Songoftheday 5/18/23 - When I hear you stop and laugh out loud, when you're fallin' fast asleep...

 

 

"That's When I Love You" - Phil Vassar

from the album Phil Vassar (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #38 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 2

 

Today's song comes from singer/songwriter Phil Vassar, whose self-titled debut had almost landed a top-40 crossover on his first single "Carlene", then cleared the level at the close of 2000 with "Just Another Day In Paradise", which also topped Billboard's Country Songs chart. But the third single from the record, the ballad "Rose Bouquet", didn't continue the momentum, and while the song was a modest hit at country radio at #16, it stalled down at #78 on Billboard's Hot 100 (it deserved better). It seemed fans and radio liked the more upbeat Phil, proven by the next single, the breezy "Six-Pack Summer", which brought Vassar back to the country top ten at #9, while stopping at #56 on the Hot 100. 

Arista Nashville didn't give up on Vassar (he was probably so ingrained at the label as a songwriter/producer) that a fifth single from the album was released. "That's When I Love You", an uptempo track written by Phil with Julie Wood, and produced by Vassar with Byron Gallimore (Tim McGraw's go-to), is a "list song" at heart, a growing trend in the genre, but in this case instead of branding the "country lifestyle" it's listing the everyday things his partner does that makes him go over the moon. It doesn't break new ground, but its affable enough and the pleasant two-step pace and Vassar's husky voice go far to sell it. SO even without a music video, the song became a big enough hit to guarantee Phil a second album...

"That's When I Love You" became Phil's second single to cross over to Billboard's Hot 100's top 40 in April of 2002. The song spent eight months on the Country Songs radio chart, taking a week at #3.

Phil will return to the series.

(5/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's Phil performing live in concert....

and lastly, a more laidback reading for a radio appearance...

Up tomorrow: California rockers get superlatively better.