Songoftheday 8/29/21 - I want to wake up each morning with you for the rest of my life, I want to feel your heart beating and just get lost in your eyes...

 

 

"Hold On To Me" - John Michael Montgomery

from the album Leave A Mark (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #33 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 3

 

Today's song comes from country music singer John Michael Montgomery, who grew up in Kentucky before heading south to Nashville to start his career. Signed to Atlantic Records, John, who had been in a "Cowsills-like" family act with brother Eddie (who will eventually be in this series as half of duo Montgomery Gentry), released his debut single and album of the same name, "Life's A Dance", in the fall of 1992, with the single climbing to #4 on Billboard magazine's Country Singles chart and the album making it to #27 on the Billboard 200 sales tally (and #4 on the Country Albums distillation), going on to move over three million copies and spending over a year on the list. His follow-up ballad, "I Love The Way You Love Me", was even bigger, spending three weeks at #1 on the Country chart, and making the pop Hot 100 at #60. 

Riding on that momentum, Montgomery returned in 1994 with his sophomore effort Kickin' It Up. He overcame the "second album" jinx in a big way, with the record topping both the Billboard 200 and the Country Albums charts and selling over four million copies. From the set three songs reached the top of the country singles chart: "Be My Baby Tonight", "If You Got Love", and the biggest hit of his career, "I Swear". That song spent a month at #1, just missed the Hot 100 pop top-40 at #42, and was later covered by the vocal group All-4-One for a #1 pop hit as well. "I Swear" gave John his first Grammy nomination for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1994, which Vince Gill won for "When Love Finds You". John's self-titled third disc, which came out in 1995, also sold over four million, and hit #5 on the Billboard 200, his second and so far last top ten ranking there, while topping the Country Albums list for a second and last time. Five of the record's ten tracks were top ten country radio hits, including two #1 placings with the ballad "I Can Love You Like That" and the gloriously frenetic "Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)". The former song, another country crossover ballad, was also covered by All-4-One for a top ten pop hit. Again Montgomery was up for a Best Male Country Vocal Grammy, which he lost again to Vince Gill for "Go Rest High On That Mountain" (Vince was on a five-year streak). The John Michael Montgomery album was also nominated for Best Country Album, which Shania Twain took home for The Woman In Me. So far that's his last nomination. 

 

John came back in 1996 with his fourth release What I Do The Best. While he didn't reach #1 from any of the four singles from the album, two of them made #2 including "Friends", which took three weeks in the runner-up spot.  His first Greatest Hits set followed, which gave his fifth straight top-40 ranking on the Billboard 200 sales tally at #33. 

Montgomery's fifth studio album, Leave A Mark, arrived in the spring of 1998. The lead single from the set, "Love Working On You", stalled right under the Country Singles top ten at #15, while "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #125. His next offering to radio, "Cover You In Kisses", did much better, spending a week at #3 on the Country Singles chart and hitting the Hot 100 at #91. But it would be the third try, "Hold On To Me", that would put John in the pop top-40 for the first time of his career. Written by Blair Daly and Will Rambeaux, the song followed the template of his love ballad hit successes, albeit in the more traditional waltz time signature. It definitely doesn't break new ground in the lyrical department, but John is a professional that sells what he can out of the song. The 3/4 cadence helps a little in having it stand out from the glut of other country love ballads , even if it's the "lesser" of his wedding-reception-ready songs...

"Hold On To Me" became John's first top-40 hit on the Hot 100 in February of 1999. The song climbed to #4 on Billboard magazine's Country Singles chart as well. Internationally, the single also made it to #4 on the Canadian Country chart. The Leave A Mark album, released in May of 1998, stopped at #95 on the Billboard 200 sales chart, and #15 on the Country Albums list, going on to move over a half million copies. John will eventually return to this series.

(5/10)

Up tomorrow: Inflammatory rock group turns from the dark side, perhaps.