Songoftheday 8/23/22 -Last night I had a crazy dream, a wish was granted just for me...

 

 

"One More Day" - Diamond Rio

from the album One More Day (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 8

 

Today's song comes from the country music band Diamond Rio, who had scored a crossover hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 all-genre chart in the beginning of 1999 with bouncy fun of "Unbelievable".  A year later, the band returned with another upbeat song that was to be the title track from their next album, "Stuff". Filled with philosophy about how material things shouldn't be the most important, the song was naturally shunned by corporate Nashville radio, and stalled down at #36 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart in the summer of 2000. 

Switching gears, the band held back the new album and recorded a heartbreaker ballad to be released next. "One More Day", written by Steven Dale Jones and Bobby Tomberlin, has lead singer Marty Roe dreaming about being granted just one wish, and how he would use it to get the love of his life back for the titular amount of time. It's vague enough that it could be construed as either a break-up or a death, but after the tragic in-race death of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, radio and fans pumped it up like an anthem, so much so that it reached pop stations as well. The production really gives the instruments places to twinkle, but its the harmonies on the chorus that make the record...

 

 "One More Day" became Diamond Rio's second crossover top-40 hit on the Hot 100 in April of 2001. The song landed the band their third #1 on Billboard's Country Singles chart (after their debut "Meet In The Middle" in 1991 and "How Your Love Makes Me Feel" in 1997), staying on top for two weeks. The single even made it to the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") "pop" radio chart at #6, spending 43 weeks on the list. The One More Day album, released in October of 2000, climbed to #36 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #5 on the Country Albums list, going on to sell over a half million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2002, "One More Day" was nominated for both Best Duo/Group Country Performance with Vocals and Best Country Song, losing both to bluegrass queen Alison Krauss and Union Station  for "The Lucky One". The One More Day album was also up for Best Country Album, which went to the various artists record Timeless: Hank Williams Tribute. 

The third single from One More Day was "Sweet Summer", a midtempo track meant to capture the seasonal radio hunger for "summer songs". However the single was just moderately successful, peaking at #18 on the Country Airplay chart while only "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #104. That was followed by "That's Just That", the frenetic album opener that stalled under the country top-40 at #42. But don't fret, Diamond Rio will be back to the series.

(8/10)

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Here's the band performing the song at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville...

and lastly, for an online radio interview...

 

 Up tomorrow: Young country singer discovers herself.