Songoftheday 4/27/23 - I get kissed by the sun each morning, put my feet on a hardwood floor...
"Blessed" - Martina McBride
from the album Greatest Hits (2001)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #31 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 3
Today's song comes from singer Martina McBride, whose fifth album Emotion had scored a decent hit with "I Love You" (also from the album Runaway Bride) which topped the Country Songs chart and made the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the autumn of 1999. In 2001, McBride recapped her career so far on RCA Nashville Records with a Greatest Hits collection, featuring a baker's dozen of her charting hits, a beloved album cut ("Strangers"), and four new songs, all of which were released as singles. The lead one out of the gate was the good-girl rambunctiousness of "When God-Fearing Women Get The Blues". The line-dance staple brought her back to the country market from her stray to the adult-pop side of things, and climbed to #8 on Billboard's Country Songs chart and #64 on the all-genre Hot 100. So while the song was a refreshing chance to take for radio, Martina had to pull the usual ace in the hole.
The second release from Greatest Hits was the uptempo song "Blessed", written by Brett James, Hillary Lindsey, and Troy Verges, and produced by Paul Worley. The lyrics are the usual "my life is great because of these things" tropes, but at least she had skilled songwriters that can turn a phrase without seeming too canned. Meanwhile, she's got the best voice in the business, and that elevates the song higher than a lesser talent could.
"Blessed" returned Martina to the #1 spot on Billboard's Country Songs chart for two weeks, as well as crossing over to the Hot 100 top-40 in March of 2002. The Greatest Hits album, released in September of 2001, peaked at #5 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and topped their Country Albums list for three weeks, going on to sell over four million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2003, McBride was nominated for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for "Blessed", losing to another defector to adult-pop, Faith Hill, for "Cry".
The third released from the collection was the love ballad "Where Would You Be", which spent two weeks at #3 on the country chart, and almost made the Hot 100 top-40 at #45. That was followed by the more poignant child-abuse parable of "Concrete Angel", the true gem on the album. That song made the fourth country radio top-10 single from the Hits at #5, while getting to #47 on the Hot 100. (Both will be future "robbed hits".)
As for Martina, she'll be back to the series.
(6/10)
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Here's Martina on a televised show from her tour behind the album...
and lastly, in concert in 2012 in Switzerland...
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