Robbed hit of the week 3/25/24 - Montgomery Gentry's "Speed"...

 

 

"Speed" - Montgomery Gentry

from the album My Town (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #47 (three weeks)

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the country-rock duo Montgomery Gentry, who nicked the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 for a second time in the late autumn of 2002 with "My Town", the lead single and title track from their third album. Their second release from the record was the ballad "Speed". Written by Jeffrey Steele and Chris Wallin, the song has the guys conversing with a used-car dealer for a mode of transport that would get then "over" their heartbreak. Eddie Montgomery's deep baritone parlays the weary resignation in the verses, and hits the gas on the chorus where Troy Gentry joins in. There's the cringe line about how the truck he's trading in is where they made love, but it's passable. The production from Blake Chancey brings the sonic force, and that minor-key sad song is their forte. The music video has Gentry playing the broken hearted man while Eddie does the singing...

While "Speed" matched "My Town" by going to #5 on Billboard's Country Songs airplay chart, the song stalled under the top-40 in July of 2003. The same thing happened with the third release, the trying-too-hard party track "Hell Yeah", which peaked a notch higher at country radio at #4, which stopping at #45 on the Hot 100. 

(7/10)

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Here's the pair in concert in 2008...