Songoftheday 12/11/21 - I remember walkin' 'round the court square sidewalk, lookin' in windows at things I couldn't want...

 

 

"Little Man" - Alan Jackson

from the album High Mileage (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #39 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 1

 

Today's song comes from neo-traditional country artist Alan Jackson, who grew up in Georgia before moving to Nashville for a music career, first as a hired hand at the old Nashville Network (TNN) before signing to Arista Records. Alan released his first single, "Blue Blooded Woman", in 1989, but that song missed the top-40 on the country airplay chart, stalling at #45. However, that would be his last single to miss the top-40 on the country list till 2001. Jackson's next release, the ballad of "Here In The Real World", made it all the way to #3 on the country chart. In total, four of the tracks from his debut album, Here In The Real World, hit the top three, with the final single, "I'd Love You All Over Again", becoming his first to top the chart. The album went to #57 on the Billboard 200 sales chart, and #4 on the Country Albums list, spending over two years on the charts and going on to sell over two million copies.

Jackson's sophomore effort, 1991's Don't Rock The Jukebox, was an even bigger success, with four of its five singles going to #1 with the title track spending three weeks at the top, as well as the ballad "Someday", the breakup song "Dallas", and the western swing of  "Love's Got A Hold On You". The album was his first to make the top-40 on the Billboard 200 at #17, and #2 on the Country Albums list, again spending over two years on the charts and selling over four million copies. With his third release, A Lot About Livin' (And A Lot About Love) from 1992, Jackson almost made the crossover top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart with the third single "Chatahoochee", which peaked at #46 there, while becoming the second #1 country single from the record after "She's Got The Rhythm (And I Got The Blues)". 

A year later, Alan's next album, Who I Am scored three consecutive #1 country singles with his remake of the 60s rocker "Summertime Blues" along with the romantic "Livin' On Love" and the comedic take on the genre "Gone Country". The album was his first to make the top ten on the Billboard 200 sales tally at #5. That was followed by his first Greatest Hits Collection, which also spawned a pair of #1 country hits in his version of the George Jones/Roger Miller song "Tall Tall Trees" as well as his own gentle ballad "I'll Try". In 1996, Jackson released his fifth studio album Everything I Love. That record placed six of its songs on to the Country Airplay top-20, including two more chart toppers with "There Goes" and the zydeco homage "Little Bitty", with the latter, released as a "cassingle", returning Alan to the pop Hot 100 chart at #58. Although the album missed the Billboard 200 top ten at #12, it sold over three million and was his fourth consective #1 Country Album (including the hits set). 

Despite Jackson's huge string of success, his personal life was in shambles by 1998. Separated from his wife partly due to his infidelity, Alan's music took a turn on his next album High Mileage. With publicity surrounding the separation surprising the Nashville fan community who always had him pegged as a straight-laced happy guy, the singer returned with the stark mostly spoken-word single "I'll Go On Loving You" as a lead off track. The song still made it up to #3 on Billboard magazine's Country Airplay chart, but in a place where he was expected to hit the top on every first try, it was a daring and rewarding (for his artistic vision) move. The second release from the record, though, lightened things up a bit (perhaps foreboding the couple's reunion) with "Right On The Money", which again nearly landed Jackson in the Hot 100 top-40 at #43. That was followed by the forlorn ballad "Gone Crazy", which also stopped right under the top-40 at the same spot. 

The fourth and final release from the album was the commoner anthem "Little Man". Written by Jackson and produced by Keith Stegall, the song has Alan lamenting on how the small town life was being choked away, with mom and pop businesses closing down and local gas station being outdated away. Of course he tells you that most of the people in that area flocked to the nearest Walmart and Exxon station to buy all the cheap goods from China to make their lives better. while the fatcat investment banker counted the profits from the financial carnage, but most of the audience didn't absorb the context. Anyway, it is an earnest tribute to the rural life before the big box store phenomenon came around, and it's Alan's most issue-invested song of his career to that point, and the harmonies on the record are just heavenly. The music video has Jackson driving through a few of the sadly shuttered towns...

"Little Man" claimed Alan his first top-40 crossover hit on the Hot 100 in September of 1999. The song also spent a week at #1 on Billboard's Country Singles chart. Internationally, the single peaked at #4 on the Canadian Country chart. The High Mileage album, released in September of 1998, was Jackson's fifth consecutive #1 on the Country Albums chart, while getting to #4 on the Billboard 200, going on to sell over a million copies. Alan will return to the series.

(10/10)

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Here's Alan performing "Little Man" at Farm Aid in 2000...

Up tomorrow: This consummate R&B group dispatches you.