Trisha Yearwood is known as one of country music’s best vocalists. With era-defining hits like “She’s in Love With a Boy” and “Walkaway Joe,” Yearwood’s legacy is marked by her powerhouse voice. While she’s not known as much as a songwriter, over the years, she has lent her pen to a variety of songs recorded by her heroes, contemporaries, and even her husband, Garth Brooks. Check out three songs you didn’t know Yearwood wrote for other artists.
Videos by American Songwriter
1. “Main Street” by Chris Gaines
Written by Trisha Yearwood, Gordon Kennedy, and Wayne Kirkpatrick
Garth Brooks shocked fans when he introduced his alter ego, Australian rock star Chris Gaines. Brooks committed to the bit, so much so that he released an album’s worth of Gaines’ material in 1999 with Garth Brooks in…the Life of Chris Gaines. On that album is a deep cut co-written by his wife Trisha Yearwood with Gordon Kennedy and Wayne Kirkpatrick, titled “Main Street.” Despite not selling as well as Brooks’ previous albums, Life of Chris Gaines still managed to debut at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified two times platinum by the RIAA.
2. “How Do I Break It to My Heart” by Kenny Rogers
Written by Trisha Yearwood, Wendell Mobley, and Chapin Hartford
Trisha Yearwood had the honor of scoring a cut on the legendary Kenny Rogers’ 1991 album, Back Home Again. She helped co-write the album’s closing track, “How Do I Break It to My Heart,” a beautiful, yet heartbreaking ballad about a man coming to terms with the fact that his relationship is over. The two had previously worked together when she and husband Garth Brooks sang with Rogers during his 1993 Christmas special, Kenny Rogers: Keep Christmas With You.
3. “If I’m Ever Over You” by Michelle Wright
Written by Trisha Yearwood and Mark D. Sanders
As Trisha Yearwood was forging a career as a chart-topping country singer, she was still writing songs, one of which ended up on Canadian country singer Michelle Wright’s 1992 album, Now and Then. Yearwood helped write the second track, “If I’m Ever Over You,” which follows a woman trying desperately to get a former flame off her mind.
Now and Then peaked inside the Top 20 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and features Wright’s first No. 1 hit in Canada and her only song to reach the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in the U.S., “Take it Like a Man.”
Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images
