Songoftheday 10/2/23 - Norma Jean ain’t that the song we’d sing In the car driving downtown...

 

 

"These Days" - Rascal Flatts

from the album Melt (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 10

 

Today's song comes from the country crossover group Rascal Flatts, who landed in the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the summer of 2000 with their debut single "Prayin' For Daylight", and came a notch away from repeating the feat with their fourth offering from their first album "I'm Movin' On" in the spring of 2002. All four singles from their Rascal Flatts album had reached the top ten on the country radio chart, so they were on a roll.

That summer, Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus, and Joe Don Rooney returned with the lead single from their sophomore effort, Melt. "These Days", written by Steve Robson, Jeffrey Steele, and Danny Wells, has a conversational flow in the lyrics. It sees Gary running into an old flame, and when pressed on what he's up to, the thoughts in his head are about how he messed up losing her. However life goes on and after getting his cry out he carries on his routine, but it seems like it's happening every day. It's odd that Gary's voice is so sunny bright considering the pain that's supposed to be conveyed in the song, but perhaps it's him hiding his feelings from her since its such a chance encounter. At the close she's flying away, and Gary makes a meek request to come back sometime to visit. The production at least is a little wistful, with the violins tugging the heart right at the start. Jay and Joe Don's harmonies are perfect as usual. The music video has the trio like saturated cats...

"These Days" became Rascal Flatts' second single to crack the top-40 on Billboard's Hot 100 in December of 2002, while scoring their first #1 on the Country Songs airplay chart, lingering there for three weeks. The Melt album, released in October of that year, peaked at #5 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and topped the Country Albums chart for a week, staying on the list for two solid years and going on to sell over three million copies. 

Both Rascal Flatts and the Melt album will be back to the series.

(6/10)

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Here's the band on a televised concert behind the album in 2003...

 

 and lastly, an acoustic take for AOL Sessions...

Up tomorrow: A child of destiny has a dilemma over theft.