Songoftheday 9/21/22 - Was it the pull of the moon now baby that led you to my door, you say the night's got you acting crazy I think it's something more...

 

 

"If I Fall You're Going Down With Me" - Dixie Chicks

from the album Fly (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #38 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 3

 

Today's song comes from the country music trio (formerly Dixie) Chicks, whose album Fly had already spun off four hit singles that crossed over to the top-40 of Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "Ready To Run", "Cowboy Take Me Away", "Goodbye Earl", and "Without You". Another single, the beautifully sad "Cold Day In July", had made the country radio top ten, and another cut from Fly, the hummingbird-fast "Sin Wagon", got enough airplay to spend 20 weeks on that chart with a peak of #52. They also had a few high-profile collaborations, three of which garnered Grammy nominations: "Roly Poly" with Asleep At The Wheel, a live cover of "Strong Enough" from Sheryl Crow, and "Walk Softly" with bluegrass vet Ricky Skaggs, all of which were up for Best Country Collaboration. "Roly Poly" even made it onto the country radio chart for a week at #65.

 

The "official" sixth single sent to radio was the fun and frivolous "If I Fall You're Going Down With Me". Written by Matraca Berg and Annie Roboff, it's a cute little love crush song that was a great respite from the two big mournful ballads that preceded it. The production and lyrics hearken back to their breakthrough album Wide Open Spaces (in a good way), and as a sixth single it's bouncy demeanor was definitely worthy of radio love...

"If I Fall..." became the fifth song from Fly to make the Hot 100 top-40 in May of 2001. The song spent a week at #3 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart as well. 

That's wasn't it even for Fly: a seventh single, "Heartbreak Town", managed to climb to #23 on the Country Airplay chart, and "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #121.  That was followed by another boisterous song, "Some Days You Gotta Dance", which did even better, making it to #7 on the country chart and #55 on the Hot 100. That meant nine of the fourteen tracks on Fly made the country radio chart. The Chicks, will be back to the series.

(6/10)

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Here's the trio in a televised live performance...

and lastly, from their tour behind the Fly album...

Up tomorrow: This "extra" singer/rapper is larger than life.