Songoftheday 5/14/20 - Now that it's over I realized, those sweet words you whispered were nothin' but lies...

"Blue" - LeAnn Rimes
from the album Blue (1996)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #26 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's song of the day comes from country single LeAnn Rimes, who grew up in the Dallas suburbs, where she was a child performer from the get go. She appeared on Star Search as well as in musical productions, and managed by her father Wilbur, started to record music at the age of 11. She released two independent albums in the early 1990s before being discovered by radio DJ and songwriter Bill Mack. It would be with one of his songs, originally recorded on her third indie set All That, that would finally bring her to the national stage. "Blue" was a break-up ballad Mack wrote and recorded back in 1958, but it never got enough attention to make the country singles charts...

Mack was going to try to get Patsy Cline to record the song, but she died in a tragic plane crash before that chance ever came to pass. In 1996, Rimes re-recorded her indie version for her major label debut on Curb Records, and "Blue" with its uncanny resemblance to Cline's style (which still resonated years after her death) and Rimes' stunning vocals created a huge stir in country music, probably the biggest buzz around a female country singer in years. And to do it with such a traditional sound made the whole music industry take notice...

"Blue" did reasonably OK for a debut country single, rising to #10 on Billboard magazine's Country Airplay chart, but more importantly, sold so many copies so quickly that it made their pop Hot 100 chart, which includes all sales, in July of 1996. The song also rose to #10 on the Australian singles chart, and two years later, after her pop crossover in America, "Blue" peaked at #23 in the UK (most helped by the single which included her smash hit "How Do I Live"). The Blue album climbed to #3 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart, going on to sell over six million copies. At the 1997 Grammy Awards, "Blue" won the award for Best Female Country Vocal Award, as well as Country Song of the Year for Mack. Rimes also won Best New Artist, the first country singer to get the nod, as well as the youngest, at only 14 years old.

For her next single release, they decided to promote the song most like "Blue" in terms of traditional feel and sound, "Hurt Me", which was co-written by Deborah Allen, who had her own top-40 success in 1982 with "Baby I Lied". However, country cooled considerably on this song, and "Hurt Me" stalled on the Country Singles chart at #26, and didn't create the same buzz with mainstream audiences. Smartly, instead of trying that again, Rimes and her people successfully repositioned her with the current country crowd with her next single, "One Way Ticket (Because I Can)", which became her first (and so far only) #1 country hit for two weeks (it also went to #52 in Australia). Finally, "The Light In Your Eyes", originally meant to be her first single and subsequently the "B-side" of "Blue", went to #5 on the Country Singles chart.

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Here's "The Light In Your Eyes", the "B-Side" on the "Blue" single that eventually found itself to be a radio hit of its own, peaking at #5 on the Country Singles tally...