Songoftheday 7/11/24 - Mile upon mile got no direction we're all playin' the same game, we're all lookin' for redemption just to pray to say the name...
"Wave On Wave" - Pat Green
from the album Wave On Wave (2003)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #39 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 2
Today's song comes from singer/songwriter Pat Green, who hails from Texas, and after college started a country music career by doing gigs and releasing music independently, with his first album Dancehall Dreamer being released in 1995. After three indie studio albums and a pair of live records, Pat released a collaborative set with Cory Morrow, Songs We Wish We'd Written, which went to #26 on Billboard magazine's Country Albums sales list in the spring of 2001. A song from the record, "Texas On My Mind", blipped on to the Country Songs at #60. But with that momentum and his increasing presence in the Texan "Red Dirt Country" scene, Green was signed to Republic Records in the Universal Music Group.
Green brought "Texas On My Mind" as well as the 2000 album cut "Carry On" for his first major-label release Three Days. "Carry On", now with the big push behind it, managed to score Pat's first top-40 hit on the Country Songs chart at #35 in 2001. That was followed by the title cut "Three Days", which came in a notch behind at #36. The latter ballad, arguably his best, earned the singer two Grammy nominations in 2003, losing both to sentimental picks - Best Country Song to Alan Jackson's 9/11 dirge "Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)" and Best Male Country Vocal Performance to the about-to-die Johnny Cash for "Give My Love To Rose".
In the summer of that year, Pat released his second Republic album Wave On Wave. The title track was released as the lead single. Written by Green with David Neuhauser and Justin Pollard, the lyrics start out with him admitting that instead of higher aspirations he was searching for "a good time". But thankfully this woman came into his life that washed over him like a tsunami of emotion (yes, CHEESY). He doesn't go that cringe though, allowing the gentle waves to match the mid-tempo groove of the song to a more pleasant effect, thanks to the production of Tony Brown (who worked with Reba McEntire and George Strait) with an assist by Doug Morris. Green's vocals are unpolished but real, and the piece sounds much like the adult contemporary pop of the early 90's, but it toned the bombast down and was embraced by country radio, scoring him biggest hit and landing him on the big Top-40...
"Wave On Wave" spent a pair of weeks in the top-40 on Billboard's Hot 100 in November of 2003. On the radio, the song took two weeks at #3 on the Country Songs airplay chart, spending eight months (32 weeks) on the list. The Wave On Wave album, released in July of that year, came in at #10 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #2 on the Country Albums list, going on to sell over a half million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, Green was nominated again for Best Country Song, which again went to Alan Jackson for "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere".
A holiday cut from the A Very Special Acoustic Christmas charity album, a cover of "Winter Wonderland", spent three weeks on the Country Songs chart with a high of #43 at Christmas of 2003. The second single from Wave On Wave, "Guy Like Me", wasn't able to keep the momentum and stopped at #31 on that list in the beginning of the following year.
Later in 2004, Green returned with his third (and final) album on Republic, Lucky Ones, which peaked at #28 on the Billboard 200 and #6 on the Country Albums list. Produced primarily by Don Gehman of John Mellencamp and Hootie & The Blowfish fame, it was seen as more of a mainstream pop distillation of his Red Dirt Country roots. Two of its three charting singles, "Don't Break My Heart Again" and "Baby Doll", both stopped right short of the Country top-20 at #21. Both of these also "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #116 and #124 respectively. (Personally I like both of these in their 90s soft-rock goodness, and was prescient of what is considered "country" now.)
Switching over to BNA Records, Green kept Gehman on for his next album Cannonball, which entered at #20 on the Billboard 200 and #2 on the Country Albums list in 2006. The first single, "Feels Just Like It Should", climbed to #13 on the Country Songs chart, and brought Pat back to the Hot 100 at #80. A second disc with BNA, What I'm For, arrived in 2009, and also hit #2 on the Country Albums chart and went a little higher on the big Billboard 200 at #18. The big single from the set, "Let Me", also just missed the country top ten at #12, while being his most recent appearance on the Hot 100 at #81.
Trying to return to his past Red Dirt glories, Green then teamed up with the then-bluegrass-heavy label Sugar Hill Records in 2012 for a sequel Songs I Wish I'd Written II, which slipped on to the Billboard 200 at #59 and Country Albums list at #26. From the set "All Just To Get To You" became his most recent mainstream country radio hit at #57. Three years later, Pat came back on Greenhorse Music for Home, which got to #5 on the Country Albums chart and #49 on the Billboard 200.
Pat's most recent album, Miles and Miles of You, on the indie Empire imprint, came out in 2022. A collab with Casey Donahew, "Pacifico", appeared last month.
(7/10)
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and lastly, on the Texas Music Scene show...
Tomorrow, I'll be rolling out my top hits of this week, then will be on vacation, Please come back on the 22nd for a new song of the day! Thanks!
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