Songoftheday 7/20/23 - Got a picture of you I carry in my heart, close my eyes to see it when the world gets dark...

 

 

"Not A Day Goes By" - Lonestar

from the album I'm Already There (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #36 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 3

 

Today's song comes from the country band Lonestar,who sent a second decent crossover hit onto Billboard magazine's Hot 100 pop chart in the early summer of 2001 with "I'm Already There", the title track from their fourth album. Their follow-up, the uptempo breezy soft-rock of "With Me", slipped into the country radio at #10, but stalled at #63 on the Hot 100 (perhaps radio wasn't as keen with the fiddles on this enjoyable track). 

For their third release, the group went back into their wheelhouse with the ballad "Not A Day Goes By". Perhaps a continuation of the same theme from their earlier hit "Smile", the lyrics written by Maribeth Derry and Steve Diamond find lead singer Richie McDonald pining for a lost love, while telling everyone else he's fine. A common plotline in country music (and their work), but Richie's voice has a talent for breaking at the right moment, and his puppy dog eyes in the music video speak volumes. The production by Dann Huff starts simple (though with a nice string section) before building into the power-ballad bombasity. In return, radio and the public rewarded them by reversing their momentum...

"Not A Day Goes By" returned Lonestar to the top-40 on Billboard's Hot 100 in July of 2002. The song spent four weeks at #3 on their Country Songs airplay chart as well. At the Grammy Awards in 2003, the single was nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance, losing to the (Dixie) Chicks for their "Long Time Gone" (a good choice). 

A fourth single from the album, the whimsical "Unusually Unusual", had gotten early radio love as an album track. On its official release, it climbed to #12 on the Country Songs chart and #66 on the Hot 100. 

Lonestar will be back to the series.

 

(7/10 )

Up tomorrow: A rapper and a child of destiny rule the summer of 2002 with a quandary.