Songoftheday 5/5/22 - May you never take one single breath for granted, God forbid love ever leave you empty handed...

 

 

"I Hope You Dance" - Lee Ann Womack with Sons Of The Desert

from the album I Hope You Dance (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 32

 

Today's song comes from country music singer Lee Ann Womack, who after a fruitful string of hits finally landed a top-40 crossover hit on Billboard magazine's "pop" Hot 100 chart in the spring of 1999 with "I'll Think Of A Reason Later". A year later, Womack returned with her third studio album and second for MCA Records, I Hope You Dance. The record was anchored by its title track, which was written by Mark D. Sanders and Tia Sillers. The song's lyrics read like a prayer of a mother for her child, but really could be translated to any pair of people who love each other, albeit one with a bit more experience. It's spiritual without being too preachy, and it paints pictures in your mind like the best country songs can do. The record features backing vocals from the country band Sons Of The Desert, who are led by brothers Drew and Tim Womack, who surprisingly not related to Lee Ann. The group's debut album Whatever Comes First in 1997 scored the group their sole top ten hit as a lead artist with "Whatever Comes First" at #10. After losing the fight to release their earlier-recorded version of "Goodbye Earl" after their label preferred the Dixie Chicks release it, they fled to MCA, which was Lee Ann's home. Their easygoing delivery in the chorus is a calming touch to the song without having to bring in a choir which again would have sent it right to preachy-land. In the end the song became both act's biggest country hit, and then lingered from format to format until mainstream radio got on board and it made it to the top half of the pop top-40 almost a year after its release. Also, it is just me or does the opening of this song sound like a slowed down version of Joan Osborne's "One Of Us"? The music video hits their market by featuring a bevy of girls, including Lee Ann's own two daughters...

"I Hope You Dance" first topped Billboard's Country Singles chart for five weeks in the summer of 2000, before eventually reaching the top 20 on the pop chart in February of 2001. The song topped Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart for eleven weeks, staying on the list for 94 weeks, while rising to #13 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 airplay format. Internationally, the single also topped the Canadian Country Chart, and made the pop singles top-40 in the UK at #40. The I Hope You Dance album, released in May of 2000, peaked at #16 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and topped the Country Albums list for a week, going on to sell over three million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2001, "I Hope You Dance" won for Best Country Song, and was nominated for Song Of THe Year, losing to U2's "Beautiful Day". Lee Ann was nominated for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, which went to Faith Hill for her massive hit "Breathe", while the I Hope You Dance album was up for Best Country Album, which Faith also took home for Breathe. 

 

Lee Ann's next was a cover of "Ashes By Now", a song from country singer Rodney Crowell, which made the pop top-40 even though it was only a very minor country hit. Womack's version just missed the pop top-40 at #45 while rising to #4 on the Country Singles chart.  That was followed by "Why They Call It Falling", which climbed to #13 on country radio and made the Hot 100 at #78. Lastly, a personal favorite of mine from the album, "Does My Ring Burn Your Finger" landed the fourth top-40 country success from the set at #23. 

At the beginning of 2002, Womack collaborated with country music legend Willie Nelson on his fiftieth studio album The Great Divide. The result, "Mendocino County Line", was a moderate hit in Nashville, getting to #22 on the Country Airplay chart, and "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #113. But critics really took to the song, and it won the Grammy Award in 2003 for Best Country Vocal Collaboration, and was nominated for Best Country Song, which went to Alan Jackson for his 9/11 elegy of "Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning". Later that year, Lee Ann came back with her own studio album, Something Worth Leaving Behind. Trying to capture that greeting-card goodwill with the title track, "Something Worth Leaving Behind" stopped a bit short at #20 at country radio, while "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #114. Nevertheless, she earned another nomination for Best Female Country Performance, losing again to Faith Hill for her "Cry". The album matched I Hope You Dance's peak of #16 on the Billboard 200, but didn't sell nearly as much.

After a Greatest Hits set and a holiday release, Lee Ann shifted back to a more traditional country music style for her next album There's More Where That Came From in 2005. The first single, "I May Hate Myself In The Morning", returned the singer to the country top ten at #10, while placing at #66 on the pop Hot 100. The album scored her highest rank on the Billboard 200 at #12, as well as #3 on the Country Albums list. "I Hate Myself..." was nominated for Best Female Country Vocal, which went to Emmylou Harris for "The Connection", and Best Country Song, which was won by "Bless This Broken Road" from Rascal Flatts (which ironically Sons Of The Desert had recorded earlier but was shelved by their record company). 

In 2009, Womack returned with Call Me Crazy, which made the Billboard 200 top-40 at #23 and Country Albums top ten at #4. Lead single "Last Call" rose to #14 on the Country Airplay chart, and was her most recent appearance on the Hot 100 at #77. The song was nominated for the Best Female Country Vocal Grammy, which Carrie Underwood took for "Last Name". The second release, "Solitary Thinkin'", got to #39 at country radio and was nominated for that same Grammy category a year later, losing to Taylor Swift for "White Horse". Another cut from the set, "Everything But Quits" with George Strait, was also up for Best Country Vocal Collaboration, which went to Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis' remake of Randy's "I Told You So". The Call Me Crazy album was nominated for Best Country Album, which Taylor Swift took home for her Fearless opus. 

Despite this string of critical raves, after Lee Ann's 2009 single "There Is A God" went to #32 on the Country Singles chart, an album never was released, and three years later the singer left MCA Records after such a long stay. After a six year lapse from Call Me Crazy, she came back on the Sugar Hill label for The Way I'm Livin' in 2014, which peaked at #99 on the Billboard 200 and #18 on the Country Albums list. The set was nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Album in 2015, won by Miranda Lambert for her Platinum release. The following year, one of the cuts from the album, "Chances Are", scored two nominations, for Best Country Solo Performance (won by Chris Stapleton for "Traveller"), and for Best Country Song (which went to "Girl Crush" by Little Big Town").

Womack's most recent studio album, The Lonely, The Lonesome, and the Gone arrived in 2017, reaching #37 on Billboard's Country Albums sales tally. A sign of the times, her more tradition country music was relegated to "Americana" now, and at the 2018 Grammys the set was up for Best Americana Album, which went to Brandi Carlile for By The Way, I Forgive You. A song from the record, "All The Trouble", which she co-wrote, was also nominated for Best American Roots Song, again losing to Carlile for "The Joke". Most recently, Lee Ann contributed a song to the tribute album Home In The World: Woody Guthrie's Dustbowl Ballads, "Dusty Old Dust", in 2021.

As for Sons of the Desert, they released their second album and first for MCA, Change in the summer of 2000. The first two singles missed the country radio top-40, but the third, "What I Did Right", got a little bump from the "I Hope You Dance" exposure, rising to #22 on the Country Singles chart while "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #116. The Womack brothers each had an unsuccessful try at a solo career, and most recently Drew took over as lead singer for the country crossover band Lonestar.

(10/10)

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Here's Lee Ann and Sons Of The Desert performing the song live on The Tonight Show in 2000...

Like many country hits that were recommissioned for pop radio, there was a remix of the song that took most of the "country" elements out, including the Sons Of The Desert, which I consider a demerit...

In 2004, Ronan Keating, of the Irish "boy-band" Boyzone, released his own version of the song as a charity single fighting breast cancer. The single reached #2 in the UK and #4 in Ireland...

Back to Womack singing "I Hope You Dance" at the Grand Old Opry in 2006...

and finally, Lee Ann sang the ballad at the memorial for Dr. Maya Angelou, who was a fan of the song, in 2014...

 

 Up tomorrow: This superstar has no concerns.