Songoftheday #2500 4/7/19 - All my friends call me Bear Claw the Village Cheaftin' is my paw-paw, he gets his orders from my maw-maw she makes him walk the line...
from the album Not A Moment Too Soon (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #15 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10
Ed. Note: This is my 2500th Song of the day so far....thanks everyone who has stopped by here to check out my corner of the interwebs.
Today's song of the day comes from country singer Tim McGraw, who grew up in Louisiana as Tim Smith until he found out that his biological father was baseball great "Tug" McGraw. While he was a college student, he bounced around in different bands, until his dad shared his demos with people from Curb Records, who signed Tim at the beginning of the 1990s. His first single, "What Room Was The Holiday In?", came out in 1991, but justifiably flopped hard. A year later, his second release, "Welcome To The Club", was demonstrably better, and with its good reception in the rising wave of country dance clubs, leading to radio play, the song became Tim's first chart hit, albeit missing the top-40 at #47. Two more minor hits came from his self-titled debut album as well.
So when Tim released the first single from his sophomore album, he wasn't exactly a known commodity. That all changed with "Indian Outlaw". A disturbingly direct slice of cultural appropriation (despite what anyone said there's no Native American in Tim's blood), the cheesy but catchy ditty that pulled terms from everywhere to put over a line-dance-ready beat, and even though some radio wouldn't play the song, sales of the single went through the roof, so much so that it first reached the pop chart, then the top-40, then the top-20. Written by Tommy Barnes and Gene Simmons (not the KISS guy), the song interpolates a snippet of the song "Indian Reservation" from John Loudermilk that was a #1 hit for the Raiders in 1971.
Lord, that's an embarrassing song.
Anyhoo, "Indian Outlaw" became McGraw's first pop hit, reaching the top-20 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April of 1994. The song got as high as #8 on the Country Airplay chart, with many stations refusing to carry it. The fact that Tim has had such a long and prosperous career after this could've-been one-hit-wonder is a testimony to his talent.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
One of the big draws to the song (and pumped sales) was the "club remix" of the song, which was played in line-dancing nights at clubs all over the country...
And finally, Tim performing the song in concert at Rodeo Houston this year...
Up tomorrow: Reggae band brings a 70s rock classic back into the top ten for the third time.
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