Songoftheday 2/25/22 - Stuck at a red light outside and adult bookstore, his son said "Daddy, what are all the X's for?"...

 

 

"What Do You Say" - Reba McEntire

from the album So Good Together (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #31 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 3

 

Today's song comes from Reba McEntire, who grew up in Oklahoma the product of two generations of cattle ranchers and rodeo champions. Singing with her brothers and sisters since she was a child, she eventually found help in country music singer Red Steagall, who aided in getting Reba signed to Mercury Nashville Records in 1975. Releasing her eponymous debut album in 1977, she had three minor country hits from the record, starting with "I Don't Want To Be A One Night Stand", which peaked at #88 on Billboard magazine's Country Singles chart in 1976. In 1978, Reba was set up with a duet with Jacky Ward, who had just come off of two top ten country hits, for a cover of the soft-pop classic "I'd Really Love To See You Tonight" from England Dan and John Ford Coley paired with "Three Sheets In The Wind". That two-fer collaboration gave Reba her first big break, landing at #20 on the country chart. 

With that momentum, Reba's next album Out of A Dream in 1979 brought her more success, with four of its ten tracks released as singles and reaching the top-40 on the country chart, with lead single "Last Night, Ev'ry Night" her first solo top-40 country hit at #28, and a remake of the classic "Sweet Dreams" getting to #19. The 1980's started out great as well, with the first single from her third album Feel The Fire, "(You Lift Me) Up To Heaven", scored McEntire's first top ten hit at #8. The following year, Reba's fourth release Heart To Heart finally got the singer on Billboard's Country Albums chart at #42, with the song "Today All Over Again" making it to #5 on the American Country Singles chart, and landed her first top ten on the Canadian Country list at #8. 

Reba's fortunes kept growing, and with 1982's Unlimited, which cracked the top-40 on the country albums tally at #22, and spun off two #1 country singles with the sassy break-up rockabilly-lite of "Can't Even Get The Blues" and the preemptive cheating song  "You're The First Time I've Thought About Leaving". With that added clout, Reba was able to leave Mercury after one more album to land on MCA Records.

At MCA, Reba released her first disc with the label Just A Little Love in 1984. Her first single on the imprint, title track "Just A Little Love", brought her back to the top five at country radio. The record traded Jerry Kennedy, who had produced all of her Mercury material, for Norro Wilson, who fleshed out the dated "cosmopolitan country" arrangements she was put in. Its follow-up, My Kind Of Country with producer Harold Shedd, again scored a double-shot of #1 country hits with traditional bittersweet harmonies of "How Blue" and the more contemporary breakup ballad "Somebody Should Leave", and was her first to move over a half-million copies and go "gold". 

In 1986, McEntire recorded one of her "signature" songs, "Whoever's In New England", which had the singer filming her first music video. The cheated wife's resignation anthem topped the country chart while the same-named album topped the Country Albums tally. The song earned Reba her first Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. A second single from the record, the bouncy "Little Rock", also topped the country chart. The album went on to sell over a million copies, one of her many releases to do so. That was followed later that year by What Am I Gonna Do About You, which also topped the country albums list and spawned two #1 hits with "What Am I Gonna Do About You" and "One Promise Too Late". Her first Greatest Hits album with MCA, came out in 1987, and was her first to make the "big" albums sales chart, the Billboard 200, cresting at #139 and going on to sell over three million copies.

Also that year, Reba also released two new studio albums, with The Last One To Know also making the Billboard 200 at #102. Two more #1 radio hits came from the set, "The Last One To Know" and "Love Will Find Its Way To You", with the former nominated for the Best Female Country Grammy Award, which went home with K.T. Oslin for her breakthrough single "80's Ladies". A holiday set, Merry Christmas To You, followed. In 1988, McEntire's fifteenth effort, Reba, topped the Country Albums chart for eight weeks, and the whole record was nominated for the Female Country Grammy, again losing to Oslin for her song "Hold Me". But in return she racked up two more #1 country radio hits with "I Know How He Feels" and "New Fool At An Old Game". Reba's final album of the 80's, the appropriately-titled Sweet Sixteen, placed the singer in the top half of the Billboard 200 for the first time at #78 in 1989, topped the Country Albums list for 13 weeks, and had four top ten singles, including her #1 remake of the Everly Brothers' early rock classic "Cathy's Clown". 

McEntire began the 90's with what's considered by many to be her second (or third) "big" breakthrough record, Rumor Has It. While lead single "You Lie" was the one of the four top ten hits from the record to reach #1, and again earning a Grammy nomination for Female Country Vocal, which went to Kathy Mattea for "Where've You Been", it's the epic story-song "Fancy", which originally peaked at #8, that's the biggest success in retrospect, and perhaps Reba's most revered song. A remake of a Bobbie Gentry hit from 1970, Reba made "Fancy" her own, and is perpetually identified with the rags-to-riches tune. The album made the Billboard 200 top-40 at #39, and since then sold over three million. 

It was at these heights that tragedy struck Reba's life hard. With extensive touring requiring her and her band to take airplanes, in 1991 one of those flights went wrong and killed eight members of her touring band. She honored their memory in her next album For My Broken Heart later that year, which was a somber affair but was so dang good (it was the first album of hers I bought) and spun off two #1 country singles with "For My Broken Heart" and "Is There Life Out There", the latter sporting Huey Lewis in the video as her husband. The album is so far her biggest-seller, moving over four million units. It was nominated as a whole for the Best Female Country Vocal Grammy, which went to Mary-Chapin Carpenter for her "Down At The Twist And Shout" (her first of four consecutive wins) which also happened when the track "The Greatest Man I Never Knew", which hit #3 on the country singles chart, lost to Carpenter's "I Feel Lucky". The following year, Reba released It's Your Call, which became her first top ten success on the Billboard 200 at #8. From it her duet with Vince Gill, "The Heart Won't Lie", topped the country singles chart for two weeks, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Collaboration, but she actually beat herself. That was with one of the new tracks from her Greatest Hits Volume Two collection, which got to #5 on the Billboard 200. "Does He Love You", a power-duet with Linda Davis, was the one that took the prize at the Grammys that year. 

In 1994, Read My Mind was released, which spent a week at #2 on the Billboard 200 and was her fifth consecutive album (including the hits set) to sell more than three million copies. Five singles were released from the record, with the fourth, the upbeat love rebound song "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter", going all the way to #1. "Till You Love Me" spent a week at #1 at country radio, and was her first to finally make the "big chart", Billboard's Hot 100, at #78. Another cut from the record, "She Thinks His Name Was John", tackled the AIDS crisis. While it missed the country radio top ten at #15 (damn radio prudes), the song was nominated for the Female Country Vocal Grammy, which again went to Carpenter for "Shut Up And Kiss Me". At that same ceremony, Read My Mind was up for the revived Best Country Album category, which Mary-Chapin took home for Stones In The Road. Reba's next album in 1995, Starting Over, was made up of all cover songs made famous by others, and while it made the Billboard 200 top ten at #5, and topped the Country Albums chart, it was her first studio release since a decade prior to fail to have a #1 country radio hit. Lead single "On My Own", a remake of the 1986 #1 hit from Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald, was an event record, with Linda Davis, Martina McBride, and Trisha Yearwood joining Reba. It stalled down at #20 on the Country Singles chart, but was nominated for the Best Country Collaboration, which went to bluegrass queen Alison Krauss and country band Shenandoah for "Somewhere In The Vicinity of the Heart". Another selection from Starting Over, a remake of the Supremes Motown classic "You Keep Me Hangin' On", was remixed for the dancefloor, and the single went to #2 for two weeks on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. A one-off charity single, "What If", which was a remake of a little-known song from Latin freestyle artist Brenda K. Starr of "I Will Believe" fame, sold enough to get to #50 on the Billboard Hot 100 while being a moderate country radio hit at #23 in 1998.

She rebounded with the following release What If It's You, hitting #1 with "How Was I To Know". Reba gave the "event record" another try in 1998 by teaming up with Brooks & Dunn for the song "If You See Him/If You See Her", which was the title track on both of their albums that year. This time it did work, topping the country singles chart for two weeks, and nabbing another Country Vocal Collaboration Grammy nomination, which went to "Same Ol' Train" from a 13-member "supergroup" for a tribute CD. Later that year, when Billboard finally changed the rules to allow airplay-only singles to make the Hot 100, two other songs from Reba's album, "Wrong Night" (#52 Pop/#6 Country) and "One Honest Heart" (#54 Pop/#7 Country), made the list.

The full benefit of that rule change in the biggest music chart in the country came into effect for Reba on the release of her 25th studio effort So Good Together in the fall of 1999. The first single from the set, "What Do You Say", was an attempt to have "meatier" lyrical material for the radio. Written by Neil Thrasher of the duo Thrasher Shiver along with Michael Dulaney, and produced by the singer with David Malloy, takes on explaining the birds and the bees, underage drinking, and the end of life in its three verses, telling three distinct stories with a broad brush without rushing through. Reba give her emotional best, and the result doesn't seem preachy but rather plaintive, which gives it its charm. The music video was nominated for a Grammy for Best Short Form music video, which went to the Foo Fighters for their "Learn To Fly" clip...

Twenty-four years after her first appearance on Billboard's Country Singles chart, "What Do You Say" at last put McEntire on the Hot 100 top-40 in January of 2000. The song actually didn't make the top of the country chart, but did spent three weeks at #3 with a half year (26 weeks) on the list. Internationally, the single went to #5 on the Canadian Country chart. The So Good Together album, released in November of 1999, rose to #28 on the Billboard 200, and #5 on the Country Albums tally, going on to sell over a million copies.

The second single from the album, the ballad "I'll Be", was written by pop song doctor supreme Diane Warren. It rose to #4 on the Country Singles chart and #51 on the Hot 100. That was followed by "We're So Good Together", which stopped at #20 on the country list, while "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #109. Two other cuts from the record got enough unsolicited radio airplay to make the country airplay chart, with "Til I Said It To You" placing at #70 and "I'm Not Your Girl" at #75. Reba will be back to this series.

(7/10)

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Here's Reba performing the song on The Tonight Show to promote the album...

and lastly, from Dutch TV...

 Up tomorrow: Pop-punk trio aren't size queens.