On This Day in 1994, Toby Keith Released His Heartbroken No. 1 Hit “Who’s That Man”

On this day (July 19) in 1994, Toby Keith released “Who’s That Man.” The track would go on to become the Oklahoma native’s second No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. It was also the fifth in a string of seven top-10 singles for Keith.

Keith topped the country chart with his debut single “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” in 1993. He would send just three more singles—“Who’s That Man,” “Me Too,” and “How Do You Like Me Now”—to the top spot before the decade came to an end. However, he saw much more success in the new millennium. He notched 15 chart-toppers between 2000 and 2009.

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Toby Keith Hits It Big with “Who’s That Man”

Toby Keith wrote several of his No. 1 singles. “Who’s That Man” is among those songs. He released it on July 19, 1994, as the lead single from his 1994 Boomtown. Later in the year, the song would climb to the top of the chart where it stayed for a single week.

“Who’s That Man” treads some very familiar ground for country fans. In it, the narrator travels to the neighborhood where he used to live and drives past his old house. There, he sees his car, wife, kids, and dog with another man. His whole family moved on without him after a divorce and, while he’s happy to see his kids and wife doing well, he misses the life he used to have. In short, it’s a cleverly written spin on the classic country heartbreak song. However, it didn’t start that way.

Keith appeared on Music City Tonight to perform “Who’s That Man” and promote Boomtown. During his chat with the show’s hosts, he talked a little about the inspiration for the hit song. First, he said that he didn’t write the song from personal experience. “But I thought about somebody being in that situation. It was a pretty awful situation,” he said.

“It really started out lighthearted,” he revealed. “You’ve heard the old joke about what do you get if you play country music backwards? You get your wife back, your kids back, your car back, and your dog back,” he said. He went on to say that he started writing the song with that old joke in mind. However, he added, “It didn’t turn out that way.”

Featured Image by Debby Wong