

GENRE: COUNTRY

YEAR: 1982

 

           Alabama is an American country and Southern rock band formed in Fort Payne, Alabama, in 1969. The band was founded by Randy Owen (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and his cousin Teddy Gentry (bass, backing vocals). They were soon joined by another cousin, Jeff Cook (lead guitar, fiddle, and keyboards). First operating under the name Wildcountry, the group toured the Southeast bar circuit in the early 1970s, and began writing original songs. They changed their name to Alabama in 1977 and following the chart success of two singles, were approached by RCA Records for a record deal.

        Alabama's biggest success came in the 1980s, where the band had over 27 number one hits, seven multi-platinum albums and received numerous awards. Alabama's first single on RCA Records, "Tennessee River", began a streak of 21 number one singles, including "Love in the First Degree" (1981), "Mountain Music" (1982), "Dixieland Delight" (1983), "If You're Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band)" (1984) and "Song of the South" (1988). The band's popularity waned slightly in the 1990s although they continued to produce hit singles and multi-platinum album sales. Alabama disbanded in 2004 following a farewell tour and two albums of inspirational music but reunited in 2010 and have continued to record and tour worldwide.

          The band's blend of traditional country music and Southern rock combined with elements of bluegrass, folk, gospel and pop music gave it a crossover appeal that helped lead to their success. They also toured extensively and incorporated production elements such as lighting and "sets" inspired by rock concerts into their shows. The band has over 41 number one country records on the Billboard charts to their credit and have sold over 75 million records, making them the most successful band in country music history. AllMusic credited the band with popularizing the idea of a country band and wrote that "It's unlikely that any other country group will be able to surpass the success of Alabama."

         Alabama was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2019 and were awarded with the first ever Life Time Achievement Award from this institution.

     Mountain Music is the sixth studio album by country music group Alabama, released in 1982. A crossover success, it ranked well as an album on both country and pop charts and launched singles that were successful in several markets. This is Alabama's most successful studio album. In 1998, the album was certified 5× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

          Early LP pressings of this album were mastered at a slower speed. Reissues made after have corrected this error.

VERSE:

Sometimes her morning coffee's way too strong

And sometimes what she says, she says all wrong

Right or wrong, she's there beside me

Like only a friend would be

And that's close enought to perfect for me

 

VERSE:

Now she's been known to wear her pants too tight

And drinking puts her out just like a light

Heaven knows she's not an angel

But she'd really like to be

And that's close enough to perfect for me

 

She kisses me each morning.......And smiles her sleepy smile

She don't have to say it.......I can see it in her eyes

Don't you worry about my woman

Or what you think she ought to be

She's close enough to perfect for me

 

VERSE:

Sometimes she gets down and starts to cry

But then again a lady has a right

She's everything I've ever wanted

She's all I'll ever need

She's close enough to perfect for me

 

REPEAT CHORUS

Oh, she's close enough to perfect......for me.