Songoftheday 3/9/23 - But since you came along I can face the dawn 'cause I know you'll be there...

 

 

"Good Morning Beautiful" - Steve Holy

from the albums Blue Moon (2000) and Angel Eyes (Original Soundtrack) (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 9

 

Today's song comes from Steve Holy, who grew up in the Dallas, Texas area, before being discovered by young country music star LeAnn Rimes' father Wilbur and signed to Curb Records. Holy released his debut single, "Don't Make Me Beg", in the autumn of 1999, which Wilbur produced. The upbeat brooding neo-swing style number got some attention, and climbed to #29 on Billboard magazine's Country Songs chart. That was followed by what would become the title track to his debut album released a year later, the love ballad "Blue Moon", which peaked at #24 on the Country Songs chart, and managed to "bubble under" the crossover Hot 100 at #120. A third release, "The Hunger", was a midtempo story-song that had some interesting chord changes in the chorus. It also hit #24 on the Country Songs list. Between the three songs Holy spent 69 weeks on the chart.

In the spring of 2001, Steve contributed a song to the soundtrack of the movie Angel Eyes starring Jennifer Lopez and Jim Caviezel (of The Passion of the Christ fame). "Good Morning Beautiful", written by Todd Cerney and Zack Lyle, and again produced by Wilbur Rimes, was a straight-forward love song that bases its premise on a couple waking up with Holy professing his love. It doesn't say anything about the previous night except she was "by his side", so there's nothing there, it's just your standard Hallmark-ready platitudes delivered in Holy's sweet tenor. The production is pretty basic, but that's expected from Rimes and Curb. But that fit the bill for country radio's audience. In fact, I'm a little surprised this didn't cross over to the pop adult contemporary format since its fiddles are so in the background that it doesn't scream country. But Nashville gave it enough of a reception to send Holy to the top of the chart, and also have his biggest crossover hit...

"Good Morning Beautiful" became Holy's first hit on the Billboard Hot 100, climbing into the top-40 in February of 2002 and making the top 100 of the year on that list. It also spent a week at #1 on Billboard's Country Songs chart, spending 41 weeks there. The Angel Eyes movie flopped hard, making just over half if budget back, but the song was so popular Curb put it on new pressings of his debut album Blue Moon, and the record - which was original released in October of 2000 - peaked at #63 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and #7 on the Country Albums list in March of 2002, going on to sell over a half million copies. 

Steve will be back to the series.

(5/10)

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Here's Steve performing "Good Morning Beautiful" as well as Conway Twitty's "It's Only Make Believe" at the Grand Old Opry...

Lastly, Holy added an acoustic version of the song to his third album Love Don't Run in 2011...

Up tomorrow: Fast-paced rapper threatens violence.