Robbed hit of the week 4/18/22 - Phil Vassar's "Carlene"...

 

 

"Carlene"  - Phil Vassar

from the album Phil Vassar (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #45 (two weeks)

This week's "robbed hit" comes from country music singer/songwriter Phil Vassar, who grew up in Virginia before moving to Nashville to kick his music career into gear. Phil's success began as a songwriter, with Vassar writing a handful of notable hit singles, including one that made the Hot 100 top-40 in "For A Little While" by Tim McGraw and three that almost did with "Right On The Money" by Alan Jackson and the double-sided "Bye Bye" and "I'm Alright" for Jo Dee Messina. Phil landed his own recording deal with Arista Nashville, where he released his self-titled debut album in 2000. The lead single from the set was "Carlene", an uptempo song he wrote with Charlie Black and Rory Bourke. In it he runs into a high school flame in his hometown. He was the jock and she was the smart one, but it seems like the roles have been reversed in time. It's a fun, engaging, little story that sold with the Nashville crowd. The piano dominates the production, like a Marc Cohn track from the early 1990.

While "Carlene" rose up to a respectable #5 on his first try on Billboard magazine's Country Singles chart, the song stopped a handful of notches from the top-40 on the Hot 100 in April of 2000. The Phil Vassar album, released in February of that year, missed the Billboard 200 sales tally, but spent two years on Billboard's Country Albums list, reaching a high of #23. But don't fret, Phil will finally make the top-40 on his next single.

(7/10)

 

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Here's Phil performing "Carlene" live on a gig in Ireland...

 

 And lastly, for a radio appearance...