Songoftheday 5/23/22 -First I get cold then hot think I'm on fire I'm not, oh what a pain I've got...

 

 

"It Must Be Love" - Alan Jackson

from the album Under The Influence (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #37 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 6

 

Today's song comes from country music traditionalist Alan Jackson, who after being one of the biggest stars in Nashville finally landed a top-40 crossover hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart (thanks to them changing the rules) in the fall of 1999 with "Little Man". Later that year Jackson returned with his eighth studio album Under The Influence, which was all remakes of country classics from years gone by. The lead single from the set, "Pop A Top", rose to #6 on Billboard's Country Singles chart, and nearly made the top-40 again stopping at #43 in the beginning of 2000. The second song from the record promoted to radio was a remake of an obscure Hank Williams Jr. album cut, "The Blues Man", which was a stellar recreation but country radio cruelly ignored mostly, as it stalled all the way down at #37 on the Country Singles chart, his lowest placing for a regular single release since his debut single "Blue Blooded Woman" hit #45 back in 1989.

For the third release from the album, Jackson rolled out the most radio-friendly track on the album, "It Must Be Love". The lite-reggae song, written by Bob McDill, was a #1 country hit for easy-going singer Don Williams, from his 1979 album Expressions...

Alan took "It Must Be Love", punched up the drums, guitar, and harmonies, and took away the reggae touches from Williams' version, which is an improvement. Jackson seems truly happy here, and after the despair of his Everything I Love album, it's a welcome change...

Jackson's take on "It Must Be Love" became his second top-40 crossover hit on the Hot 100 in September of 2000. The song also returned him to #1 on Billboard's Country Singles chart for a week. Internationally, the single got to #4 on the Canadian Country chart. The Under The Influence album, released in October of 1999, peaked at #9 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #2 on the Country Albums list, going on to sell over a million copies. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2001 for Best Country Album, which Faith Hill won for her Breathe record.

 

Along with those three songs specifically promoted to country radio, three other cuts from the Under The Influence album got enough radio airplay to appear on Billboard's Country Singles chart. His cover of "Margaritaville" as a duet with original writer/singer Jimmy Buffet got to #63 on the list, his remake of Merle Haggard's top ten hit waltz "My Own Kind Of Hat" made it to #71, and Alan's take on "She Just Started Liking Cheating Songs", a top-20 country hit in 1980 for John Anderson, stopped by at #72.  Alan will be back to the series.

(7/10)

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Here's a live TV performance of the song for a CMT special...

And lastly, in concert at the Farm Aid benefit in 2000...

Up tomorrow: This superstar know what makes the people come together.