Songoftheday 3/8/24 - I can sit and watch the fields fill up with rays of glowing sun, or watch the moon lay on the fences like that's where it was hung...

 

 

"My Front Porch Looking In" - Lonestar

from the album From There To Here: Greatest Hits (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 13

 

Today's song comes from the country crossover band Lonestar, who had scored two big radio hits from their fourth album I'm Already There that crossed over to the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "I'm Already There" and "Not A Day Goes By". In 2003, their label BNA Records released a hits collection titled From There To Here which caught them at their peak (as opposed to the usual greatest hits sets used to shuffle acts off labels). There were three new songs on the set, and the first to be released as a single was "My Front Porch Looking In". Written by lead singer Richie McDonald along with industry pros Frank Myers and Don Pfrimmer, the song exalts the simple family life, describing how great is was to just be home thankfully without having to dip into what area it could be, whether suburban or rural (it may be a stretch for a country song to pump up the city at that time). The chorus is a cutesy repetition of two "perfect" kids, and the production from Dann Huff runs at a mid-tempo breezy pace, a good change from trying to do another over-sappy power ballad again. It actually reminds me of the Tim McGraw uptempo songs of that time. They exude Hallmark Channel-level niceness but it's definitely not offensive (considering the era of yesterday's SOTD), and the group found themselves at the top of the country radio chart yet again...

"My Front Porch Looking In" scored Lonestar's eighth #1 on Billboard's Country Songs airplay chart, while reaching the top-40 on their Hot 100 all-genre list in June of 2003. It was Billboard's top country airplay song from 2003. The From There To Here compilation, released in June as the single was peaking, was their highest-charting record on the Billboard 200 sales tally at #7, while spending two weeks at #1 on the Country Albums list, going on to sell over a million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, "My Front Porch Looking In" was nominated for Best Duo/Group Country Performance with Vocals, losing to "ringer" Ricky Skaggs (and backup studio band Kentucky Thunder) for "A Simple Life".

For the second released from the hits set, Lonestar covered the 1991 pop hit "Walking In Memphis" from Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Marc Cohn. The country but mostly faithful remake of the song rose to #8 on the Country Singles chart, and peaked at #61 on the Hot 100.

Lonestar will be back to the series.

(6/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

 

Lonestar performed the song on Good Morning America when they were promoting their next album...

 

 And lastly, for a radio gig ...

Tomorrow I'll run down my top hits of this week, then on Monday SOTD will be back with a trio of brave rappers.