George Strait has long been heralded as the King of Country. Throughout his more than 50-year career, he’s sent 60 singles to the top of the country charts. Strait isn’t known much for songwriting though, as most of his tracks are penned by trusted collaborators like Dean Dillon.
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“For a lot of years I put songwriting on the back burner,” Strait told Cowboys & Indians in 2009. “I’ve had so much luck and have been so successful finding material from other writers that I really got lazy about it. Writing, for me, is not easy. It requires a lot of time and can be pretty intense.”
Unafraid of stepping up to the plate, Strait has picked up the writing pen several times during his career. Check out three songs you didn’t know the Texan titan wrote.
1. “Here for a Good Time”
Written by George Strait, Dean Dillon and Bubba Strait
King Goerge teamed up with two of his most trusted allies, his son Bubba Strait and hit songwriter Dean Dillon, to pen this lively tune that was the lead single and title track of his 2011 album. In a rare interview with Headline Country, Strait revealed that the song was his son’s idea.
“He goes, ‘I’m not here for a long time, I’m just here for a good time,'” the legend recalls of the phrase that became the defining line of the chorus. “That’s how that was started.” “Here for a Good Time” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
2. “Living for the Night”
Written by George Strait, Dean Dillon and Bubba Strait
Prior to penning the upbeat hit “Here for a Good Time,” Strait first found magic with Dillon and son Bubba when they penned “Living for the Night.” This melancholy ballad follows a man who finds a friend in the darkness. This is evidenced by such lyrics as, Daylight can’t hide the tears I cry/The pain that came with your goodbye/The memories that keep me out of sight/Every night I venture out into those neon arms that hold me tight/I’m livin’ for the night.
“They played me a couple things before we even started writing – a couple of things they had been dabbling with. Bubba comes at it from a little different angle, which is great; you always want that other perspective,” Dillon explained of the writing process to The Boot. “We just dove into it headfirst and spent about two to three hours writing it. George and Bubba hold their own wind, buddy, as far as writing goes! We had a good time, and it turned out great.”
“Night” was released as the lead single from his 2009 album, Twang, and was a mile marker in his career as only the second single he had a hand in writing. Like “Good Time,” “Night” reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
[RELATED: 5 Essential George Strait Collaborations]
3. “I Believe”
Written by George Strait, Dean Dillon and Bubba Strait
Though Strait has proven he knows how to pen a radio-friendly tune that flies up the chart, he’s also demonstrated his compassionate heart through his songwriting. This shines through on “I Believe,” a single off his 2013 album, Love is Everything. The tender-hearted tune was written in honor of the victims of the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that took the lives of 20 children and six staff members. At the urging of Strait’s wife Norma, the trio of Strait, Bubba and Dillon recorded the song, even though the album was finished at the time.
The song came from a personal place, as the singer and his wife experienced the devastating loss of a child when their 13-year-old daughter, Jennifer, died in a car accident in 1986. “Like everybody, I was watching it on TV,” Strait said in an interview in the wake of the 2013 shooting. “I’m just shaking my head. It was so sad, and … you know, I was thinking, ‘I know what these parents are going through.’ It’s just the worst thing that can happen to you in your life, to lose a child. There’s just nothing worse than that.”
“I Believe” was the second single off Love is Everything that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for ATLive
