Songoftheday 10/21/24 -Sometimes it feels like this world's spinning faster than it did in the old days, so naturally we have more natural disasters from the strain of a fast pace...
"Mayberry" - Rascal Flatts
from the album Melt (2002)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #21 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6
Today's song comes from the country crossover trio Rascal Flatts, whose second album Melt had already spun off three big Nashville radio hits which crossed over to the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "These Days", "Love You Out Loud", and "I Melt". The fourth and final single from the record was the nostalgia branding of "Mayberry". Written by Arlos Smith, the lyrics attempt to paint the usual "it was better in the old days trope, though those first two lines (in the title of this post) make absolutely no sense whatsoever. I'm sure the people affected by the hurricane this year in western North Carolina would be comforted to know that it happened because of today's "fast pace". Sheesh. I mean, if you don't pay close attention and just let the Cracker Barrel-worthy vignettes just wash all over, it's pleasant, but trying to say the world's ill are because of modernity is rich coming from three unhardened but somewhat photogenic music shills. The band does have their good moments, but this was clearly a reach for a fourth single, but at the time, it was what the genre who kicked out the Chicks were eating up. The production is flawless but sterile, like something you'd encounter on a ride at Dollywood. They didn't even bother making a music video...
"Mayberry" did its job and scored the group their second #1 hit on Billboard's Country Songs airplay chart, while making the top-40 on the Hot 100 in May of 2004. Internationally, the single hit #2 on the revived Canadian Country chart.
Rascal Flatts will be back to the series.
(4/10)
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
and lastly, from their AOL Sessions in 2003...
Up tomorrow: Country singer gets the mail.
Comments