Troubador
an article strait from the heart
Today’s topic is the foundation of modern country music. Who do we have to praise and/or blame, depending on your perception of the genre?
For those of you unfamiliar, that man above is George Harvey Strait of Pearsall, Texas, a small town between San Antonio and Laredo in the southern part of the state. The son of a math teacher who moonlighted as a ranch owner, young George was indifferent to music as a general rule until the arrival of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. He joined a garage band in the late sixties, but quickly pivoted to the country music of his parents’ generation: Lefty Frizzell, Ernest Tubb, and most of all Hank Williams.
After a detour in the Army where he gained experience in an armed forces band, Strait returned to Texas in 1975 with his new wife and young child. Looking for a way to support his family, he enrolled at Southwest Texas State University and earned a degree in agriculture so he could help manage the family farm. While at college, he still had the urge to perform so he joined a band that called themselves Stoney Ridge.
Stoney Ridge skewed more toward western swing in the vein of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, leaning heavily on fiddle and steel guitar. The combination of the band’s swing and Strait’s honky-tonk melded nicely, providing a sound that was at once new and old. It stood in contrast to the then-dominant “countrypolitan” movement that combined country music with mainstream pop. Think Charlie Rich, Lynn Anderson, or Glen Campbell.
In fact, once Strait and his band (now named “The Ace In The Hole Band” and firmly entrenched as his backing crew) made a splash in the local Texas scene and attempted to attract record label attention from Nashville, their sound was derided as too uncommercial for modern audiences. In 1980, George was ready to chuck it in and take a job with a farm supply company, but his wife Norma knew he would be unhappy if he didn’t give it everything he could. She convinced him to stay at it for another year.
An MCA Records A&R executive took a flyer on Strait, signing him to a one song deal with options for more if it performed well. His debut single “Unwound” hit number six on the Hot Country charts in 1981, and the rest is history. His debut album Strait Country was an instant hit as well, starting a string of success unbroken until his retirement from touring and performing in 2014.
Throughout his career, George Strait was a commercial juggernaut:
Forty-four Billboard Country number ones, the most of any artist in a single genre.
Sixty-one country chart number one singles across all charts
Five Billboard Number One albums on the Hot 100
Over 68,000,000 albums sold
Thirty-six gold records
Twenty-five platinum albums
More Top Ten albums sold than any other artist since Soundscan started tracking in 1991
His final full-scale touring concert in 2014 was the largest indoor concert ever in recorded history, with 104,793 fans in attendance at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Even if you’re not familiar with the man’s career, maybe so many people are onto something?
Let’s get to the meat of the article: my top ten George Strait songs of all time. As per usual, this is my opinion and my opinion only. If you don’t like it, get your own mildly successful music-centric newsletter. (No, seriously. Sign up here.) This list represents my capricious mood of the moment, and if you ask me twenty minutes later you’re liable to get a completely different list. Let’s get started, shall we?
10. Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind?
From Strait’s 1984 album of the same name, this song went to number one on the country charts. The song was written in the seventies by husband and wife duo Whitey and Darlene Shafer, and first released by Moe Bandy in 1977. The song didn’t chart then, but gained new life when it was picked up nearly simultaneously by Strait and his contemporary Keith Whitley. Strait’s version became the definitive take on the song.
9. I Cross My Heart
This song was the lead single off of Pure Country, which was the soundtrack album to Strait’s acting debut of the same name. The movie was a moderate success, but the soundtrack was a blockbuster, going on to become Strait’s best selling album. “I Cross My Heart” was written by Steve Dorff (the man behind the Growing Pains theme song and the Murphy Brown theme song that appeared exactly once) and Eric Kaz (writer of “Love Has No Pride” by Linda Ronstadt).
8. All My Ex's Live in Texas
Straight from the Bob Wills playbook, this western swing song written by Whitey Shafer and his fourth wife Lyndia was the second single from Ocean Front Property, Strait’s seventh album. Almost certainly the only hit country song to feature Transcendental Meditation in a positive light (I’d love to be proven wrong!), the song lists all of the writer’s ex-partners and the (quite misogynist) reasons he’s no longer with them. He then explains that as a result of his romantic kerfuffles, he’s left the state of Texas entirely. The song itself is pure Texas, though.
7. Check Yes or No
“Check Yes or No” was the lead single from the greatest hits compilation box set Strait Out of the Box, which is the most successful box set in country music history and the second of all time across all genres behind Bruce Springsteen’s Live 75-85. Most romantic songs encapsulate teenage love (or lust), but this song instead focuses on the travails of childhood affection, the ever fleeting puppy love. The song walks the line between mush and cute, and which side it falls upon really depends on your mood that day.
6. You Look So Good in Love
One of Strait’s slowest love songs, this was the first single from his third album Right or Wrong. Written by Glen Ballard (yes, the man behind Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill), Rory Bourke (famous for “The Most Beautiful Girl” by Charlie Rich), and Kerry Chater (a former member of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap), the song is typical light pop derived from the countrypolitan sound. Fundamentally, there’s no difference between this and light R&B from the same era. In fact, there’s a few R&B versions out there, like this one from Jamie Foxx (yes, that Jamie Foxx):
5. Ocean Front Property
“Ocean Front Property”, the lead single from the album of the same name, was written by Dean Dillon, Hank Cochran, and Royce Porter. Dillon is probably the most successful of Strait’s songwriters, penning dozens of songs for the artist. His most notable song now is “Tennessee Whiskey”, first recorded by David Allan Coe and made even more famous by Chris Stapleton. Hank Cochran was a songwriter for decades, famous for Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” among numerous others. Porter composed several other Strait songs, but his best song is likely Keith Whitley’s “Miami, My Amy”. “Ocean Front Property” was a number one hit, and became one of Strait’s signature songs, featuring heavily in his concerts from then on.
4. Fool Hearted Memory
“Fool Hearted Memory” was the first single from Strait’s second album Strait From The Heart, and his first single to hit number one. Written by Byron Hill (also famous for Gary Allan’s “Nothing On But The Radio”) and Blake Mevis (the producer of Strait’s first two albums, and the person who convinced both the label and Strait to go for the neotraditional sound), the song tells the story of a man so besotted with the past that it traps him from moving forward with his life. Even though the relationship ended poorly, the protagonist can’t help himself from reliving the moments.
3. Carrying Your Love With Me
One of the highlights of Strait’s later period, 1997’s “Carrying Your Love With Me” is the lead single from the album of the same name. Written by Steve Bogard (also famous for Rascal Flatts’ “Prayin’ For Daylight”) and Jeff Stevens (late of Jeff Stevens and the Bullets), the song went to number one on the country charts. For my Gen Z readers, you may be most familiar with this song through David Morris’ TikTok famous remix of the song, as seen here:
2. Amarillo by Morning
If you’re thinking of a George Strait song, it’s probably this one. Originally recorded by Terry Stafford in 1973 after Stafford and Paul Fraser composed it, the song was a minor hit with a more prominent steel guitar line. Strait saw Stafford perform the song live when he was in college, and filed it away for future use. When Strait recorded his second album Strait From The Heart, MCA Records still thought his sound needed to be more pop than country. He agreed to record “Marina Del Rey” (a significantly poppier number) in exchange for being allowed to make “Amarillo by Morning” as country as he wanted to. “Marina” did well, hitting number six, but the follow-up “Amarillo” was a monster hit. From that point, Strait was afforded much more direction in his music, and this song is to thank for it.
1. I Can Still Make Cheyenne
This is my favorite George Strait song, and since it’s my newsletter, it’s the best George Strait song. Written by Aaron Barker (who also wrote a brace of other Strait songs including “Baby Blue”, “Love Without End, Amen”, and “Easy Come, Easy Go”) and Strait’s longtime manager Erv Woolsey, it was the third single from Blue Clear Sky in 1996. The song focuses on the rodeo circuit and the havoc it wreaks on a relationship. The protagonist is ready to throw away a promising career for his partner, who he knows he has been less than perfect to. Instead when he makes contact with her, she informs him she’s left him. Resigned to his fate, the protagonist says that if he hurries he can still make the biggest rodeo event in the country, Cheyenne Frontier Days. It’s positively Hemingwayesque in its own way, with a man casting his own desires into the void to live up to the ideal of his masculinity.
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