Robbed hit of the week 7/16/18 - Brooks & Dunn's "Boot Scootin' Boogie"...
from the album Brand New Man (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #50
This week's "robbed hit" comes from the country music duo Brooks & Dunn, who were put together by music executives to collaborate after signing the two previously solo acts. Kix Brooks had made his first mark in 1983 with the single "Baby, When Your Heart Breaks Down", which went to #73 in 1983. That same year, Ronnie Dunn took his first of two singles to reach #59 on the country chart with "It's Written All Over Your Face". In the spring of 1991, they released their debut single together, "Brand New Man", which would become the title track for their first album released that summer. The single climbed to #1 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart, where it spent two weeks on top. That was followed by two more singles, "My Next Broken Heart" and "Neon Moon", that also spent a pair of weeks on top of the list. That latter song proved to be popular in the country dance clubs, where the "line dancing" craze was just getting revived, especially due to the popularity of songs like the one that first crossed over to the pop charts, Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achy Breaky Heart". This poised the duo to ride the wave of this burgeoning movement with their fourth release, "Boot Scootin' Boogie. Written by Dunn and originally offered to traditionalist group Asleep At The Wheel, who put it on their 1990 album Keepin' Me Up Nights. With a remix geared to emphasize the beat for the dances it would be used for (including one named Boot Scootin' Boogie), it was promoted just like a dance club song, and with that mix appearing on the single that people could buy, it naturally generated enough interest for it to appear on the pop charts...
While "Boot Scootin' Boogie" spent a full month at #1 on the Country Airplay chart, the song stopped right at the halfway mark on Billboard's pop Hot 100, presumably due to lack of mainstream radio airplay. A fourth single from the Brand New Man album, "Lost And Found", made it to #6 on the country airplay chart but failed to dent the pop list. Eventually, when Billboard rules counted airplay from all formats as well as digital sales in 1998, the pair would have a string of top-40 hits on the main list.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the version originally done by Asleep At The Wheel, which was arranged in a swing tempo almost unrecognizable from B&D's take...
...and next is the "club mix" that was played during line dancing all around the country...
...and finally, the pair live at an awards show...
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