Robbed hit of the week 7/18/22 - Alan Jackson's "www.memory"...

 

 

"www.memory" - Alan Jackson

from the album When Somebody Loves You (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #45

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from country music neo-traditionalist Alan Jackson, who had returned to the Hot 100 top-40 for the second time in the autumn of 2000 with his remake of "It Must Be Love".  In 2000, Jackson returned with his ninth studio album When Somebody Loves You. The lead single from the set was Alan's attempt to be "current", grasping an internet phrase for the pun of "www.memory". Written by Jackson and produced by Keith Stegall, it's a very hokey missive to a person who is breaking up with him. He sings about how he knows they're going, but he wants to talk, offering the impersonal on-line option for some strange reason. It includes this very cringy verse:

You won't even have to hold me
Or look into my eyes
You can tell me that you love me
Through your keyboard and wires
No, you won't have to touch me
Or even take my hand
Just slide your little mouse around
Until you see it land

 

Really?

 

Anyway, no matter how off-kilter this is, Alan's Nashville cred was able to get country radio on board at least to an extent, making the top ten but missing the top five. As for the music video, it doesn't even have a computer in it, but rather has Jackson superimposed on a series of billboards...

 

 While "www.memory" rose to #6 on Billboard magazine's Country Singles chart, the song stopped short of the Hot 100 top-40 in December of 2000. Internationally, the single got to #26 on the Canadian Country Chart before RPM closed shop. The When Somebody Loves You album, released in November of that year, peaked at #15 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and topped the Country Albums list for two weeks, going on to sell over a million copies. Another track from the album will eventually hit the pop top-40.

(4/10)