George Strait is considered the King of Country Music for a reason. After all, he has amassed 60 No. 1 singles in his more than 40-year career, which is the most No. 1s for a country solo artist. Despite his massive collection of hits, there was one song he missed out on: Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places.”
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The famous country song was co-written by Dewayne Blackwell and Earl Bud Lee, who allegedly wrote the song with Strait in mind. But the song came to be years before Brooks released it in 1990, Brooks telling Taste of Country Nights that he originally recorded the song as a demo for Strait.
“The reason they asked me to do the demo was because I wanted to be George Strait for years, so I do a pretty good impersonation of him,” he explained. “So the original demo of ‘Friends in Low Places’ I did my best George Strait on it before I ever had a record deal.”
After Brooks signed with Capitol Nashville in 1988, he released his self-titled debut album in 1989, followed by his blockbuster sophomore album, No Fences, in 1990. “Friends in Low Places” was released as the lead single of the latter album. It became a huge success, sitting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for four weeks, and was named Single of the Year at both the 1991 CMA Awards and ACM Awards. It’s one of Brooks’ signature hits and a country classic.
“‘Friends in Low Places’ was the last demo session I ever did as a singer,” Brooks recalls in the liner notes for his 1994 album, The Hits. “The demo was for Bud Lee and Dewayne Blackwell. I sang the session out in Hendersonville, and for the next two weeks, the chorus to this song kept running through my head…I asked Bud Lee and Dewayne if I could hold on to it and, without a blink of an eye, they both said yes. Putting that kind of faith in an unknown artist is unheard of. Thanks Dewayne and Bud for believing in me.”
But Brooks isn’t the only one who put his voice to it, as Mark Chesnutt cut a version for his 1990 album, Too Cold at Home, while hit songwriter David Wayne Chamberlain also recorded it in 2000.
Despite missing the opportunity to record the song himself, Strait did end up singing on the track in 2016 when Brooks reissued “Friends in Low Places,” featuring Strait, Keith Urban, Florida Georgia Line, and Jason Aldean in honor of the 25th anniversary of No Fences, which ended up on his 2016 box set, The Ultimate Collection.
Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for ATLive
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