Songoftheday 09/24/24 - It's hanging on when your heart is had enough, it's giving more when you feel like giving up...

 

 

"In My Daughter's Eyes" - Martina McBride

from the album Martina (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #39 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 1

 

Today's song comes from country music's vocal powerhouse Martina McBride, who returned to the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the autumn of 2003 with "This One's For The Girls".  The second single from her Martina album was another female-first anthem with "In My Daughter's Eyes". Written by James T. Slater, the song has McBride extolling her offspring, with the hope and admiration that they bring to her. Sure, it has some Hallmark card-ready lines, but also more poignant thoughts like "It's hanging on when your heart is had enough, it's giving more when you feel like giving up". And of course Martina can vocally sell this song, and the production by the singer with Paul Worley is gentle and reverent, using the string section to its utmost effect. Coupled with the piano, the end result is more a soft-pop ballad than a country song, and in return that format helped continue her mainstream radio success...

"In My Daughter's Eyes" became the second top-40 hit from Martina on the Hot 100 in March of 2004. On the radio, the song peaked at #4 on Billboard's Country Songs chart, and spent four weeks at #3 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") list, lingering on that chart for a career best of 50 weeks. At the Grammy Awards in 2005, McBride was nominated for the song for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, losing to Gretchen Wilson's white trash anthem "Redneck Woman". 

The third single from the album was the power-ballad "How Far", which almost made it to the top ten on the Country Songs chart at #12, while stopping at #68 on the Hot 100. That was followed by "God's Will", which had a moving music video that earned McBride another Grammy nomination for Best Short Form Music Video, which went to Missy Elliott's "Lose Control" in 2006. The single rose to #16 on the Country Songs radio chart, and slipped on to the Hot 100 at #98.

Martina will be back to the series.

(7/10)

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Here's Martina performing the song on The Today Show while promoting her subsequent album...

Next up, live as the opening act at the 2003 Country Music Association Awards...

 

 And lastly, on her CMT Crossroads episode with Pat Benatar...

Up tomorrow: This rapper is a quite flexible guy.