Songoftheday 1/8/24 - He wore that cowboy hat to cover up his horns, sweet-talking forked tongue had a tempting charm...

 

 

"Brokenheartsville" - Joe Nichols

from the album Man With A Memory (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 8

 

Today's song comes from country music artist Joe Nichols, whose breakthrough single "The Impossible" made the country radio top ten and crossed over to the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the autumn of 2002.  Nichols' follow-up single was the lighthearted breakup track "Brokenheartsville", written by the team of Randy Boudreaux, Clint Daniels, Donny Kees, and Blake Mevis. The lyrics lay out a plot that a real "devil" of a man stole his "angel" woman away, though at first he's set on getting her back. But when he sees she's going willingly, he gives up and proceeds to drink. That's about it. The production is a little beefed up take on traditional, with the steel guitar nicely in the forefront as Joe's low tenor is like honey. It's an entertaining but not corny performance, unlike the music video, which plays it up for laughs...

"Brokenheartsville" went all the way to #1 on Billboard's Country Songs airplay chart, and landed him a second crossover top-40 hit on the Hot 100 in March of 2003. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, he received his second nomination in the Best Male Country Vocal Performance category, this time losing to veteran Vince Gill for "Next Big Thing"

The third single from the Man With A Memory album was the ballad "She Only Smokes When She Drinks", which climbed to #72 on the Hot 100 and made it to #17 on the Country Songs chart. That was followed by the western swing number "Cool To Be A Fool", which climbed to #18 on the country chart, while "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #106.

Joe will be back to the series.

(7/10)

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Here's Joe with an acoustic take for a radio appearance...

and lastly, in concert in Boston...

Up tomorrow: A Midwestern R&B singer heads to the heavens.