Songoftheday 10/14/21 - I could tell he had a lot of my friends for company, so I drifted on down and caught me a ride to the sea...
"Two Teardrops" - Steve Wariner
from the album Two Teardrops (1999)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #30 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 5
Today's song comes from singer/songwriter/guitarist Steve Wariner, who grew up in Kentucky and played in his father's and eventually country music star Dottie West's band before striking out on a career of his own. Signed to RCA Records, the multi-instrumentalist released his first single "I'm Already Taken", which he co-wrote, in 1978. The song was a minor hit on Billboard magazine's Country Singles chart in 1978 at #63. In the years between then and 1980, Steve had four more minor hits before finally getting his big break with the lead single from his self-titled debut album, "Your Memory", which peaked at #7 on the country chart in 1981. That record would go on to place six of its ten tracks on the list, with the third, "All Roads Lead To You", the most successful of the bunch. That workingman's love ballad with shiny cosmopolitan country production went all the way to #1 on the Country Singles chart, made the Canadian Country list top-40 at #19, and even "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 list in Billboard at #107. The album went to #35 on the Country Albums chart, and kickstarted Wariner's momentum
Wariner made one more album for RNA, Midnight Fire, which spun off five more country radio hits including two that made the top ten. "Lonely Women Make Good Lovers", a song originally released by Bob Luman, whom Steve also played for, hit #4, and was his first top ten country hit in Canada at #3 in 1984.
Leaving RCA for MCA to continue to be produced by Tony Brown (once a member of Elvis' band), Steve found even bigger fortunes, with his next five albums in the 1980s all producing a streak of top ten singles. From 1985's One Good Night Deserves Another, the lead single "What I Didn't Do" went to #1 on the Canadian Country chart and two weeks at #3 on the American side, while third release "Some Fools Never Learn" topped the Billboard country list in the U.S.. His next record, Life's Highway, scored a pair of #1 country singles with "You Can Dream Of Me" and "Life's Highway", the latter being his first big uptempo charttopper. In 1987, Wariner released It's A Crazy World, which did that feat one better by having all three singles reach #1 with "Small Town Girl", "The Weekend", and the Wonder Woman name-checking "Lynda". That same year, he guested on pop/country veteran Glen Campbell's top ten country single "The Hand That Rocked The Cradle", which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. That award, in its first year, went to powerhouses Ronnie Milsap and Kenny Rogers for "Make No Mistake, She's Mine". A Greatest Hits set released that year became Wariner's first to make the Billboard 200 sales tally at #187.
His next record, I Should Be With You, didn't have any country chart toppers, but the title track gave Steve a pop crossover hit, reaching #43 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format chart in 1988, while spending two weeks in the runner-up spot on the country side. That was followed a year later by his final album of the 80's, I Got Dreams, which returned the singer to the top with "Where Did I Go Wrong" and "I Got Dreams", both of which Wariner wrote.
After two more albums with RCA, Steve again switched labels, this time to Arista Nashville. His first release there, I Am Ready, became his first studio album to make the Billboard 200 at #180 in 1991, going on to sell over a half million copies. Half of its songs made the country charts, with a remake of "The Tips Of My Fingers" doing he best, spending a week at #3. That same year the singer/guitar ace appeared on fiddle legend Mark O'Connor's New Nashville Cats project, and with Vince Gill and Ricky Scaggs won the Grammy Award for Country Collaboration for "Restless". Although he couldn't continue the top ten streak he had in the 80's, Steve could count his lucky stars he didn't suffer the fate of so many artist of the previous decade that were shuffled out by the Nashville machine. His musicality helped, and as his work evolved into something more organic than the hospital-pristine production of the 80's, he had some occasional big hits, like 1993's "If I Didn't Love You", which hit #8. His last album for Arista, the instrumental-only No More Mr. Nice Guy in 1996, didn't make the albums chart, but a track from the set, "The Brickyard Boogie", was nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental, which went to veteran Chet Atkins for his "Jam Man".
By this time Wariner was having more success writing for others than himself, scoring a pair of #1's with "Nothing But The Taillights" from Clint Black and "Longneck Bottle" from Garth Brooks. In 1997, Steve had an even bigger success with a song he didn't write, as a guest on Anita Cochran's breakthrough single "What If I Said", which returned him to #1 on the Country Singles chart after an eight-year lapse, and got him his first spot on Billboard's Hot 100 at #59. When Wariner changed labels to Capitol Nashville, that hit would be also on his next album Burnin' The Roadhouse Down in 1998. That set would be Steve's first top ten on the Country Albums chart at #6, while just missing the top-40 on the Billboard 200 at #41, again selling a half million. His lead single from the record, "Holes In The Floor Of Heaven", was a huge success, winning "Song of the Year" at both of the big country music award shows, the ACM's and the CMA's. Spending two weeks at #2 on the Country Singles chart, "Holes" was also nominated for two Grammy Awards, for Best Male Country Vocal, which went to Vince Gill (his fifth consecutive) for "If You Ever Have Forever In Mind", and Best Country Song, which Shania Twain took home for "You're Still The One". That song had a big spiritual message, and it paid off, and Wariner took the hint for his next project.
In 1999, Steve released his fifteenth studio album Two Teardrops. The title track, written by Wariner with veteran Bill Anderson, was released as the first single. A parable in two parts, Steve uses the titular tears to illustrate both joy and pain that could produce them. The first verse has a soon-to-be-wed woman and her forlorn ex, while the second is set in the hospital where an expectant father and a grieving widower meet. It's a powerful metaphor, and it could have been extra extra, but between Steve's delivery (his tenor matches Vince Gill's closely), and the earnestness of the lyrics and conciseness of the message make it a gentle nudge to morality...
"Two Teardrops" spent a week at #2 on Billboard's Country Singles chart, and landed the singer his first and so far only top-40 crossover hit on the Hot 100 in June of 1999. Internationally, the single went to #5 on the Canadian Country chart. The Two Teardrops album, released in May of that year, also made the top-40 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #6 on the Country Albums list, going on to sell over a half million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2000, "Two Teardrops" was nominated for Best Country Song, again losing to Shania Twain for the title track to her megahit album "Come On Over". The Two Teardrops album closer, "The Harry Shuffle", was also up for Best Country Instrumental, having Steve actually lose to himself, as a guest on Asleep At The Wheel's "Bob's Breakdowns".
The second single from the album was a re-recording of Wariner's debut single "I'm Already Taken", which spent three weeks at #3 on the Country Singles chart and just missed the Hot 100 top-40 at #42.
Wariner started the new millennium with another duet hit, this time with Clint Black on "Been There", which went to #5 on the Country Singles chart in 2000, and crossed over to right below the top-40 on the Hot 100 at #44. That song would also be on Steve's next album Faith In You, but since it already was the second single on Black's D'Electrified released the previous year, it didn't have the impact perhaps they thought, with the Faith In You set stopping at #31 on the Country Albums list. Also while the next two releases from the set made the country top-40, they weren't as big, even with "Katie Wants A Fast One" bringing on Garth Brooks as a ringer; it stopped at #22 on the Country Singles chart and "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #109. Again, album closer "Bloodlines" was nominated for a Best Country Instrumental Grammy, which went to banjo players Alison Russell and Bela Fleck for "Leaving Cottondale".
Leaving Capitol to go independent for the first time in his career, Steve release Steal Another Day in 2003, which included five re-recordings of #1 country hits of his from the 1980's. The record went to #31 on Billboard's Country Albums chart, and landed his two last minor country radio hits. "Snowfall On The Sand" made it to #52, while "I'm Your Man" spend a single week on the list at #58. Since then, Wariner has released seven more studio albums on his own Selectone label, with 2013's It Ain't All Bad the sole one making the Country Albums chart at #74. In 2008, "Cluster Pluck" from Brad Paisley's Play album, which featured Wariner, won the Best Country Instrumental Grammy Award, and the next year Wariner won again with "The Producer's Medley" from his own Tribute To Chet Atkins C.G.P. album. His most recent album All Over The Map came out back in 2016, but tomorrow the singer and guitarist is putting out a holiday set, Feels Like Christmas Again. No matter, his imprint on country music is uneraseable, both as a singer and as a guitarist.
(8/10)
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Up tomorrow: The Latin Explosion of 1999 continues with this dancer turned actress turned superstar.
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